5 Band Resistor Codes
Chieko Boteler
Resistors are available in many different values, shapes, and physical sizes. Practically all leaded resistors with a power rating up to one watt have a pattern of colored bands that are used to indicate resistance value, tolerance, and sometimes even the temperature coefficient. There can be anywhere from three to six colored bands on the body of a resistor, with four bands being the most common variation. The first few bands always represent digits in the value of resistance. Then you will find a multiplier band to signify moving the decimal right or left. The last bands represent tolerance and the temperature coefficient.
The first two bands always denote the first two digits of the resistance value in ohms. On a three or four-band resistor, the third band represents the multiplier. This multiplier will basically shift your decimal place around to change your value from mega ohms to milliohms and anywhere in between. The fourth color band signifies tolerance. Keep in mind that if this band is absent and you are looking at a three-band resistor, the default tolerance is 20%.
Resistors with high precision have an extra color band to indicate a third significant digit. If your resistor has five or six color bands, the third band becomes this additional digit along with bands one and two. Everything else shifts to the right, making the fourth color band the multiplier and the fifth band the tolerance. A six-band resistor is basically a five-band type with an additional ring indicating the reliability, or the temperature coefficient (ppm/K) specification. Using brown, the most common sixth band color, as an example, every temperature change of 10C changes the resistance value by 0.1%.
Easily recognized by their single black band, zero-ohm resistors are basically wire links used to connect traces on a printed circuit board. They are packaged like a resistor so the same automated equipment used to place resistors can also be used to place these on the circuit board. This design prevents the need for a separate machine to install a jumper wire.
Military specified resistors often include an extra band on four-band resistors to indicate reliability, or the failure rate (%) per 1000 hours of service. This is seldom utilized in commercial electronics.
The following are tools to calculate the ohm value and tolerance based on resistor color codes, the total resistance of a group of resistors in parallel or in series, and the resistance of a conductor based on size and conductivity.
An electronic color code is a code that is used to specify the ratings of certain electrical components, such as the resistance in Ohms of a resistor. Electronic color codes are also used to rate capacitors, inductors, diodes, and other electronic components, but are most typically used for resistors. Only resistors are addressed by this calculator.
The color coding for resistors is an international standard that is defined in IEC 60062. The resistor color code shown in the table below involves various colors that represent significant figures, multiplier, tolerance, reliability, and temperature coefficient. Which of these the color refers to is dependent on the position of the color band on the resistor. In a typical four-band resistor, there is a spacing between the third and the fourth band to indicate how the resistor should be read (from left to right, with the lone band after the spacing being the right-most band). In the explanation below, a four-band resistor (the one specifically shown below) will be used. Other possible resistor variations will be described after.
In a typical four-band resistor, the first and second bands represent significant figures. For this example, refer to the figure above with a green, red, blue, and gold band. Using the table provided below, the green band represents the number 5, and the red band is 2.
The third, blue band, is the multiplier. Using the table, the multiplier is thus 1,000,000. This multiplier is multiplied by the significant figures determined from the previous bands, in this case 52, resulting in a value of 52,000,000 Ω, or 52 MΩ.
The fourth band is not always present, but when it is, represents tolerance. This is a percentage by which the resistor value can vary. The gold band in this example indicates a tolerance of 5%, which can be represented by the letter J. This means that the value 52 MΩ can vary by up to 5% in either direction, so the value of the resistor is 49.4 MΩ - 54.6 MΩ.
Coded components have at least three bands: two significant figure bands and a multiplier, but there are other possible variations. For example, components that are made to military specifications are typically four-band resistors that may have a fifth band that indicates the reliability of the resistor in terms of failure rate percentage per 1000 hours of service. It is also possible to have a 5th band that is the temperature coefficient, which indicates the change in resistance of the component as a function of ambient temperature in terms of ppm/K.
More commonly, there are five-band resistors that are more precise due to a third significant figure band. This shifts the position of the multiplier and tolerance band into the 4th and 5th position as compared to a typical four-band resistor.
On the most precise of resistors, a 6th band may be present. The first three bands would be the significant figure bands, the 4th the multiplier, the 5th the tolerance, and the 6th could be either reliability or temperature coefficient. There are also other possible variations, but these are some of the more common configurations.
Resistors are circuit elements that impart electrical resistance. While circuits can be highly complicated, and there are many different ways in which resistors can be arranged in a circuit, resistors in complex circuits can typically be broken down and classified as being connected in series or in parallel.
This tool is used to decode information for color banded axial lead resistors. Select the number of bands, then their colors to determine the value and tolerance of the resistors or view all resistors DigiKey has to offer.
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Can anyone read the resistor that the arrow is pointing to? From what I know you can not have a gold band as a number and if I am reading it correctly it has a tolerance of 0 which does not seem right.
I'd go for example 3 in the picture above and also say 2 ohms with a 5% tolerance. The left most band I would ignore but if you have a meter lift one leg from the PCB and measure it but be sure to compensate from the probe resistance because it will be significant in the low ohms range.
A resistor is identified by its pattern of color of bands. There are 4, 5 and 6 band resistors. To calculate the resistance of a resistor, you can select the appropriate color bands in the above resistor color code calculator.
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An electronic color code or electronic colour code (see spelling differences) is used to indicate the values or ratings of electronic components, usually for resistors, but also for capacitors, inductors, diodes and others. A separate code, the 25-pair color code, is used to identify wires in some telecommunications cables. Different codes are used for wire leads on devices such as transformers or in building wiring.
In the 1920s,[citation needed] the RMA resistor color code was developed by the Radio Manufacturers Association (RMA) as a fixed resistor coloring code marking. In 1930, the first radios with RMA color-coded resistors were built.[1][2] Over many decades, as the organization name changed (RMA, RTMA, RETMA, EIA)[3] so was the name of the code. Though known most recently as EIA color code, the four name variations are found in books, magazines, catalogs, and other documents over more than 94 years.
Color bands were used because they were easily and cheaply printed on tiny components. However, there were drawbacks, especially for color blind people. Overheating of a component or dirt accumulation may make it impossible to distinguish brown from red or orange. Advances in printing technology have now made printed numbers more practical on small components. The values of components in surface mount packages are marked with printed alphanumeric codes instead of a color code.
Precision resistors may be marked with a five band system, to include three significant digits, a power of 10 multiplier (number of trailing zeroes, and a tolerance band. An extra-wide first band indicates a wire-wound resistor.[6]
Zero ohm resistors, marked with a single black band,[10] are lengths of wire wrapped in a resistor-like body which can be mounted on a printed-circuit board (PCB) by automatic component-insertion equipment. They are typically used on PCBs as insulating "bridges" where two tracks would otherwise cross, or as soldered-in jumper wires for setting configurations.
The "body-end-dot" or "body-tip-spot" system was used for cylindrical composition resistors sometimes still found in very old equipment (built before the Second World War); the first band was given by the body color, the second band by the color of one end of the resistor, and the multiplier by a dot or band around the middle of the resistor. The other end of the resistor was in the body color, silver, or gold for 20%, 10%, 5% tolerance (tighter tolerances were not routinely used).[11][12][13][14]
Capacitors may be marked with 4 or more colored bands or dots. The colors encode the first and second most significant digits of the value in picofarads, and the third color the decimal multiplier. Additional bands have meanings which may vary from one type to another. Low-tolerance capacitors may begin with the first 3 (rather than 2) digits of the value. It is usually, but not always, possible to work out what scheme is used by the particular colors used. Cylindrical capacitors marked with bands may look like resistors.
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