Great resource Ralph. Thank you very much! Yes, those darned BLUE resistors with the red and black bands mean NOTHING to me. I bought some for school and regretted it. Beige with the 4 bands is the way to go!
And YET another brilliant video for the neophyte (greek for nooby). Now, arguably, the resistor is the simplest of the passive components. Ohms law tells us all we need about what this resistor is doing or what resistor we need for a particular purpose. However, the way resistors perform with or react to other passive (and active) components can be awesome. One resistor with another resistor can change the voltage. Another resistor but this time with a capacitor can change the time before a certain voltage can be reach (BTW this is on the 'O' level physics GCSE curriculum [for US: High School Sophomore physics]- so we aren't talking about rocket science). When coupled with active components resistors can have a plethora of different effects depending upon its position in the circuit. For those interested in expanding their grasp (not necessarily expertise) of many of the effects a resistor can bring to a circuit, take a look at one of the many tutorials (ralph's video #190 from a couple of weeks ago is a good start. Then take a look at Ben Eater's 555 timer - 8-bit computer clock - part [1 to2]) that explore the 555 timer and its internals. These will demonstrate many of applications of the resistor. This is in no way an accusation of omission by Ralph. His target was the beginning maker, who wanted to progress from just blindly copying a circuit to, perhaps, making changes to that circuit , customising it to serve a different purpose than was the original intention. In this Ralph hit the bullseye right in the centre. Thank you Ralph.
Thank you for your positive comments, Michael, and thanks for pointing others to further resources where they can learn more. The more you know, the more you realise how little you actually know. Unless you really are a rocket scientist, I suppose. Whilst they say "a little knowledge is dangerous" it also enables makers to experiment more, in a meaningful manner. What's a little magic smoke escaping now and then between makers? (Think of my blown capacitor from a couple of weeks ago)!
@@RalphBacon Standby for take off...10...9...8..7... Well that's the limit of my rocket science. These Bacon bytes are so useful, Ralph. It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. thanks for finding the pleasant breeze even in the Covid tempest.
After a 35 year break, I'm falling in love with electronics again so these videos are a welcome refresher for me! One thing I would like to see is something about capacitor choice. When it is suggested you add a 100nF cap do they mean ceramic, poly, tantalum ? How do you choose!? Many thanks, Ralph.
If not specified any differently it's a ceramic one. I don't know if you can even get a tantalum in 100nF. Their point is usually to have high capacity. Compared to ceramic caps they are also quite "slow", so would partly fail in their job to smooth edges. PP/PET caps are not needed. They are usually in between ceramic (good with high frequencies) and electrolytics (high capacities).
From an Arduino perspective, most 100nF caps (used for decoupling, for example) are multilayer ceramic chip (MLCC) caps, called this even when of the through-hole variety. Cheap, small and readily available.
Another timely video Ralph! I'd long given up trying to read resistor colour bands. Like yourself retched eyesight!. Relied on good housekeeping and trusty multi-meter! I now realise unintentionally all the lead'd resistors I have are 5 colour band code'd. What a pain if you do try to read the code, so small you just cant work out which end to start from! There is just no gap between tolerance ring and the rest! (Off topic - By the way got my 555 project working on Breadboard. Attempting to simplify buy using 556's as it would need 4 555's)
Luckily (for me), Stephen, my eyesight is slowly improving and I can read the resistor colour code again (on a beige background, let's not mention the blue background ones). But, TBH it is generally recommended to double check the value before soldering with a multimeter - it takes seconds and can avoid lots of heartache (not to mention the magic smoke appearing). Glad you've got your 555 project up and running. I've use 556s before, it certainly makes it easier than using multiple 555s and only one VCC and GND to worry about!
Au fait definition is - to the point : well informed : socially competent. 1 day i'll have to make a stand for easy reading of resistor values, something were i push the switch to activate a digital ohmmeter and with the same hand hold the resistor against 2 contacts , and not go overboard with 4 rgb leds (at least) to show the value .
I can hold a resistor to the multimeter probes, adjust the power supply and drink a glass of chilled beer all whilst stroking Benny with my other hand. Easy. And I didn't lose two SMD components on my workbench this afternoon whilst building my External Watchdog Timer (untested). Nope, not me.
What is the name of the drawing program you are using. I like the way it seems to say, "he is drawing a triangle, I'll straighten it out for him". Thank you.
Great video Ralph - it's nice to get a wee refresher on the basics every now and then. I'd love to see your take on inductors - they are a hard concept to grasp (... and I still haven't 🤣)
Noted! I hadn't thought to do a video on inductors, Bruce, but now that you mention it I'll add it to the list. Having just used several ferrite beads (which are inductors, of course) in an Arduino project I guess there is a place for them.
