Poll

Do you hate blue resistors?

Yes, I hate them, bring back the brown ones
No, I love them

Author Topic: Do you hate blue resistors?  (Read 8432 times)

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Offline FungusTopic starter

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Do you hate blue resistors?
« on: March 22, 2020, 02:07:32 pm »
Seems like all the resistors that arrive here are blue these days and I hate them. It's much harder to see the colors and read the values than the old brown ones.

What gives? Who took the decision to change the color and why? Does anybody know?

 

Online Zero999

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2020, 02:28:17 pm »
I'm neutral about them.

I think the brown ones tend to be carbon film and the blue ones are normally metal film, but don't think there's a standard.
 

Offline TimFox

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2020, 02:30:52 pm »
I prefer the military-style metal film resistors with a light tan body, but they use lettering rather than color bands.
 
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Online mariush

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2020, 02:32:32 pm »
Seems like a simple solution : go with surface mount 0805 or 1206 resistors. They'll have the value written on them.

You can easily add leads to them if needed, or just solder them on the through hole pads.
 
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Online SiliconWizard

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2020, 02:33:38 pm »
I'm neutral about them.

I think the brown ones tend to be carbon film and the blue ones are normally metal film, but don't think there's a standard.

That's what I have always seen as well. Dunno about a standard, but I don't think I have ever seen "blue" TH resistors that weren't metal film.

 

Online wraper

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2020, 03:18:12 pm »
Seems like all the resistors that arrive here are blue these days and I hate them.
Buy carbon crap and you will get brown resistors. Brown = carbon, blue = metal film (unless you buy dodgy crap on ebay).
 
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Online Monkeh

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2020, 03:21:19 pm »
He's a colourist everyone, lynch him.
 
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Offline Siwastaja

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2020, 03:28:10 pm »
While the color itself is a matter of taste, a blue resistor gives the impression of it being a modern and higher quality, because this is generally very likely true - lower noise and higher accuracy metal film as opposed to carbon film.

With resistors, modern likely means better. Yesterday's 20% is today's 5%, and so on.

This is why we who prefer high-quality designs, get good "vibes" from the blue color resistors, while those who prefer retro vintage artefacts, will hate anything that has high likelyhood of being closer to ideal.
 

Online Brumby

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2020, 03:38:43 pm »
I hate them with a passion.

Not because they are bad resistors - they're not.  They are metal film that, typically, have better tolerance and better thermal attributes.

What I hate is identifying them.

Throw a fistful of carbon film resistors on the bench and I can pick out a 470R, 56k or any other E12 value just by scanning.  With the buggers with the intense blue coloured bodies, it becomes a detective exercise.  Even then, some values are still ambiguous - so the meter comes out to check.  Very annoying.


Who picked this colour?  If they wanted a blue, they could have gone for a much lighter shade, couldn't they?
 
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Offline FungusTopic starter

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #9 on: March 22, 2020, 05:17:18 pm »
What I hate is identifying them.

Who picked this colour?  If they wanted a blue, they could have gone for a much lighter shade, couldn't they?

This.
 

Online SiliconWizard

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #10 on: March 22, 2020, 05:31:16 pm »
Who picked this colour?  If they wanted a blue, they could have gone for a much lighter shade, couldn't they?

Never really had a problem with them myself, but I know that not everyone has the same eyesight. Some people would have a harder time, especially if they are color blind, even if just very slightly.

I practically never use TH resistors anymore these days anyway...
 

Offline ratatax

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2020, 05:54:57 pm »
I find them much harder to read too

SMD's are much easier with the value written on them... but they're quite sad, I loved the 80's with so much colorful components, PCBs looked like rainbows
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2020, 05:59:30 pm »
All these problems can be solved with my multiple step plan for success:

1. Buy them by the hundred (I usually buy the royal ohm ones from tayda/CPC)
2. Store in properly labelled bags identified by the ones they come in.
3. Take what you need out and use it
4. When you are done or have desoldered one throw it in the bin and forget it existed.
5. If you drop one, throw it in the bin and get another one out.

You’re basically screwed these days anyway. A lot of components have useless codes on or aren’t marked (SMD) so just shrug and get used to binning them.

