Resistor and Capacitor Codes

First the code

Black

Brown

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue

Violet

Grey

White

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

How to read the code

Image:resist.jpg

 

  • First find the tolerance band, it will typically be gold ( 5%) and sometimes silver (10%).
  • Starting from the other end, identify the first band - write down the number associated with that color; in this case Blue is 6.
  • Now 'read' the next color, here it is red so write down a '2' next to the six. (you should have '62' so far.)
  • Now read the third or 'multiplier exponent' band and write down that as the number of zeros.
  • In this example it is two so we get '6200' or '6,200'. If the 'multiplier exponent' band is Black (for zero) don't write any zeros down.
  • If the 'multiplier exponent' band is Gold move the decimal point one to the left. If the 'multiplier exponent' band is Silver move the decimal point two places to the left. If the resistor has one more band past the tolerance band it is a quality band.
  • Read the number as the '% Failure rate per 1000 hour' This is rated assuming full wattage being applied to the resistors. (To get better failure rates, resistors are typically specified to have twice the needed wattage dissipation that the circuit produces). Some resistors use this band for temco information. 1% resistors have three bands to read digits to the left of the multiplier. They have a different temperature coefficient in order to provide the 1% tolerance.
  • At 1% the temperature coefficient starts to become an important factor. at +/-200 ppm a change in temperature of 25 Deg C causes a value change of up to 1%

Reading Capacitor Values

Large capacitor have the value printed plainly on them, such as 10.uF (Ten Micro Farads) but smaller disk types along with plastic film types often have just 2 or three numbers on them?

First, most will have three numbers, but sometimes there are just two numbers. These are read as Pico-Farads. An example: 47 printed on a small disk can be assumed to be 47 Pico-Farads (or 47 puff as some like to say)

Now, what about the three numbers? It is somewhat similar to the Resistor Codes. The first two are the 1st and 2nd significant digits and the third is a multiplier code. Most of the time the last digit tells you how many zeros to write after the first two digits, but the standard (EIA standard RS-198) has a couple of curves that you probably will never see.

Large capacitor have the value printed plainly on them, such as 10.uF (Ten Micro Farads) but smaller disk types along with plastic film types often have just 2 or three numbers on them?

First, most will have three numbers, but sometimes there are just two numbers. These are read as Pico-Farads. An example: 47 printed on a small disk can be assumed to be 47 Pico-Farads (or 47 puff as some like to say)

Now for an example: A capacitor marked 104 is 10 with 4 more zeros or 100,000pF which is otherwise referred to as a .1 uF capacitor.