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I've just bought a bag of random resistors from Maplin, and can't work out which way round the six band ones should be read.

For instance I have one which is either:

Violet Orange Red Brown Brown Red

or

Red Brown Brown Red Orange Violet

The red band at either the right or left appears thicker than the others.

Can anybody point me to somewhere with a clear explanation (or provide one themselves) as searching on Google isn't finding me anything lucid.

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2 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

The folks at itll.colorado.edu have a resistor chart that includes how to read 6 Band Resistors. You should start with the thick band. You can always test with a Multimeter too!

Resistor Chart

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Cheers, I think I may print out this picture to keep next to my work area. – Amos Nov 2 '09 at 9:31
The diagram appears to have moved to itll.colorado.edu/index.php/electronics_center/resistor_chart – Amos Jun 5 '10 at 18:48
Thanks Amos! I've updated the link ;-) – littlebirdceo Jun 9 '10 at 7:29
@littlebirdceo - I've updated it once again, its home is now i.stack.imgur.com/CTxAU.png until Stack Exchange goes kaput. – Kevin Vermeer♦ Mar 12 at 5:02
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up vote 3 down vote

The Gold or Silver band is always set to the right, then you read from left to right. Sometimes there will be no tolerance band -- Simply find the side that has a band closest to a lead and make that the first band." [1]. Also, usually you'll see one band off by itself, that is the tolerance band.

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Unfortunately if you look at the colours I listed above there are no Gold or Silver bands. Would red being the thickest band (most of the others are the same-ish size) signify it as the temperature band? – Amos Nov 2 '09 at 9:25
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