Experiment No

1
RESISTOR, CAPACITOR & INDUCTOR CODING SCHEMES
BREADBOARD (PROTOTYPE BOARD)
CIRCUIT WIRING

1.1 OBJECTIVES
The objective of this experiment is to familiarize the student with the breadboard, resistor and
inductor color codes, capacitor codes and wiring of different types of circuits

1.2 EQUIPMENT REQUIRED

 Breadboard (proto board)
 Resistors, capacitors, inductors

1.3 THEORY
i) BREADBOARD
In circuit analysis lab and many other labs, you’ll use breadboards to implement simple circuits
consisting of resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes,transistors and various other integrated
components. Breadboards provide you with a general wiring fabric in which to make
connections among circuit components. Learning how to use this wiring fabric effectively takes
time and more vital, practice.
Figure 1.1(a) shows the snapshot of the breadboard. As you can see, the surface of board is
covered in pinholes into which you can insert wires or electric component leads. Beneath the
plastic surface, the holes are connected with a network of metal tabs. But not all pinholes are
connected together. Every column in each of the two main rows is wired together as shown in
Figure 1.1(b). Note that the columns are not connected across the row. You can also see a series
of pinhole groups four at the top and four at the bottom of the board arranged in rows. These are
useful for wiring global signals and power supply voltages. Figure 1.1(c) shows the enlarged
view of a section of the breadboard shown in Figure 1.1(b). Making a connection between two
components is simple once you understand the internal wiring of the board.
Let’s take a simple example of connecting two resistors in series or in parallel. The general
wiring fabric of the breadboard provides an unlimited number of possibilities, but we want to
focus on the efficient implementations. As a precaution, never use more jumper wire than
 required. Let the breadboard do the work for you. Figure 1.2 shows three different examples of
series wiring and two examples of parallel wiring. (Note that these are not the only possible
options for series or parallel combinations of elements on breadboard).

Figure 1.1: (a) Snapshot of a breadboard (b) internal wiring of the breadboard (c) enlarged view of a
section of the internal wiring of the breadboard on the breadboard

Figure 1.3 (a) shows the schematic diagram of a complex network with an input source and an
output measurement device (oscilloscope). Figure 1.3(b) shows its equivalent on the breadboard.
Observe that the circuit on the breadboard looks similar to the one in the schematic diagram. A
common mistake which is normally committed by the students while wiring a circuit is that they
short circuit some elements on the breadboard. Figure 1.4 shows some elements which are not
connected correctly (due to short circuited paths internally on the breadboard) marked by cross
on a section of the breadboard. Figure 1.4 also shows some possible options to connect these
elements correctly on the breadboard.

Figure 1.2: Different options for connecting elements in series and in parallel

Figure 1.3: (a) Schematic diagram of a complex circuit (b) its equivalent circuit
 Figure 1.4: some short circuited elements marked by cross on the breadboard

These few examples show you the basics and give you enough knowledge to do the labs. A few
general points to remember when you begin wiring a circuit:
 Try to use the breadboard to make connections, i.e. avoid the use of extra jumper wires. More
wire you use, the more likely you are to make an error by shorting two wires or
incorrectly wiring the circuit.
 When you use an extra jumper wire, keep it as short as possible. If your circuit looks
like a bush of wires, imagine how hard it will be to debug it when it doesn’t work correctly.
 Keep related components together.
 Make the circuit on the breadboard look as much as possible like the schematic you’re
implementing. The visual correspondence between schematic circuit and hardwired circuit on
the breadboard will help you differentiate the various nodes of the circuit and debugging of
the circuit will become easier.
ii) RESISTOR CODING SCHEMES
The value of a (color coded) resistor can be determined from the color bands of that resistor.
Each color represents a number according to the scheme given in table 1.1. The first band on a
resistor is interpreted as the FIRST DIGIT of the resistor value. The second band gives the
SECOND DIGIT. The third band is called the MULTIPLIER and is not interpreted in quite the
same way. The multiplier tells you how many zeroes you should write after the digits you
already have.

COLOUR NUMBER

BLACK 0

BROWN 1

RED 2

ORANGE 3

YELLOW 4

GREEN 5

BLUE 6

VIOLET 7

GRAY 8

WHITE 9

Table 1.1: Number scheme for different colors for resistor color coding

COLOUR TOLERANCE

BROWN ±1%

RED ±2%

GOLD ±5%

SILVER ±10%

Table 1.2: Tolerance value against different colors for resistor color coding
 The remaining band is called the TOLERANCE band as shown in figure 1.5. This indicates the
percentage accuracy of the resistor value.

