Strange 5 band resistor code

thevoice · 21st August 2009, 10:12 AM

Has anyone come across something like this before?

I have a couple of packets of old military packaged carbon comp resistors. Their colour code is: violet, green, red, gold, yellow. They measure at about 7.9kohm.

While obviously I can measure them, does anyone have any idea how I should read them? I am curious. Google has been no help.

pjp · 21st August 2009, 10:41 AM

http://www.interfacebus.com/resistor_table.html
Its the 4th result in google for "military resistor codes".

Your question is also answered in the wikipedia page on electronic color code.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro...r_and_inductor

5 band is usually high precision 3 significant + multiplier, but in the case of military resistors the last band is "failure rate".

peranders · 21st August 2009, 10:44 AM

Colour ring for failure rate was something new. You learn everyday despite decades in the business.

pjp · 21st August 2009, 10:49 AM

And the most reliable military resistors had a 0.001% failure rate !

But I suppose the explanation is that this dates back to the days of carbon composition resistors.

thevoice · 21st August 2009, 10:54 AM

Cheers. It hadn't occurred to me that the military would use an extra band, hence the lack of googling for that.

21st August 2009, 10:12 AM	#1
thevoice diyAudio Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Melbourne Again	Strange 5 band resistor code Has anyone come across something like this before? I have a couple of packets of old military packaged carbon comp resistors. Their colour code is: violet, green, red, gold, yellow. They measure at about 7.9kohm. While obviously I can measure them, does anyone have any idea how I should read them? I am curious. Google has been no help.

21st August 2009, 10:44 AM	#3
peranders Electrons are yellow and more is better! diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Göteborg, Sweden Blog Entries: 4	Colour ring for failure rate was something new. You learn everyday despite decades in the business. __________________ /Per-Anders (my first name) or P-A as my friends call me

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21st August 2009, 10:41 AM	#2
pjp diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: under the rainclouds	http://www.interfacebus.com/resistor_table.html Its the 4th result in google for "military resistor codes". Your question is also answered in the wikipedia page on electronic color code. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro...r_and_inductor 5 band is usually high precision 3 significant + multiplier, but in the case of military resistors the last band is "failure rate".

21st August 2009, 10:49 AM	#4
pjp diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: under the rainclouds	And the most reliable military resistors had a 0.001% failure rate ! But I suppose the explanation is that this dates back to the days of carbon composition resistors.

21st August 2009, 10:54 AM	#5
thevoice diyAudio Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Melbourne Again	Cheers. It hadn't occurred to me that the military would use an extra band, hence the lack of googling for that.

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