I think you really should have also mentioned Ohms law V=IR. For me and maybe others, an extremely simple formula gives some knowledge foundation for formula transposing I=V/R R=V/I and other power type equations P = I^2R = VI = V^2/R etc
The triangle (wonky or not) is the simplest, proven way of letting beginners learn Ohm's law. 3 letters either divided or multiplied. This video was not aimed at either of you two!
Is there any way of having the volume of your voice me consistent throughout the video? Reason is I like to listen and fall asleep to these. NOT A BORING THING AT ALL. I often listen several times and view. Thanks Ralph
Keep listening and falling asleep, Mark. I studied like that, dictating whole essays into a tape recorder and then having it play back in the middle of the night. I could recite the merits of Shakespeare, Marlow, Owen and many more verbatim! Unfortunately, I still only got an average grade 😔
Exelent video, even if I am quite beyond this skill level, I find theese small videos quite entertaining, keep up the good work. I guess a lot of people find this useful. Looking forward to the continuasion of the AC fan control. And if I could come with a wish for a video, the IDE your using, instead of arduino IDE, why you use it and how to get started with it.
Thank you very much! My fan control components have arrived to I will progress that very soon. Regarding the IDE I use, whilst it is excellent (based on Eclipse but with lots of work done by jan baeyens to make it Arduino compatible), it is now obsolete. Jans has stopped development as he was not seeing a return on his investment. I can empathise with that (!) but he was asking $5 per month. If he had said $25 a year (approx) I would have signed up along with thousands more, I suspect. Or he could have had a basic version with other features unlocked with a reasonable payment. But Arduino are releasing their own new IDE based on Eclipse (hopefully this year, see my Alpha video on this) so that's where I will be migrating too, eventually.
A blue resistor body (as opposed to brown) is supposed to signify "flameproof", as in if you cook that guy he's not going to catch nearby stuff on fire.
I had to give away (to one of my TH-cam viewers) a whole bunch of blue-bodied resistors as I could not read the colour code with that background colour. Funnily enough, Maxx doesn't talk to me much these days 🤔
I rather liked the older dark brown body color that you used to see way back when. That light brown stuff makes the colors harder to read. Plus, there's often an ambiguity of what color is that exactly? You pointed to an orange band on one part and it looked red to me. I don't think those asian manufacturers are doing as well as they might in terms of their choices for what color paint to use, as I don't remember anything like that ambiguity way back when. But that's okay, I pretty much always have a meter handy when I'm salvaging parts...
I agree entirely, Roy. I don't remember having any difficulty recognising the colours used when I was much younger. Mind you, that might be my eyes not paint they are using! Before I had my left eye cataract done I was seeing two very different colours between the two eyes. Grey/Purple, Blue/Green. Weird.
Thank you for the video, clarifoes a lot about choosing a resistor value for each LED. But how to know the current and voltage drop of an LED? Would it be in the spec sheet? Or it's better to test it? I would be interested in knowing more of smd resistors and capacitors, land how to recognize them....
LEDs are so common that rule of thumb is that it will require in the order of 2v at a maximum of 20mA. However, I have some that require over 3v or just 2mA, which will change the resistor value considerably. Datasheets are good but your multimeter can help you determine the forward voltage drop of a diode and I use my TENMA bench PSU limited to 5mA, initially, to see what current it likes (and is bright enough). I might do a video on SMD components in general...
5 band are precision and or mil spec. the 5th is military tolerance band and the resistors are 1% tolerance you would only find such precision in test equipment such as Volt ohm meters and other such measuring equipment.
I am more annoyed by 1/4 watt being hard to find and 1/8 watt seems more common these days with surface mount through hole discrete components are becoming harder to find new.
Actually I would say the exact opposite is true as to what Ralph said. It is the beige 5% carbon film resistors with their poor temperature coefficient which are disappearing at least from my view. Even in cheap electronics from the far east you find more and more 1% resistors with 5 bands and blue bodies indicating metal film or metal oxide film resistors. I personally avoid 5% resistors because 1% are almost as cheap...
@@uwezimmermann5427 Totally agree. Not so much military spec anymore but becoming the norm. kudos to Ralf for another great video explanation. Big thumbs up.
Resistor color code poem. Blk, Brn, Red, Orange, Yel, Grn, Blu, Violet, Gray, White. Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gave Willingly. This makes it easier to remember.
Whatever works for you. But having a mnemonic means you don't _know_ the code by sight, you are working it out. Like speaking a foreign language by first translating it in your head from the English rather than being to speak it without doing that.
@@RalphBacon You are correct It was a starting point. I don't even have to think about decoding these days. 54 years of electronics tinkering kind of helps too.
@@RalphBacon Same here, I fixed my first (tube) radio at the ripe age of eight. I still don't bother with knowing the colors by sight, and at my age I just use a meter. Speaking of people who got started at the age of eight: th-cam.com/video/-Q29C5nc-9k/w-d-xo.html That's my roommate's middle child building her Harlequin ZX computer. :)
You may have figured this out by now, but... how do you represent a 5.36k 1% resistor? Prolly gonna want that forth band. I started my career in telecommunications where not only tight tolerances, but also long term drift played a part in continuing regulatory compliance. As part of a job interview I was once asked to read the colour codes of a 1% resistor, having never seen one before (remainder of that story requires beer :) can't say I'm sorry to see the end of those parts. I now only stock E6 values. All you really need in a digital world. Thanks again for a thought provoking video.
