Hello all !

Although I've always been able to interpet schematics with no problem before now - there are some now beginning to appear that have component identifications I am unfamiliar with.

For Instance: On one schematic there are capacitors marked as "47n" which I'm pretty sure means 47 nanofarads - but others marked "4n7" which I have not a clue what that means.

On the same schematic there are resistor values marked as "3k3" and "1k8" that I don't understand. I know "3k" means 3000 ohms - but what does "3k3" mean? Also one marked "270R". Is this supposed to mean 270 ohms? If so, why the "R" when other resistors on the schematic do not have the "R".

I feel suddenly very stupid seeing these designations - like I have been in a dark hole somewhere and am no longer able to understand. I hope someone will take pity on me and try to explain these designations I've not seen before.

Thanks for your consideration and patience with what may seem to be a very stupid question.

Don H

 

3k3 stands for 3300 sorta like 2k5 means 2005 in the year that we are in. Hope this is correct lol and no questions are ever stupid...thx l8er

-fire

 

Originally posted by Firestorm@Mar 10 2005, 10:59 PM
3k3 stands for 3300 sorta like 2k5 means 2005 in the year that we are in. Hope this is correct lol and no questions are ever stupid...thx l8er

-fire

[post=5980]Quoted post[/post]​

Thanks, Firestorm !
I guess that makes sense. Just never saw values written that way before. So then, "4n7" would mean 4.7 nanofarads? And would it follow that "270R" - means just plain 270 ohms?

It seems that learning this was about learning what "BRB" and "LOL" and "CUL8R" meant, huh? A "shorthand" way of writing this stuff......

If anyone sees this is incorrect, please leave a message. Meanwhile, time to get out the old "breadboard".

Best to all !
Don H

 

The convention was introduced many years ago to reduce the possibility of mis-reading printed values.

The reason being that the decimal point could be overlooked or even missing if the printing is crappy.

Same goes for second, or more, generation photo-copies which can suffer from spots all over the place.