EEVblog Electronics Community Forum

Electronics => Beginners => Topic started by: innkeeper on July 18, 2018, 10:41:33 pm

Title: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: innkeeper on July 18, 2018, 10:41:33 pm
I'm sure many of us know the NON-PC phrase used to remember the resistor color code values.

Is there a good PC phrase one can use to teach others.  Anything in common use?

Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: JS on July 19, 2018, 12:32:23 am
A box of mixed resistors, a table and a circuit to build, or two, or three... that's how I learned!

Then I went to metal film and it's a waste of time, as colors on the blue back are much worse and there are even some that could be read both ways (most starting with 1 make sense both ways so it's ugly)

Now I'm going for SMD and you just read numbers, like numbers wouldn't fit in bigger packages, I guess printing in a small cylinder is hard, but diodes are done this way, who knows  |O

JS
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: Relayer on July 19, 2018, 01:07:34 am
Quote
A box of mixed resistors, a table and a circuit to build, or two, or three... that's how I learned!

Same here. I used to buy the grab bags of mixed resistors from Dick Smith, Jaycar and the likes.

I always had dramas with the metal-film ones as well, and at times it was really hard to determine
if a band was coloured red or brown.
I would really feel sorry for anyone colour-blind needing to sort out 1000 mixed metal-film resistors.  |O
Regards,
Relayer
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: james_s on July 19, 2018, 05:15:39 am
It took the very much non-PC phrase for me to finally remember the color code. I think just the fact that it was rather offensive is what made it stick in my mind.
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: KaneTW on July 19, 2018, 05:17:42 am
I'm color-blind, so dealing with through-hole resistors is basically impossible for me. I stick with SMD in my designs anyway.
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: AG6QR on July 19, 2018, 05:55:57 am
It's only partial, but the ROYGBV portion of the code is in rainbow order, or lowest to highest frequency.  So if you know the rainbow, you just need to remember "black brown --Rainbow-- white".

On the other hand, the color bands are often hard to read, because they're small and the colors aren't always very accurate.  So I usually keep a multimeter in ohms mode handy when I'm working with resistors.  Trust, but verify.
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: JohnnyMalaria on July 19, 2018, 03:44:09 pm
I'm sure many of us know the NON-PC phrase used to remember the resistor color code values.

Is there a good PC phrase one can use to teach others.  Anything in common use?

Big Bananas Resting On Your Great Big Voluptuous Green Watermelons
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: TheWelly888 on July 19, 2018, 03:54:30 pm
Bye Bye Rosie, Off You Go, Bristol Via Great Western
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: JohnnyMalaria on July 19, 2018, 04:04:34 pm
Bye Bye Rosie, Off You Go, Bristol Via Great Western

Very nice. Used to live there and ride that line from London. 
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: GreyWoolfe on July 19, 2018, 10:33:29 pm
Bye Bye Rosie, Off You Go, Bristol Via Great Western

So how is Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts, But Vodka Goes Well not PC or is there another that I am not aware of? :-//
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: AG6QR on July 20, 2018, 01:01:09 am
Bye Bye Rosie, Off You Go, Bristol Via Great Western

So how is Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts, But Vodka Goes Well not PC or is there another that I am not aware of? :-//

That may be mildly inappropriate in some circles, but I believe there are much worse.   See the wikipedia link posted above by tsman.
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: Brumby on July 20, 2018, 04:58:01 am
I run with the Black, Brown, Rainbow(ish), Grey, White approach.
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: TheWelly888 on July 20, 2018, 02:03:41 pm
So how is Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts, But Vodka Goes Well not PC or is there another that I am not aware of? :-//
I never heard this one before but I think it is OK.
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: IanMacdonald on July 20, 2018, 08:01:00 pm
I honestly don't know why they use that horrible five-band code on metal film types. There is no need for it on an E24 series anyway, and as pointed out it leads to ambiguous values on 1% types. I use carbon types for general experimenting. They are noisier and less accurate, but less likely to make a circuit-damaging mistake with.  SMD types are easier if you're going to make a PCB but don't lend themselves to birdsnesting, which is how I usually prove a circuit first.  You can tell I'm an ex TV engineer  ::)
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: free_electron on July 20, 2018, 08:04:03 pm
another reason to switch to surface mounted parts :)
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: IanMacdonald on July 20, 2018, 08:50:40 pm
 Another advantage of SMD, no need to mirror the track layout. Easy to forget about that.  :palm:  |O

Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: Raj on August 09, 2018, 04:40:16 am
time is all you need for color code learning. It took me 2 years worth of making stuff as hobbyist to learn it.
Every time you solder a resistor, just say it's value in your mind, you'll learn it.
Also keeping them in tictac box with with box color corrosponding to the second last band helps.
Notice, there are 2 boxes of x-x-black-x and a box of x-x-golden-golden or x-x-silver-silver or x-x-blue-x colored white.
the x-x-brown-x is a red box.
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: grumpydoc on August 09, 2018, 06:43:33 am
I learned Black Beetles Running On Your Garden Bring Very Good Weather, along with the less PC ones.
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: innkeeper on August 10, 2018, 02:48:31 am
Black Beetles Running On Your Garden Bring Very Good Weather
:-+ i like that one
Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: orin on August 10, 2018, 04:13:35 am
Black Beetles Running On Your Garden Bring Very Good Weather
:-+ i like that one

The only one I remember, that must have predated me by many years, is:

Better Buy Resistors Or Your Grid Bias May Go West

To modernize it, substitute Gate for Grid.  And the 'M' is Mauve... shudder.

Title: Re: Resistor color code ... pc prase?
Post by: Cubdriver on August 12, 2018, 07:31:47 am
The one we were 'officially' taught as freshmen in high school was "Big Boys Race Our Young Girls But Violet Generally Wins"

The shop teacher then suggested we speak to the juniors to find out the 'unnofficial' version.  In that version, the first, third, eighth and ninth words were replaced by slightly different ones.  Unsurprisingly, the second version is the one we all remembered.

-Pat