EIA96 SMD Codes Colour bands RKM Any Resistor All You Need To Know About Resistor Codes To Fix Stuff

[@androxilogin]

Very awesome. I didn't think I would remember the acronym but I thought about it today out of nowhere and started practicing looking at bands and figuring out values based on that. One had me stumped, though. I have a resistor with four bands (Brown, Black, Brown, Gold) which I thought would be 10 ohm. When I flipped over the packaging revealing the value, I was surprised to find it was 100 ohm. Now, thinking "multiplier", I was multiplying 10 x 1 rather than adding a single 0. It drove me nuts for a good five minutes figuring it out. Now I just need to think of a way to place numbers to the colors in my head so I can figure it out instantly. Thank you for all that you share here with us!

[@madb69a]

The multiplier value is the exponent of 10, because you’re multiplying the the first two digits to a multple of 10. Black, being 0 would be 10^0=1. Brown is 1, so it’s 10^1=10. Therefore, brown black brown is 10*10^1, or 100. Scientists created the system so it in scientific notation.

[@wbrowning52ify]

Great tutorial. It's been a long time since I studied this. Much has changed. Thank you.

[@rayhill8691]

Excellent Video Richard so well explained best on Utube Thanks

[@lmt200ish]

Identifying smd capacitors would be a good video as well.

[@d614gakadoug9]

Most surface mount ceramic caps are "easy" - they have no markings of any sort.

[@LearnElectronicsRepair]

That would be another video, but as has been mentioned, MLCC don't usually have any markings

[@grahamhill9770]

Love your tutorials... Its been so many years for me, i need to refresh coz got a number of mitsub aircon pcbs that are obsolete n cost a small fortune to replace.. n gekos have been wreaking havoc., anyway love your alternative reference for resistor colour code... I recall a much less erm... Politically correct meme .... Strange how such things stick with us .. great work fella please keep these going.... i am lovin it

[@robtitheridge9708]

Life used to be so easy resistors came in two value ranges E9 and E12 standard values. when i started there were still lots of dog bones about so only 3 numbers BED body end dot. 2 ring restors were easy to read with there bright colourd rings then came the blue/grey body ones that made reading the colours harder ,for exsample red could look like red or orange or brown . the markins on smd stuff was easy that last one you showed i have never seen and never want to . all in all if i was starting out this video would of been a great help

[@LearnElectronicsRepair]

Actually @robtitheridge9708 oh yeah, there used to be resistors with a colour code that had stripes with a different coloured dot as well. I had completely forgotton those. Thank You! For anyone interested here is some info on antique resistor markings www.radioremembered.org/rescode.htm

[@Mrsteve4761]

Top-notch and thorough explanations. I must say I was a bit taken-aback at the R-word in the color code acronym (and you apprised us of that in advance), but it certainly will be unforgettable!

[@andrewtucker6325]

Thanks again Richard..nice easy rhyme to remember i love mnemonics I'll be storing everything im leaning in my memory palace

[@arthurfricchione8119]

Richard another very informative video. Nice to have this knowledge in the back of the old brain to understand what I am working with. Thank you for putting these courses together. Cheers mate. 👍

[@SteveMayfield-p9d]

Nicely explained thank you

[@andrewtucker6325]

Excellent about to watch got my note book and pen 🖋

[@redeyegooner]

Was Bill Brown ever charged?

[@terrynicklin417]

Will be very helpful I'm sure, especially the SMD stuff. Worth mentioning capitalisation. 1m Ohm (milliohm) is very different from 1M Ohm (megohm). Also I believe the convention '1k2' etc came about to avoid the decimal point being missed.

[@d614gakadoug9]

Yes, using the multiplier character in the position where a decimal would normally be originated when small features tended to be lost in duplication of actual blueprints. It also avoids confusion that can arise from different conventions in different countries. In many English-speaking countries a dot (period, or "point") is used whereas in many other countries a comma is used. English: 1,000 is one thousand 1.000 is one German: 1,000 is one 1.000 is one thousand. In science it is now common but by no means universal to use spaces where traditionally commas have been used in English, periods otherwise 1 000 000.2 is one million and two tenths; formerly would have been written 1,000,000.2 Paying attention to the abbreviations is very important in simulation programs so you don't wind up nine orders of magnitude from what you intended ("meg" or "Meg" is often used to avoid this).

[@LearnElectronicsRepair]

@@d614gakadoug9 Yes in Spain we have the comma instead of the full stop to indicate a decimal point. I also agree with @terrynicklin417 that this came about as it is easy not to see a decimal poin on small components.

