How To Read Resistors

For example a 390 resistor with a tolerance of 10 will have a value within 10 of 390 between 390 39 351 and 390 39 429 39 is 10 of 390.

How to read resistors. If you have a resistor with a gold or silver band on one end you have a 5 or 10 tolerance resistor. Then jot down the sequence of the colored bands reading from left to right. Most of these resistors will have four bands of color circling the resistor. Tolerance is the precision of the resistor and it is given as a percentage. To determine the value of a given resistor look for the gold or silver tolerance band and rotate the resistor as in the photo on the left.

3rd digit only for 5 band resistors. And the last color. 56 x 10 560ω. The fourth band tells you the tolerance of the resistor which indicates how far off the nominal value the actual resistance could be. Similarly search the color of the second band in the column labeled 2 nd digit.

Look at the first color band and determine its color. The first two bands always denote the first two digits of the resistance value in ohms. Resistors never start with a metallic band on the left. The third band is a weight value which multiplies the two significant digits by a power of ten. The first two bands indicate the two most significant digits of the resistor s value.

If the 3rd band would be red instead of brown the multiplier would be 10 2 100 instead of 10 and the resistor value would be. Read the color sequence of the resistor and search the color of the first band in the column labeled 1 st digit of the table given below. Position the resistor with this band on the right side and again read your resistor from left to right. How to read the code. A series circuit is a circuit in which resistors are arranged in a chain so the current has only one path to take.

Green and blue are the first significant digits 56. Give each color a number according to its resistive value. Make sure to read the value of the right most color band to determine the tolerance of the resistor. Standard resistors have four color bands. The total resistance of the circuit is found by simply adding up the resistance values of the individual resistors.