New resistor markings

[IanBland]

I too have to resort to a multimeter all the time. I never feel confident I've got the value right just by looking at it. Half the time, after measuring the resistance I'm like, "oh, so that's an orange band then. I see it now!".

But, there's no shame in using magnification!

Indeed, it is but an engineering solution. My eyes no longer focus below about 10 yards so I have a selection of reading glasses lying around 0.5 dioptre for the telly, 1.5 for the computer, 2 for books and 3.5s for close work. They are all cheapies from eBay of different colours for each strength for easy selection. Better to use them than 'strain (ones eyes) to be vain'. BTW dioptre is 1/focal length in metres, makes calculations easy, you just add them up.

[elanman99]

Originally Posted by Hetrodyne

This seems to be the type. Use solder wick to clean the pad before fitting, don't overheat pad to avoid lifting.

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/surfac...stors/0565920/

Thanks Heterodyne for that link. I never have never suspected that 20M was anything other than 20 Megohm and my Googling failed with all the combinations of text and numbers I tried.

I have bookmarked it now so thanks.

Ian

[GeoffK]

That's why I prefer Yahoo and I get Nectar points with searches. It would have been very unlikely to be such a high value as 20Meg. But a misleading marking.

[ITAM805]

I'm another one who checks the values on a meter. If I buy resistors from Maplins I insist they check them with a meter because many times I've got home and theyr'e the wrong value whereas in the past I could read them at a 100 paces !

I'd like to know who were the bright sparks who decided to change the system from the easy to read 4 band to the current mess where everything now looks like 5 or 6 red and black bands to me !

[Skywave]

Originally Posted by Biggles

Is it just me or does anyone else hate the "new" multi banded resistor markings?

No, it's not just 'you'; I am of the same disposition. Part of the problem is that us 'oldies' were brought up with the older, simpler systems; other factors are the increased resolution of resistance values these days and the ever-shrinking physical sizes. And ageing eye-sight doesn't help either. I do what almost everyone else does when faced with the indecision: get out the Fluke DMM!

Al.

[IanBland]

Part of the problem is years of reflexes. If I see an orange band, that's the 10k's. Oh no it isn't! It causes so much uncertainty in me that even when I can clearly read the colours, I don't feel confident without checking it with a meter. It's like an experienced driver trying to drive a vehicle where the pedal functions have all been swapped around

[Skywave]

Ian - my reaction is same as yours - and probably for same reason.

Al.

[Terry_VK5TM]

I think a major part of the problem is the body colour of these things make for a low contrast situation, I find the ones with a green body a little easier to read.

A meter is always used here to check them (well, almost always) here.

Terry

[The Philpott]

The old colour rendering index problem rears it's head on a regular basis.
Last couple of nights i have been working under a quartz halogen so haven't had this problem, but this truly is the reason why LED torches are no good for gloveboxes or electronics toolboxes. I managed to freeze frame on a documentary involving scenes in an operating theatre, and there was a snap-shot of an overhead luminaire which had 3 (water clear) orange LED's for every 11 Phosphorus white LED's. Adapting this concept for a hand-held torch would involve two distinct voltage outputs i would think, maybe 3v and 5v.

I always check resistors with faithful Micronta DMM now, (it isn't accurate or linear on other ranges, but is brilliant on ohms once it counts down and settles on it's decision.)

There is no effort on the small 1/4w resistors i often use, to distinguish which end the bands should be viewed from..

For general 'hacking' at work I bought a Farnell lot of E6 1/4 watt resistors, 1 to 10M ohm 100 of each, lovely toast coloured bodies and the old colour code. What a joy, rather confounds the youngsters when I pick one up and immediately say the value. I almost see the colours when designing circuits.

[dseymo1]

Interestingly, this evening I've been assembling a Chinese PSU kit. The resistor values were so hard to read that I found it much easier to pick one at random, measure it, then place it appropriately. It turned out to quite an efficient way to work!
I wonder why the bodies are 'difficult' colours - would there be any problem or expense involved in making them white?

[Biggles]

It just fills me with dread when I see the multiband ones. They don't seem to agree with me as I have used the 4 band ones for too many years. I'm not keen on those capacitor markings like 104 for 100nF either. Can't be avoided I suppose. Time marches on, and people think of better ways to do things, although unfortunately they aren't always better. No one ever seems to consider backtracking if the new thing doesn't work either.