EXPERIMENT 1: RESISTOR COLOR CODES

Objective

In this lab, you will work with simple resistors and learn to determine their values using
color codes.

EQUIPMENT LIST

1. Carbon Resistors

2. Digital Multimeter

3. Set of wires

THEORY

There are many different types of resistors available, which can be used in both
electrical and electronic circuits not only as loads, but also for distributing the current or
for producing a voltage drop in many different ways. However, in order to do this, the
actual resistor needs to have some form of “resistive” or “resistance” value.

It is not possible to manufacture all value of resistors right from one Ohm ( Ω ) to millions
of Ohms. So, only a set of preferred values of resistors is generally made with their
resistance value printed onto their body in colored ink.

In addition, in a manufacturing process, in which thousands of resistors are made in a

The term 'tolerance' denotes the acceptable deviation in the resistance value of a
resistor and is expressed as a percentage of its “nominal” or preferred value.

The resistance value, tolerance, and wattage rating are the main specification of resistor,
which are generally printed onto its body as numbers or letters when the resistors body
is big enough to read the print, such as large power resistors. However, when the
resistor is small such as a 1/4 watt carbon or film type, these specifications must be
shown in some other manner, as the print would be too small to read. Therefore, to
overcome this, small resistors use colored painted bands to indicate both their resistive
value and their tolerance with the physical size of the resistor indicating its wattage
rating. These colored painted bands produce a system of identification generally known
as a Resistor Color Code.

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An international and universally accepted resistor color code scheme was developed
many years ago as a simple and quick way of identifying a resistors ohmic value no
matter what its size or condition. It consists of a set of individual colored rings or bands
in spectral order representing each digit of the resistors value. It markings are always
read one band at a time starting from the left to the right. Therefore, we need to
understand how to apply these bands in order to get the correct value of the resistor.

There are two ways to find the resistance value of a resistor. As shown in Fig. 1, there
are 4-band and 5-band resistors. For both 5- and 4-band resistors, the last band
indicates the percentage of tolerance.

Fig. 1. Resistor color code chart.

By matching the color of the first band with its associated number in the digit column of
the color chart, the first digit is identified and this represents the first digit of the
resistance value. Again, by matching the color of the second band with its associated
number in the digit column of the color chart we get the second digit of the resistance
value and so on. The multiplier is the number of zeros that have to be added after the
significant numbers.

 4-Band: Reading the resistor from left to right, the first two color bands represent
significant digits, the third band represents the decimal multiplier, and the fourth band

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 represents the tolerance. Digit, Digit, Multiplier, Tolerance = (Color, Color × 10 color)
± Tolerance

 5-Band: The first three color bands represent significant digits, the fourth band
represents the decimal multiplier, and the fifth band represents the tolerance.
Digit, Digit, Digit, Multiplier, Tolerance = (Color, Color, Color × 10 color) ± Tolerance

Typical resistor tolerances for film resistors range from 1% to 10% while carbon resistors
have tolerances up to 20%. Resistors with tolerances lower than 2% are called precision
resistors with the or lower tolerance resistors being more expensive. Most five band
resistors are precision resistors with tolerances of either 1% or 2% while most of the four
band resistors have tolerances of 5%, 10% and 20%. The color code used to denote the
tolerance rating of a resistor is given as:

Brown = 1%, Red = 2%, Gold = 5%, Silver = 10%

If the tolerance color is not present, the resistor tolerance would be 20% above and
below the nominal value. So to determine the range of the resistance (R min ̴ Rmax)
considering the tolerance percentage (T) we can apply:

Rmin= Rnominal – (Rnominal ×T)

PROCEDURE

Measure and record in Table 1 the value of resistance for five different resistors by using
a digital multimeter and compare it with the color code resistance range and calculate
the deviation percentage as below:

Deviation = [(Rmeasured – Rnominal)/ Rnominal]×100%

TABLE 1
Color Code Bands Nominal Tolerance Minimum Maximum Measured Deviation
(Multimeter)

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 QUESTIONS

1. What are the uses and main specifications of resistors in electrical circuits?
2. What is meant by color codes and tolerance values of resistors?
3. Comment on your results in Table 1. Would it ever be possible to find a measured
value of resistance out of the stated tolerance? Why or Why not?
4. Given the nominal values and tolerance in Table 2, determine and record the
corresponding color code bands.

Table 2
Value Four Band Resistor Color Codes

390 ± 10 %

680 ± 5 %

1.5k ± 20 %

820k ± 10 %

2.2M ± 10 %

5. Given the color codes in Table 3, determine and record the nominal value, tolerance
and the minimum and maximum acceptable values.

Table 3
Color Code Bands Nominal Tolerance Minimum Maximum
Red-Red-Black-Silver

Blue-Gray-Black-Gold

Brown-Green- Brown-Gold

Green-Blue-Brown-Gold

Gray-Red-Red-Gold

Orange-Orange-Orange-Silver