[@toolsarecool]

Reminds of my days of programming in COBOL in Germany where we had to add the declaration DECIMAL POINT IS COMMA to the beginning of each program. It was more like writing a novel… 🤣

[@mikepanchaud1]

A more child friendly acronym is, Black Beetles Running On Your Garden Brings Very Good Weather. OR one for the oldies, Better Buy Resistor Or Your Grid Bias May Go West. The M of May stands for moave instead of violet.

[@LearnElectronicsRepair]

The only problem I can see with using the child friendly mnemonic, is then we would all have to learn the other one when we grow up! 😝

[@Dutch-linux]

you can also have a resistor with just 1 black line which is a 0 ohm resistor you could use that as a jumper to make it look nicer then a wire to jump on a pcb also some brands used the 0 ohm resistor as it was easier for the machine to place those on pcb's LOL at the end you did adress that... well done again good video Richard

[@LearnElectronicsRepair]

Yeah I just about remembered LOL

[@d614gakadoug9]

Many manufacturers have quit putting any markings on SM resistors of any size up to 1206. Larger ones may or may not be marked. SM resistors in sizes 0402 and smaller never have been marked except in rare instances. Some 1% or better tolerance leaded resistors will have a sixth color band which may indicate temperature coefficient of resistance. e.g. red is used for a tempco of ±50 ppm/K A band for failure rate has also been used but is extremely rare these days. With very high value resistors the "gold" band may be yellow and the "silver" band may be grey. Gold and silver are made with metal particles which are not welcome on high-value resistors which are often used at high voltage. BEWARE! Small axial lead inductors are also typically marked with color bands and may look very much like resistors. Typically a wide silver band is used to indicated they are inductors, but not always. There are also axial lead capacitors that are marked with color bands but they aren't at all common and are usually short and fat.

[@LearnElectronicsRepair]

Thanks for the info

[@bookerol]

Let's not forget vintage resistor markings. BED - Body End Dot

[@Dutch_off_grid_homesteading]

Heya, again a very good explanation video. but variable resistor I mist or that's gone be a new part ??

[@LearnElectronicsRepair]

Yeah that's a seperate topic

[@chrishartley1210]

I have an app (electrodoc) which shows various resistor codes, voltage dividers, parallel resistor calculators etc. Although it doesn't say so explicitly it implies, from the provided tables, that the first digit for 5 (and 6) band resistors can be Black. I imagine this is to provide a code for lower value resistors, e.g. black brown black gold xxx for 1R. I have to admit I haven't noticed anything like this but also I've never actually looked.

[@rongray8934]

Please don't hate me. lol What about the wattages? Mostly SMD resistors do they have any wattage differences? Do the colors mean anything or are they just different component types. Diodes, caps etc. Thanks great video Richard. learning lots from your vast knowledge.

[@shagreobe]

I ran across an smd resistor yesterday marked just 'E' or '3' maybe. What is that one?

[@rongray8934]

They could be fuses. Generally not black in color though. R, X, Z are fuse values as well.

[@mikegraham7078]

The way I learned the colour code (from a Mormon guy who blushed the whole time he recited it) was "Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly."

[@LearnElectronicsRepair]

Yeah there are quite a few variations, but rape seems to be involved in all of them

[@misterbonzoid5623]

@@LearnElectronicsRepair Made up by men no doubt.

[@bookerol]

I actually learned this from my Mother, probably 50 years ago. She learned it from an ex-Navy guy while she was working at Motorola. I've never forgotten it!

[@Foobar_The_Fat_Penguin]

Sometimes, they also use 0 ohm resistors so that you can easily disconnect a part of the circuit for troubleshooting or testing purposes.

[@LearnElectronicsRepair]

Agreed. And sometimes a gap in the PCB track bridged over by a blob of solder.

[@stevosteve]

😂or a wire bridge link

[@jonathanrose456]

& that’s the clean version lmao

[@dominicharrison3926]

Man I love all your videos and I learn so much but dang bro everytime I see them hand I feel like you’re in the process of turning into a werewolf. (Not being mean that’s just where my frigging brain goes immediately)

[@madb69a]

I like your videos. But I really despise the nemonic. It shouldn’t be that hard to come up with something memorable that doesn’t include sexual assault. There is already a nemonic built into the color code, “ROY G. BiV”, the order of colors in the rainbow. If you know red starts at 2, then orange is 3, yellow is 4, green is 5, blue is 6, violet is 7. Black being the absence of color is 0, brown having a little color 1 are the easiest to remember. At the other end is white, being all colors, is the highest number in the sequence, 9. Grey, being a little dimmer than white, 8. That’s all of them. Now you don’t have to think about sexual assault every time you need to figure out the value of a resistor. Unless you really want to. 🤷‍♂️