I think Ralph was trying to steer people towards using standard values, but he should have emphasised that a bit more. If you put "5.36Kohms, 1" on the BOM then PCBway will try to source that for you, and charge you accordingly. It might double the cost of the set up and manufacture. China can do *anything*, for a price.
"From an Arduino perspective". It's what I emphasise during the intro and in the video itself. In the Arduino world I have yet to see the need for 5.56K 1% resistor so the 4-band 5% colour coded resistors are more than adequate. When we get to the Arduino Uno XT-4Z in 2031 that can communicate anywhere in the universe via the newly discovered sub-space channels and that require 0.1% tolerance resistors I'll change my stance. 😂 If there ever is an Arduino/ESPXXX circuit that requires tight tolerance and specific values the maker will doubtless realise what it is. And it will be SMD anyway.
@@Chris_the_Muso I'm not even sure they make 1% SMT resistors. The types of circuits, where we used those tolerances, have long since been replaced with ASICs and digital signal processing technologies.
I have some SMD 1% resistors, but rather large at 1205. From what I can see the tighter the tolerance the larger the device, maybe that is required so the manufacturer can "trim" the value without reducing the power rating. I'm guessing.
Thanks, Ralph; that's another great video. I am also interested in how you draw your sketches and text. I think you're using MS Whiteboard but how do you write? I can't seem to manage that with a mouse; the writing is even worse than my handwriting! Suggestions for a reasonably priced setup would be great.
I suspect Ralph actually does use the mouse from some of the wonky drawings (not complaining, just an observation). Practice makes perfect, or at least improves your score. Try increasing the resolution of the mouse so the travel speed is much less. You might also want to turn off mouse acceleration since that will make it hard to get consistent results. Failing that, you might like to try a drawing tablet. You can get some small cheap ones now ( < $50) and they just plug into a USB port the same as any other input device. The more expensive ones aimed at graphic artists are larger and have features like pressure control for darkness or thickness, but you don't really need that for simple sketches. Google cheap "drawing tablets", or the usual suspects like Ebay/Banggood/Amazon etc. (Or visit your local electronics/computer store, I'm sure they'd be happy to help you but don't be surprised if they only have the more sophisticated ones for graphic artists). Some purpose built software can try to interpret your scratches and will make squares actually square, triangles into actual pointy things, and can even turn hand lettering into a computer font etc., but even with them it's best to be as accurate as you can be.
No mice were harmed in the production of my (wonky) drawings. I use a tablet and stylus that works with the Microsoft standard Whiteboard. I would rate the setup at 7/10. amzn.to/3hCqHIc
@@RalphBacon LOL, sorry Ralph. The XP-pen seems a bit expensive but I don't know if the cheap Chinese stuff is any good at all. I might have to try one. I did buy the Logitech T650 touchpad but it's not a tablet. The ultimate would have to be the graphic artist tools which combine both the monitor and the tablet so you get real size feedback under the pen, the same as you would using a pencil or brush on paper but they don't come cheap. ETA: just checked some prices and that seems about right actually. Funny, I thought they were cheaper than that.
This might be the cheaper option: www.amazon.com.au/Inspiroy-H640P-Graphics-Battery-Free-Sensitivity/dp/B075T6MTJX No I don't have one so I don't know how good it is.
The one I linked to cost about half of that price (about £20 IIRC) but it has gone up lately. It works pretty well. That's probably the reason for the price increase!
Does a beginner _need_ to know this? From an Arduino perspective? As you say, if you are already aware of _preferred values_ I'm guessing you are way beyond this video anyway.
Yes, I am, though I enjoy the presentation anyway. Your production values are way beyond so many other youtubers. I used to wonder, way back when, how they arrived at those "weird" values and how they arrived at those numbers.
But do you REALLY know them, Mark? By sight? If you do, I applaud you, not many make the effort (unless it's part of their day job, of course). To anyone else reading this, learn that table and then test yourself for a month. Then you too will know the resistor 4-band code by sight!
@@RalphBacon I would say that learning all the codes is awkward but learning the common ones is a good idea.... for everything else, there's test meters. I did learn an interesting trick from an electrician on how to find a short in a mains cable in a house, all by using resistance and cable information, length and some math. The builder was within 20 CM of the fault where the previous man on the job had caused a short where a nail went through the cable, he found the fault, dug it out and repaired it. Not with math but parts, etc... mainly because math can't control angry pixies or wrangle them. So... one question, has anyone put these colours to the test with a sight test for all types of colour blindness to see what they look like? I am sure there will be a few engineers out there who are colour blind.