Figure 1.5: Identification of color bands for a color coded resistor

Most carbon film resistors have a gold-colored tolerance band, indicating that the actual
resistance value is within ±5% of the nominal value. Other tolerance colors are shown in table
1.2. The above color coding that has been explained is for resistors with four color bands. For
more precise resistor values, five color band schemes for resistor identification are used. The
first three colors represent the first three digits of resistor value, the fourth color is for exponent
and the fifth color is for tolerance.
iii) CAPACITOR CODING SCHEMES
Large electrolytic capacitors usually have their values printed on them (e.g.10 µF, 100 µF). The
small ceramic capacitors have a three digit code. The first two digits are the significant figures,
and the third digit is a multiplier. Take the first two numbers and add the number of zeros
indicated by the third number. This is the capacitor value in Pico-farads (pF) where 1pF=10 -12F.
For example a capacitor with a three digit code 102 is 1000pF = 1000×10 -12F = 1nF = 0.001µF.
The letter following the three numbers indicates the tolerance. Different letters with their
tolerance values are given in table 1.3.

LETTER TOLERANCE

F ±1%

G ±2%

H ±3%

J ±5%

K ±10%

M ±20%

Table 1.3: letter symbol with their tolerance values for capacitor coding.
 iv) INDUCTOR CODING SCHEMES
Large rating inductors usually have their values printed on them (e.g.1 mH, 10mH). Color
coding scheme is used to identify small rating inductors (similar to the one used for resistors).
The only difference between the color coding used for inductors to that of resistors is that the
value obtained from the color coding scheme for inductors is in micro-Henry (μH). For example
an inductor with color coding scheme brown, black, brown and gold will have a value 100 μH
with a tolerance factor of ±5%.

1.4 PROCEDURE
 You will be given some resistors, use the color coding scheme to find their nominal, minimum and
maximum values and record your values in the relevant columns of table 1.4.
 You will be given some capacitors, use the numeric coding scheme to find their nominal,
minimum and maximum values and record your values in the relevant columns of table 1.4.
 You will be given some inductors, use the color code to find to find their nominal, minimum and
maximum values and record your values in the relevant columns of table 1.4.
 Wire the circuits given in figure 1.6 (a) to (e) on the breadboard one by one. For each circuit draw
a sketch with breadboard in the background on your note book similar to Figure 1.2 (a) & (b) for
series and parallel circuits.
a. Figure 1.6 (a) is a series circuit for three resistors.
b. Figure 1.6 (b) is an example of a bridge circuit.
c. Figure 1.6 (c) is a parallel circuit.
d. Figure 1.6 (d) is an example of a ladder circuit.
e. Figure 1.6 (e) is an example of a series parallel circuit.
 For each circuit write down some justification for the position of every element.
 As mentioned earlier, try to use the breadboard to make connections, i.e. avoid the use of extra
jumper wires. Write down the justification for the use of a jumper wire.
 Your wired circuit on the breadboard should look as much as possible like the schematic you’re
implementing (this is not a necessary condition in general). The visual correspondence schematic
circuit and hardwired circuit on the breadboard will help you differentiate the various nodes of the
circuit and debugging of the circuit will become easier.

1.5 REPORT
In your report compare the wiring of different circuits. Justify your wiring scheme over the other
possible options available for the same circuit.
 R1

R2 R1 R2
VT
RL
VT

R3 R3 R4

(a) (b)

R1 R3 R5

VT R1 R2 R3
VT R2 R4 R6

(c) (d)

R3

R2 R4

R5
R8
R1

R6 R7

VT

(e)

Figure 1.6 (a) to (e): Different circuits to be wired on the Breadboard

Sr. Resistance Value with Resistance Range Using
Resistance Color Code
No. Tolerance Tolerance

Table 1.4: Resistance color codes with values

Sr. Capacitor Numeric Capacitance Value with Capacitance Range

No. Code Tolerance Using Tolerance

Table 1.5: Capacitor Numeric codes with values

Sr. Inductance Value with Inductance Range Using
Inductor Color Code
No. Tolerance Tolerance

Table 1.6: Inductor Color codes with values