Thanks to all: RE: Jim Weir's - October 2000 (Understanding LED lamp indicators)

[dwbauer]

My appreciation, and thanks to all who responded. Thanks to Jim for
supplying the circuit on his website. I finally got it to work, (I had
placed 180K resistors in parallel with the LED instead of 180 ohm
resistors). I suppose like everything else; It's all in the details. There
are many useful circuits on Jim's site, even if you are not a flyer. Have
fun in doing whatever ya'll do.
Thanks Again;
Don Bauer

[GeorgeB]

On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 13:48:27 -0400, "dwbauer" >
wrote:

>placed 180K resistors in parallel with the LED instead of 180 ohm

brown and orange do look alike with the paints lots of the
manufacturers use, ESPECIALLY when they are not viewed side-by-side.

Glad you got it working!

[Smitty]

In article >,
GeorgeB > wrote:

> On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 13:48:27 -0400, "dwbauer" >
> wrote:
>
> >placed 180K resistors in parallel with the LED instead of 180 ohm
>
> brown and orange do look alike with the paints lots of the
> manufacturers use, ESPECIALLY when they are not viewed side-by-side.
>
> Glad you got it working!

Yep, that old color code can be troublesome. Now that I think about it,
wouldn't the last value stripe on a 180K be yellow? Unless we're talking
precision (1%, 4 stripe) resistors, in which case it would be orange all
right, but then the 180 ohm would end in black.

A charitable offer, but I don't think this was a case of color confusion.

[RST Engineering]

No, the 18 ohm would end in black (one plus eight multiplied by ten to the
zero) but the 180 ohm would end in brown (one plus eight multiplied by ten
to the one).

Jim



> wouldn't the last value stripe on a 180K be yellow? Unless we're talking
> precision (1%, 4 stripe) resistors, in which case it would be orange all
> right, but then the 180 ohm would end in black.
>

[Smitty]

In article >,
"RST Engineering" > wrote:

> No, the 18 ohm would end in black (one plus eight multiplied by ten to the
> zero) but the 180 ohm would end in brown (one plus eight multiplied by ten
> to the one).
>
> Jim
>
>
>
> > wouldn't the last value stripe on a 180K be yellow? Unless we're talking
> > precision (1%, 4 stripe) resistors, in which case it would be orange all
> > right, but then the 180 ohm would end in black.
> >

JIm, you're a fine engineer, and I believe it was your product that the
OP referenced, but I've worked with the color code for a living every
day for twenty years. Perhaps I didn't state my case clearly, and we
aren't disagreeing about colors but just not communicating clearly.

Standard color code, two significant digits plus multiplier:

180 K brown, gray, yellow
180 ohm brown, gray, brown


Precision resistors, three significant digits plus multiplier:

180 K brown, gray, black, orange
180 ohm brown, gray, black, black


The respondent who offered the OP a diplomatic excuse for the mixup
opined that it was easy to confuse brown and orange on certain
background colors. Neither the standard nor the four-stripe code offers
an opportunity for that confusion. The man who built the thing used the
wrong resistors and admitted it. All I'm saying is, his error wasn't
based on a case of indistinguishable colors.

[RST Engineering]

Oh, OK. Now I see what you are saying...the 1% four stripers would end in
black (true) but the wrong value would end in orange for the 1% series. I
agree with that.

Jim

"Smitty" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,

> JIm, you're a fine engineer, and I believe it was your product that the
> OP referenced, but I've worked with the color code for a living every
> day for twenty years. Perhaps I didn't state my case clearly, and we
> aren't disagreeing about colors but just not communicating clearly.
> Precision resistors, three significant digits plus multiplier:
>
> 180 K brown, gray, black, orange
> 180 ohm brown, gray, black, black