Colour-blind electricians/electrical engineers do have (sometimes severe) problems. It depends on which colours they cannot see (blue/green/red) or whether they can still distinguish them.
@@RalphBacon or if they can see colour or if one or more colours are missing... You will be astounded as I was when I started researching eye conditions when my son was born as he had cataracts, was potentially blind, could have developed other eye problems like colour. Thats when I discovered a website on testing for accessibility as it is amazing how many sites simply become illegible when passed through a filter, you can get them as browser plugins, I had one but it was eating too much resources when run. It is though, the reason for the EU plug wiring colours we have.
I don't! It's not something I want to do, Ryan, really. But you can support my channel in other ways like following the affiliate links in my video description, even if you don't buy that item from the vendor. That enables me to keep this channel self financing. Nice of you to ask and I'm glad you liked the video.
Yes, you are right, Stig. Luckily for you then, SMD resistors have the value printed on them in either 4-band notation or 5-band notation. So a 10K resistor will either say 103 or 1002. Or you will unfortunately have to use a multimeter, which is what I recommend anyway, as we can all misread values sometimes (eg red vs orange, blue vs green, grey vs white).
@@r1273m That is the mnemonic that I learned in the early 70's. Only ever knew the 4 band system. I was quite dismayed about a year ago, when I started back into electronics as a hobby, that some committee of geniuses had seen fit to add more bands. I was at a loss as to how to read them. I agree with Ralph on that point.
I just learned the table verbatim. No mnemonics. So when I see an orange 3rd band I know it is in the tens of K. A red band means it is a value with a decimal point, such as 4K7. Yellow is 100's of K, Green megaohms and so on. A few months of this and it becomes second nature. Then again, I learned this when I was 14 years old so I've had a while! From an Arduino perspective there are values that crop up time and time again so they are the ones to concentrate on.
Electromotive Force was all _en vogue_ in about 1850, I believe, Fred. Probably still referred to in university courses. And @The Embedded Hobbyist, let's not confuse anyone with traditional current flow vs electron flow, Arduinites don't need to know this any more than you need to know how your car's clutch works.
@@RalphBacon I have to inform you I do know how my clutch works let us not digress into coefficient of friction, and for information I drive now an Automatic which has multiple clutches. LOL as to 1850 unlike good self I was not about to know that fact:-)
@Fred Ha ha! I have all the back copies going back to 1601. The term 'electricity' is derived from a term used by William Gilbert in 1600 to describe static electricity. The discovery that lightning is electrical was made by Benjamin Franklin in 1759. Electromotive force was coined by Alessandro Volta in the 1800s. See this page but read the question. Is that for real? Perhaps his/her iPhone runs on steam? scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=4026#:~:text=Answer%203%3A,by%20Benjamin%20Franklin%20in%201759.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
these little 'byte size' segments are a wonderful idea. hope you keep it up!
Glad you like them!
I was researching optocouplers last night and stumbled across your channel. What a great resource! Keep up the great work. Thanks.
Welcome aboard! And thank you for your kind words!
Great resource Ralph. Thank you very much! Yes, those darned BLUE resistors with the red and black bands mean NOTHING to me. I bought some for school and regretted it. Beige with the 4 bands is the way to go!
From your lips to my ears, Gord, I totally agree.
Dude these videos are incredible; I'm a complete beginner and you explain this stuff so well and so clearly. Thank you very much for these!
Glad you like them!
Resistance is Futile! so say the Borg.
But, your explanation leaves hope. Good Stuff!
Fingers crossed! I'll be testing you on the resistor colour code later...
And YET another brilliant video for the neophyte (greek for nooby). Now, arguably, the resistor is the simplest of the passive components. Ohms law tells us all we need about what this resistor is doing or what resistor we need for a particular purpose. However, the way resistors perform with or react to other passive (and active) components can be awesome. One resistor with another resistor can change the voltage. Another resistor but this time with a capacitor can change the time before a certain voltage can be reach (BTW this is on the 'O' level physics GCSE curriculum [for US: High School Sophomore physics]- so we aren't talking about rocket science). When coupled with active components resistors can have a plethora of different effects depending upon its position in the circuit. For those interested in expanding their grasp (not necessarily expertise) of many of the effects a resistor can bring to a circuit, take a look at one of the many tutorials (ralph's video #190 from a couple of weeks ago is a good start. Then take a look at Ben Eater's 555 timer - 8-bit computer clock - part [1 to2]) that explore the 555 timer and its internals. These will demonstrate many of applications of the resistor. This is in no way an accusation of omission by Ralph. His target was the beginning maker, who wanted to progress from just blindly copying a circuit to, perhaps, making changes to that circuit , customising it to serve a different purpose than was the original intention. In this Ralph hit the bullseye right in the centre. Thank you Ralph.
