Resistor Color Coder

Resistor Color Coder is a utility designed to help Electrical engineers in deciphering the color codes on four- or five-band leaded-type resistors, as well as the markings on SM resistors.

The utility will display the resistor values and tolerances, depending on the selected code.

In electronics, the color code appears on electronic components, such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, and others elements of electric circuits, and it indicates the values and ratings of these components. Usually, there are four color bands, where the first two each stand for numeric values, the third indicates the multiplier, and the fourth represents the tolerance of the component. When there is also a fifth band, it refers to the component failure rate. This program makes it easier to read the values represented on resistors with the use of this color code, allowing the user to select colors for each band, and return the result of the decoding.

Aside from interpreting the color code, the utility can also decode the three-digit or four-digit code on SM resistors. Three marking types are decoded by the SMD Markings Evaluator: standard three- or four-digit markings, the EIA-96 marking method on 1% types, and markings on 2, 5 and 10% types.
A list of standard resistance values for E-series is also included in the application.

All in all, this utility should prove especially useful for helping Electrical engineers more quickly read and interpret resistor values and tolerances, but it will very likely not appeal too much to average users.