Star Tech Journal
Issue: 1996-May - Vol 18 Issue 3 - Page 8
STAR*TEcH
Journal
Enzo
May 1996
CD
1
s
Tech
"Hey Enzo, I can't find the self-test button on this Captain Fantastic!,,
Douglas 'Enzo' McCallum • Shiawassee Technical Services • Lansing, Ml
COMPONENT VALUES
READING THE NEW LABELS
THE CODE
We all learned resistor color
codes early on in our electronic
careers. If you don't know the
codes, run, do not walk, to the
nearest color code chart and get
with it.
the PC board, your DMM, your
experience, the part's relation-
ship to other parts, and any other
evidence to identify the part.
47K.
like caps
What do you do when your compo-
nents don't have color stripes?
resistors
and
ID
look like
First, you must identify what the
part is. For full size components
this is usually not a problem.
resistors.
Use the clues in the schematic,
the identifiers silk screened on
-
This trend is starting to move on
to full size parts as well. When
you see it on capacitors there are
slightly different rules. The value
of a cap is printed in pf (picofar-
ads). Thus if you see 473 on a cap
it means 47000 pf. You would
more likely call it .047uf. Either
is correct since they are the same.
Caps look
The color codes are printed in a
zillion places. We should know
that yellow-purple-orange on a
resistor means 47000 ohms or
47K ohms. K means 1000 and M
or Meg means million.
Caps look like caps and resistors
look like resistors. Well, mostly.
In the ever growing world of sur-
face mount parts, the distinction
is not always so easily made.
SM (surface mount) resistor
might have 4 73 printed on it. This
means 4-7-000 just the same as the
opening example. 473 means
I
Well, mostly.
COLORLESS
Many parts sport numbers in-
stead of color bands. THE
NUMBERS READ JUST LIKE
THE COLORS. An itty-bitty
Small value caps, especially the
small disk ceramic types, may
only have two digits. 47 indicates
a 47pf cap, but 471 means 470pf
not 471pf.
NoTE
There is a caution when reading
cap values. Some ceramic disk
caps have a temperature/stabil-
ity rating designation lette ~
printed along with the value. It
might be a Z or a U or whatever,
... continued on next page
Journal
Enzo
May 1996
CD
1
s
Tech
"Hey Enzo, I can't find the self-test button on this Captain Fantastic!,,
Douglas 'Enzo' McCallum • Shiawassee Technical Services • Lansing, Ml
COMPONENT VALUES
READING THE NEW LABELS
THE CODE
We all learned resistor color
codes early on in our electronic
careers. If you don't know the
codes, run, do not walk, to the
nearest color code chart and get
with it.
the PC board, your DMM, your
experience, the part's relation-
ship to other parts, and any other
evidence to identify the part.
47K.
like caps
What do you do when your compo-
nents don't have color stripes?
resistors
and
ID
look like
First, you must identify what the
part is. For full size components
this is usually not a problem.
resistors.
Use the clues in the schematic,
the identifiers silk screened on
-
This trend is starting to move on
to full size parts as well. When
you see it on capacitors there are
slightly different rules. The value
of a cap is printed in pf (picofar-
ads). Thus if you see 473 on a cap
it means 47000 pf. You would
more likely call it .047uf. Either
is correct since they are the same.
Caps look
The color codes are printed in a
zillion places. We should know
that yellow-purple-orange on a
resistor means 47000 ohms or
47K ohms. K means 1000 and M
or Meg means million.
Caps look like caps and resistors
look like resistors. Well, mostly.
In the ever growing world of sur-
face mount parts, the distinction
is not always so easily made.
SM (surface mount) resistor
might have 4 73 printed on it. This
means 4-7-000 just the same as the
opening example. 473 means
I
Well, mostly.
COLORLESS
Many parts sport numbers in-
stead of color bands. THE
NUMBERS READ JUST LIKE
THE COLORS. An itty-bitty
Small value caps, especially the
small disk ceramic types, may
only have two digits. 47 indicates
a 47pf cap, but 471 means 470pf
not 471pf.
NoTE
There is a caution when reading
cap values. Some ceramic disk
caps have a temperature/stabil-
ity rating designation lette ~
printed along with the value. It
might be a Z or a U or whatever,
... continued on next page
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