Thank you for your positive comments, Michael, and thanks for pointing others to further resources where they can learn more. The more you know, the more you realise how little you actually know. Unless you really are a rocket scientist, I suppose. Whilst they say "a little knowledge is dangerous" it also enables makers to experiment more, in a meaningful manner. What's a little magic smoke escaping now and then between makers? (Think of my blown capacitor from a couple of weeks ago)!
@@RalphBacon Standby for take off...10...9...8..7... Well that's the limit of my rocket science. These Bacon bytes are so useful, Ralph. It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. thanks for finding the pleasant breeze even in the Covid tempest.
After a 35 year break, I'm falling in love with electronics again so these videos are a welcome refresher for me!
One thing I would like to see is something about capacitor choice. When it is suggested you add a 100nF cap do they mean ceramic, poly, tantalum ? How do you choose!?
Many thanks, Ralph.
If not specified any differently it's a ceramic one. I don't know if you can even get a tantalum in 100nF. Their point is usually to have high capacity. Compared to ceramic caps they are also quite "slow", so would partly fail in their job to smooth edges. PP/PET caps are not needed. They are usually in between ceramic (good with high frequencies) and electrolytics (high capacities).
From an Arduino perspective, most 100nF caps (used for decoupling, for example) are multilayer ceramic chip (MLCC) caps, called this even when of the through-hole variety. Cheap, small and readily available.
Another timely video Ralph! I'd long given up trying to read resistor colour bands. Like yourself retched eyesight!. Relied on good housekeeping and trusty multi-meter! I now realise unintentionally all the lead'd resistors I have are 5 colour band code'd. What a pain if you do try to read the code, so small you just cant work out which end to start from! There is just no gap between tolerance ring and the rest! (Off topic - By the way got my 555 project working on Breadboard. Attempting to simplify buy using 556's as it would need 4 555's)
Luckily (for me), Stephen, my eyesight is slowly improving and I can read the resistor colour code again (on a beige background, let's not mention the blue background ones). But, TBH it is generally recommended to double check the value before soldering with a multimeter - it takes seconds and can avoid lots of heartache (not to mention the magic smoke appearing). Glad you've got your 555 project up and running. I've use 556s before, it certainly makes it easier than using multiple 555s and only one VCC and GND to worry about!
Au fait definition is - to the point : well informed : socially competent.
1 day i'll have to make a stand for easy reading of resistor values, something were i push the switch to activate a digital
ohmmeter and with the same hand hold the resistor against 2 contacts ,
and not go overboard with 4 rgb leds (at least) to show the value .
I can hold a resistor to the multimeter probes, adjust the power supply and drink a glass of chilled beer all whilst stroking Benny with my other hand. Easy. And I didn't lose two SMD components on my workbench this afternoon whilst building my External Watchdog Timer (untested). Nope, not me.
Another excellent chapter in your series on components!
Glad you like them!
What is the name of the drawing program you are using. I like the way it seems to say, "he is drawing a triangle, I'll straighten it out for him". Thank you.
I use a tablet and stylus that works with the Microsoft standard Whiteboard. I would rate the setup at 7/10.
amzn.to/3hCqHIc
Great video Ralph - it's nice to get a wee refresher on the basics every now and then. I'd love to see your take on inductors - they are a hard concept to grasp (... and I still haven't 🤣)
Noted! I hadn't thought to do a video on inductors, Bruce, but now that you mention it I'll add it to the list. Having just used several ferrite beads (which are inductors, of course) in an Arduino project I guess there is a place for them.
Thanks Ralph. Yet another excellent informative production. Btw please could let me know what sketching app/prog. you use in your videos (this one).
I use a tablet and stylus that works with the Microsoft standard Whiteboard. I would rate the setup at 7/10.
amzn.to/3hCqHIc
I think you really should have also mentioned Ohms law V=IR. For me and maybe others, an extremely simple formula gives some knowledge foundation for formula transposing I=V/R R=V/I and other power type equations P = I^2R = VI = V^2/R etc
I never understood how the weird triangle should be in any way helpful or more easy to use, if it is such a simple equation...
The triangle (wonky or not) is the simplest, proven way of letting beginners learn Ohm's law. 3 letters either divided or multiplied. This video was not aimed at either of you two!
Nice to see the j-fet with built-in pilot light poking out of your amplifier!
(edited for spelling)
Glad you like it!
Is there any way of having the volume of your voice me consistent throughout the video? Reason is I like to listen and fall asleep to these. NOT A BORING THING AT ALL. I often listen several times and view. Thanks Ralph
Have you tried The Archers? 😂😂😂
Keep listening and falling asleep, Mark. I studied like that, dictating whole essays into a tape recorder and then having it play back in the middle of the night. I could recite the merits of Shakespeare, Marlow, Owen and many more verbatim! Unfortunately, I still only got an average grade 😔
Exelent video, even if I am quite beyond this skill level, I find theese small videos quite entertaining, keep up the good work. I guess a lot of people find this useful. Looking forward to the continuasion of the AC fan control. And if I could come with a wish for a video, the IDE your using, instead of arduino IDE, why you use it and how to get started with it.
