Component identification - resistors? [solved]

Thread Starter

Jorne

Joined Feb 28, 2020
22
I have some old electronic components that I got from someone who repaired TV's, radio's...
I assumed these were resistors, but the measured resistance doesn't match with the color code.

  • For the ones with the brown body (see picture), I have two of them with the color code green-blue-red-silver which should be 5.6 kOhm but they measure 3.3 kOhm...
  • For the ones with the greyish body (see picture), I have two of them with the color code yellow-purple-yellow-silver which should be 470 kOhm but they measure 250 kOhm... Also, they have a sign on them: a triangle with an omega symbol inside

So maybe they are not resistors after all...? Or perhaps they are just old and damaged.
 

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dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,846
Literature I've read said that resistance tended to increase with age. That could be interpreted to mean that it can also decrease.

The change is dependent on hours used, and operating temperature.
 

BobaMosfet

Joined Jul 1, 2009
2,110
I have some old electronic components that I got from someone who repaired TV's, radio's...
I assumed these were resistors, but the measured resistance doesn't match with the color code.

  • For the ones with the brown body (see picture), I have two of them with the color code green-blue-red-silver which should be 5.6 kOhm but they measure 3.3 kOhm...
  • For the ones with the greyish body (see picture), I have two of them with the color code yellow-purple-yellow-silver which should be 470 kOhm but they measure 250 kOhm... Also, they have a sign on them: a triangle with an omega symbol inside

So maybe they are not resistors after all...? Or perhaps they are just old and damaged.
Make sure these are not inductors. Body color dark brownish could mean axial inductor. Are you sure that's grey and not 'yellow'? Capacitors, Resistors, and Inductors can all be colored coded this way- and there are military versions as well. If the resistance you measure, on a quality DVM doesn't match the bands, and the resistor isn't damaged (burnt/hole-chunk blow out/etc)- it's not a resistor. Resistors don't lose a lot of value in aging if they are solid material or wire-wound.
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,717
Maybe the ohmmeter is telling you something, i.e. the resistance value does not match the color code.
Make sure that you are not touching the ohmmeter leads with your fingers while making the measurements.
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,846
The brown resistors look like they're film to me. The others could be carbon comp, but I've never seen any that had rounded ends.
 

Thread Starter

Jorne

Joined Feb 28, 2020
22
Hello all,

Today I discovered the culprit, the 9V battery inside my digital multimeter... It needs to be replaced.
I measured the resistors with another digital multimeter and the resistance matches the color code very well.

Lesson learned: If your digital multimeter shows resistance values that are doubtful, make sure the battery is still good!

Nevertheless, thank you all for your responses :)
 
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