If you’re sly, sweep them all into a box and sell it on eBay for some other idiot to deal with. They go for good money  :-DD
« Last Edit: March 22, 2020, 06:01:42 pm by bd139 »
 

Offline hugo

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #13 on: March 22, 2020, 06:00:47 pm »
Quote
What I hate is identifying them.
why don't you use an ohmmeter then?  :-DD
 
 

Online Zero999

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #14 on: March 22, 2020, 06:40:51 pm »
The only problem I've had with identifying a blue resistor is a yellow band looked a bit more greenish, so I used 100k, rather than 1M once and I wondered why the circuit didn't work, but I've also had a similar problem with a red band looking a bit more brownish, on a brown resistor. I'm very sightly red-green colour blind which is actually a misnomer as I can tell the difference between red and green, it's more subtle shades of dark green/red and brown which I have a more difficult time with distinguishing between, than most people. I can see that this text is red and this text is green.
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #15 on: March 23, 2020, 01:49:10 am »
Apart from the background colours, the cheap & nasty paint used for the stripes is so poor that orange, red & brown are almost the same colour.
 

Offline FungusTopic starter

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #16 on: March 23, 2020, 03:05:42 am »
Apart from the background colours, the cheap & nasty paint used for the stripes is so poor that orange, red & brown are almost the same colour.

Yep, the quality of the paint colors and the width of the stripes has deteriorated, too.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #17 on: March 23, 2020, 04:05:58 am »
No idea how blue became the standard for metal film, but it's always been a tad annoying. My eyes aren't exactly getting better with age, and those colors on the blue background have gotten harder in the last few years, especially in low light.

 

Offline rdl

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #18 on: March 23, 2020, 04:19:21 am »
I don't know what kind of paint they use for the stripes, but I'm pretty sure the colors would be more easily seen if they'd just not be so cheap and add a little white pigment. Many of the organic pigments are very nearly black in the masstone. Phthalo blue and phthalo green in particular are very dark. Some of the violet pigments are also. They are also fairly transparent which probably doesn't help.
 

Online tautech

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #19 on: March 23, 2020, 04:37:37 am »
Don’t matter what colour the body is, run them a little warm and good luck identifying band colours !
Avid Rabid Hobbyist
Siglent Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SiglentVideo/videos
 

Online SiliconWizard

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #20 on: March 23, 2020, 04:19:44 pm »
Quote
What I hate is identifying them.
why don't you use an ohmmeter then?  :-DD

Indeed. ;D
People having issues identifying the colors can just use an ohmmeter and be done with it. From most distributors, the values are also usually marked in clear on the bags. If not, just do it when you store them and you're done. No biggie really...
These days, it's fun to know we can still read resistor codes, but it's not that useful anymore IMHO. :P
(OK, I'll admit that one case it can be useful is for identifying resistors already soldered on some undocumented board  - testing them in-circuit often yields the wrong value.)
« Last Edit: March 23, 2020, 04:21:20 pm by SiliconWizard »
 

Offline exe

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #21 on: March 23, 2020, 04:29:20 pm »
I store resistors in amo pack with a label. On label I have value, tolerance, and tempco. In addition, I always check actual value with a DMM or SMD twezers.

Motivation: I've had enough resistors with un-identifiable colors. Is this band grey or silver? is it yellow or gold? Is it the first band, or the last? May be it's even not a resistor, but inductor in a similar package. Even if I identify colors the right way, I can still make a mistake with calculating value by an order of magnitude :).
 

Online Zero999

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #22 on: March 23, 2020, 04:59:25 pm »
I keep my resistors in cases of tubes sorted into different values. I stock 1R to 10M, with 10R to 1M in E24 values and the others in E12 values.

 
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Offline rrinker

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #23 on: March 23, 2020, 07:55:41 pm »
 One of the first things I learned as a really young player was the resistor color code. But with older eyes, and the much lighter printing of the colors these days, I just keep a meter handy, and populate one value at a time. Say my board has 12 pullups of 10K each, I'll make sure I have a little stack of 12 resistors checked to be sure they are 10K, then populate all those, then move on to the next value.

 I'm still all thru-hole, with my vision issues, SMD is just not in the cards. Magnification is not the problem - I have very limited vision in my right eye so depth perception is off. At least with TH, it's something I am extremely familiar with and I can find the spot to solder - haven't burned a finger yet, or my nose (you don't want to watch me solder...really). I notice this more and more - things I am familiar with, it's as if my depth perception has not altered. Amazing how the brain can compensate. But something unfamiliar - I'll miss the mark a time or two.
 

Online Zero999

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Re: Do you hate blue resistors?
« Reply #24 on: March 23, 2020, 09:22:37 pm »
(OK, I'll admit that one case it can be useful is for identifying resistors already soldered on some undocumented board  - testing them in-circuit often yields the wrong value.)
Yes, that's the main reason for the colour band, although they're no good if the resistor has overheated and become discoloured.
 


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