Thank you very much! My fan control components have arrived to I will progress that very soon.
Regarding the IDE I use, whilst it is excellent (based on Eclipse but with lots of work done by jan baeyens to make it Arduino compatible), it is now obsolete. Jans has stopped development as he was not seeing a return on his investment. I can empathise with that (!) but he was asking $5 per month. If he had said $25 a year (approx) I would have signed up along with thousands more, I suspect. Or he could have had a basic version with other features unlocked with a reasonable payment.
But Arduino are releasing their own new IDE based on Eclipse (hopefully this year, see my Alpha video on this) so that's where I will be migrating too, eventually.
This was EXCELLENT! Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent series, thank you very much
Glad you finding this enjoyable, Stephen!
Awesome, I've been hoping for this vid! Popcorn time :)
Hope you enjoyed it!
Ralph, you get my vote ! bloomin 5 band resistors, and to make matters worse they painted the body blue !...that was a seriously daft idea.
A blue resistor body (as opposed to brown) is supposed to signify "flameproof", as in if you cook that guy he's not going to catch nearby stuff on fire.
I had to give away (to one of my TH-cam viewers) a whole bunch of blue-bodied resistors as I could not read the colour code with that background colour. Funnily enough, Maxx doesn't talk to me much these days 🤔
I rather liked the older dark brown body color that you used to see way back when. That light brown stuff makes the colors harder to read. Plus, there's often an ambiguity of what color is that exactly? You pointed to an orange band on one part and it looked red to me. I don't think those asian manufacturers are doing as well as they might in terms of their choices for what color paint to use, as I don't remember anything like that ambiguity way back when. But that's okay, I pretty much always have a meter handy when I'm salvaging parts...
I agree entirely, Roy. I don't remember having any difficulty recognising the colours used when I was much younger. Mind you, that might be my eyes not paint they are using! Before I had my left eye cataract done I was seeing two very different colours between the two eyes. Grey/Purple, Blue/Green. Weird.
One of these days maybe I'll figure out an easy way to measure the exact colors... :-)
Thank you for the video, clarifoes a lot about choosing a resistor value for each LED. But how to know the current and voltage drop of an LED? Would it be in the spec sheet? Or it's better to test it? I would be interested in knowing more of smd resistors and capacitors, land how to recognize them....
LEDs are so common that rule of thumb is that it will require in the order of 2v at a maximum of 20mA. However, I have some that require over 3v or just 2mA, which will change the resistor value considerably. Datasheets are good but your multimeter can help you determine the forward voltage drop of a diode and I use my TENMA bench PSU limited to 5mA, initially, to see what current it likes (and is bright enough). I might do a video on SMD components in general...
@@RalphBacon , thanks for the clarification.
So damned helpful! I even learn things when I rewatch your videos, thank you so much (learning slowly, but I’m an ‘old dog’ so new tricks come slow)
I'm just glad I'm helping!
5 band are precision and or mil spec. the 5th is military tolerance band and the resistors are 1% tolerance you would only find such precision in test equipment such as Volt ohm meters and other such measuring equipment.
I am more annoyed by 1/4 watt being hard to find and 1/8 watt seems more common these days with surface mount through hole discrete components are becoming harder to find new.
I agree with you bout the blue body *those* are the 1/8 w i refer to unfortunately any adruino parts pack has those blue ones. :(
I have quite a few mil spec resisters and you need to know the NATO stock number to find out the value/
Actually I would say the exact opposite is true as to what Ralph said. It is the beige 5% carbon film resistors with their poor temperature coefficient which are disappearing at least from my view. Even in cheap electronics from the far east you find more and more 1% resistors with 5 bands and blue bodies indicating metal film or metal oxide film resistors. I personally avoid 5% resistors because 1% are almost as cheap...
@@uwezimmermann5427 Totally agree. Not so much military spec anymore but becoming the norm. kudos to Ralf for another great video explanation. Big thumbs up.
Resistor color code poem. Blk, Brn, Red, Orange, Yel, Grn, Blu, Violet, Gray, White. Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gave Willingly. This makes it easier to remember.
You forgot "Get Some Now" which equates to: Gold, Silver, No Color. Or 5%, 10%, and 20% of precision.
Whatever works for you. But having a mnemonic means you don't _know_ the code by sight, you are working it out. Like speaking a foreign language by first translating it in your head from the English rather than being to speak it without doing that.
@@RalphBacon You are correct It was a starting point. I don't even have to think about decoding these days. 54 years of electronics tinkering kind of helps too.
Just 54 years? You think that helps? 😂😂😂 I still get stuck at the tens of megaohms as they are so rare. I think WTH is _that_ value??!!
@@RalphBacon Same here, I fixed my first (tube) radio at the ripe age of eight. I still don't bother with knowing the colors by sight, and at my age I just use a meter.
