Resistor Colour Codes

I always find it a bit hard to work out what the colour coding on a resistor means. I'm sure you do too. I've therefore added this small guide to my site in order to help us both out. To find the value of a resistor start at the other end from the gold or silver and: write down the value of the first band write the value of the second band next to this multiply the resultant 2 digit number by the value of the third band look up the tolerance using the fourth band voila. easy as PI. 1st Band - digit 2nd Band - digit 3rd Band - modifier 4th Band - tolerence BLACK 0 BROWN 1 RED 2 ORANGE 3 YELLOW 4 GREEN 5 BLUE 6 VIOLET 7 GREY 8 WHITE 9 BLACK 0 BROWN 1 RED 2 ORANGE 3 YELLOW 4 GREEN 5 BLUE 6 VIOLET 7 GREY 8 WHITE 9 BLACK x 1 ohms BROWN x 10 ohms RED x 100 ohms ORANGE x 1K ohms YELLOW x 10K ohms GREEN x 100K ohms BLUE x 1M ohms SILVER ÷ 100 ohms GOLD ÷ 10 ohms GOLD ±5% SILVER ±10% NONE ±20% BROWN ±1% RED ±2% GREEN ±0.5% BLUE ±0.25% VIOLET ±0.1% Alternatively, if you can't be bothered, just enter your colour values here: black brown red orange yellow green blue violet grey white black brown red orange yellow green blue violet grey white black brown red orange yellow green blue silver gold none silver gold

Posted: 21th April 2003