Speaking of people who got started at the age of eight: th-cam.com/video/-Q29C5nc-9k/w-d-xo.html
That's my roommate's middle child building her Harlequin ZX computer. :)
You may have figured this out by now, but... how do you represent a 5.36k 1% resistor? Prolly gonna want that forth band. I started my career in telecommunications where not only tight tolerances, but also long term drift played a part in continuing regulatory compliance. As part of a job interview I was once asked to read the colour codes of a 1% resistor, having never seen one before (remainder of that story requires beer :) can't say I'm sorry to see the end of those parts. I now only stock E6 values. All you really need in a digital world.
Thanks again for a thought provoking video.
I think Ralph was trying to steer people towards using standard values, but he should have emphasised that a bit more. If you put "5.36Kohms, 1" on the BOM then PCBway will try to source that for you, and charge you accordingly. It might double the cost of the set up and manufacture. China can do *anything*, for a price.
"From an Arduino perspective". It's what I emphasise during the intro and in the video itself. In the Arduino world I have yet to see the need for 5.56K 1% resistor so the 4-band 5% colour coded resistors are more than adequate.
When we get to the Arduino Uno XT-4Z in 2031 that can communicate anywhere in the universe via the newly discovered sub-space channels and that require 0.1% tolerance resistors I'll change my stance. 😂
If there ever is an Arduino/ESPXXX circuit that requires tight tolerance and specific values the maker will doubtless realise what it is. And it will be SMD anyway.
@@RalphBacon true enough. That's why I'm happy with my 20% tolerance parts.
@@Chris_the_Muso I'm not even sure they make 1% SMT resistors. The types of circuits, where we used those tolerances, have long since been replaced with ASICs and digital signal processing technologies.
I have some SMD 1% resistors, but rather large at 1205. From what I can see the tighter the tolerance the larger the device, maybe that is required so the manufacturer can "trim" the value without reducing the power rating. I'm guessing.
Excellent video as always but since when did VIOLET (VIRGINS in the now unacceptable acronym) become PURPLE? Bob
I'm not even sure what the colour difference is between the two. Is violet more vibrant than purple? I'm thinking of flowers not resistors here.
Thanks, Ralph; that's another great video. I am also interested in how you draw your sketches and text. I think you're using MS Whiteboard but how do you write? I can't seem to manage that with a mouse; the writing is even worse than my handwriting! Suggestions for a reasonably priced setup would be great.
I suspect Ralph actually does use the mouse from some of the wonky drawings (not complaining, just an observation). Practice makes perfect, or at least improves your score. Try increasing the resolution of the mouse so the travel speed is much less. You might also want to turn off mouse acceleration since that will make it hard to get consistent results. Failing that, you might like to try a drawing tablet. You can get some small cheap ones now ( < $50) and they just plug into a USB port the same as any other input device. The more expensive ones aimed at graphic artists are larger and have features like pressure control for darkness or thickness, but you don't really need that for simple sketches. Google cheap "drawing tablets", or the usual suspects like Ebay/Banggood/Amazon etc. (Or visit your local electronics/computer store, I'm sure they'd be happy to help you but don't be surprised if they only have the more sophisticated ones for graphic artists).
Some purpose built software can try to interpret your scratches and will make squares actually square, triangles into actual pointy things, and can even turn hand lettering into a computer font etc., but even with them it's best to be as accurate as you can be.
No mice were harmed in the production of my (wonky) drawings. I use a tablet and stylus that works with the Microsoft standard Whiteboard. I would rate the setup at 7/10.
amzn.to/3hCqHIc
@@RalphBacon LOL, sorry Ralph.
The XP-pen seems a bit expensive but I don't know if the cheap Chinese stuff is any good at all. I might have to try one. I did buy the Logitech T650 touchpad but it's not a tablet. The ultimate would have to be the graphic artist tools which combine both the monitor and the tablet so you get real size feedback under the pen, the same as you would using a pencil or brush on paper but they don't come cheap.
ETA: just checked some prices and that seems about right actually. Funny, I thought they were cheaper than that.
This might be the cheaper option: www.amazon.com.au/Inspiroy-H640P-Graphics-Battery-Free-Sensitivity/dp/B075T6MTJX
No I don't have one so I don't know how good it is.
The one I linked to cost about half of that price (about £20 IIRC) but it has gone up lately. It works pretty well. That's probably the reason for the price increase!
One thing you didn't touch on here was "preferred values", and why some of them are so weird There's a wikipedia page on that, I think.
Does a beginner _need_ to know this? From an Arduino perspective? As you say, if you are already aware of _preferred values_ I'm guessing you are way beyond this video anyway.
Yes, I am, though I enjoy the presentation anyway. Your production values are way beyond so many other youtubers. I used to wonder, way back when, how they arrived at those "weird" values and how they arrived at those numbers.
Great!
Glad you like it, James.
(In a Neo Matrix Dojo scene) ..... "I now know resistor codes..."
But do you REALLY know them, Mark? By sight? If you do, I applaud you, not many make the effort (unless it's part of their day job, of course). To anyone else reading this, learn that table and then test yourself for a month. Then you too will know the resistor 4-band code by sight!
@@RalphBacon I would say that learning all the codes is awkward but learning the common ones is a good idea.... for everything else, there's test meters.
I did learn an interesting trick from an electrician on how to find a short in a mains cable in a house, all by using resistance and cable information, length and some math.
The builder was within 20 CM of the fault where the previous man on the job had caused a short where a nail went through the cable, he found the fault, dug it out and repaired it. Not with math but parts, etc... mainly because math can't control angry pixies or wrangle them.
So... one question, has anyone put these colours to the test with a sight test for all types of colour blindness to see what they look like? I am sure there will be a few engineers out there who are colour blind.
Colour-blind electricians/electrical engineers do have (sometimes severe) problems. It depends on which colours they cannot see (blue/green/red) or whether they can still distinguish them.
@@RalphBacon or if they can see colour or if one or more colours are missing... You will be astounded as I was when I started researching eye conditions when my son was born as he had cataracts, was potentially blind, could have developed other eye problems like colour. Thats when I discovered a website on testing for accessibility as it is amazing how many sites simply become illegible when passed through a filter, you can get them as browser plugins, I had one but it was eating too much resources when run.
It is though, the reason for the EU plug wiring colours we have.
I wonder what the UK did for electricians before our new, improved wiring scheme. I wonder how many were reversed (or worse!)
Thanks for the video. Do you have a Patreon?
I don't! It's not something I want to do, Ryan, really. But you can support my channel in other ways like following the affiliate links in my video description, even if you don't buy that item from the vendor. That enables me to keep this channel self financing. Nice of you to ask and I'm glad you liked the video.
Nothing wrong with needing to meeter to find out her capacity!
Indeed. Always double check to be sure. I do it all the time.
Thanks for sharing 😁
Trust me when I tell you that color coding is not easy when you are color blind 😞
Yes, you are right, Stig. Luckily for you then, SMD resistors have the value printed on them in either 4-band notation or 5-band notation. So a 10K resistor will either say 103 or 1002. Or you will unfortunately have to use a multimeter, which is what I recommend anyway, as we can all misread values sometimes (eg red vs orange, blue vs green, grey vs white).
There is the mnemonic that I learned: Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Plan Goes Wrong
So you use PURPLE and not VIOLET. Maybe it's an age thing. I remember when resistors had BODY, BAND and SPOT for colours.
@@r1273m That is the mnemonic that I learned in the early 70's. Only ever knew the 4 band system. I was quite dismayed about a year ago, when I started back into electronics as a hobby, that some committee of geniuses had seen fit to add more bands. I was at a loss as to how to read them. I agree with Ralph on that point.
I just learned the table verbatim. No mnemonics. So when I see an orange 3rd band I know it is in the tens of K. A red band means it is a value with a decimal point, such as 4K7. Yellow is 100's of K, Green megaohms and so on. A few months of this and it becomes second nature. Then again, I learned this when I was 14 years old so I've had a while! From an Arduino perspective there are values that crop up time and time again so they are the ones to concentrate on.
Bad Boys Rape Only Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly
Probably not PC nowadays but how I earned it back in the day.
Damn nobody uses Eletromotive force any more I was always taught E/I =R :-) bloody volta had a lot to answer for:-)
And we all forget that electrons flow from negative to positive.
Electromotive Force was all _en vogue_ in about 1850, I believe, Fred. Probably still referred to in university courses. And @The Embedded Hobbyist, let's not confuse anyone with traditional current flow vs electron flow, Arduinites don't need to know this any more than you need to know how your car's clutch works.
@@RalphBacon I have to inform you I do know how my clutch works let us not digress into coefficient of friction, and for information I drive now an Automatic which has multiple clutches. LOL as to 1850 unlike good self I was not about to know that fact:-)
@@RalphBacon I forgot I do not have that edition 1850 of vogue magazine I didn't know it was an electronics magazine :-)
@Fred Ha ha! I have all the back copies going back to 1601. The term 'electricity' is derived from a term used by William Gilbert in 1600 to describe static electricity. The discovery that lightning is electrical was made by Benjamin Franklin in 1759. Electromotive force was coined by Alessandro Volta in the 1800s. See this page but read the question. Is that for real? Perhaps his/her iPhone runs on steam? scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=4026#:~:text=Answer%203%3A,by%20Benjamin%20Franklin%20in%201759.
Wondering if the sponsors are pushing this short format
Nope. First two videos in this series were not sponsored. I asked the wonderful PCBWay if they were interested and they said Yes.
Big fan, I prefer the longer format. I've learned a lot from watching your videos, thank you for them.
I'm really happy that my videos are helping you. Keep tuned!