04-05-2021, 10:12 AM
There's so much variety in electronic components, and even very experienced people can get caught out occasionally. For example, film resistors have the "dogbone shape" because of the metal end caps:
https://res.cloudinary.com/rsc/image/upl...0-01?pgw=1&pgwact=1
But I remember being initially confused by these:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e1/67/4e/...1dfebc.jpg
Which are carbon film, but don't have the bulges at the end. If you hold them at the right angle, you'll be able to see the spiral cut into the film. I bought a large box of these from an auction at uni about 30 years ago and almost forgot about them, but now I use them as a period-appropriate replacement for carbon-comp resistor in transistor radios.
Have a look at the resistors on this board: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RmX0J5gCH7Q/Ta...mp-top.jpg
I can't immediately remember the name for them - if I could, I'd perhaps be able to find a better image - but I remember being very confused when I first saw these in an old car radio. In my defence, I was only 9 or 10! The PCB didn't have a silk-screen - unlike the Hacker Hunter shown in that image - but there wasn't anything else they could be, so I deduced that they had to be resistors. I didn't have a multimeter by this point.
The Erie caps Amie mentions are also fun. She might have been referring to a different type, but the ones I immediately think of are the ones with pre-formed legs. The body colour was a strong clue for me - I was already familiar with the colours used for the resistors, and some of the caps had the value printed rather than colour coded:
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/atta...ntid=74303&d=1356354571
Another variation is shown in the Hacker Hunter image above - in red, just above R7 and R9.
As for the resistors, I recycled a lot of those when I was a kid. I can't explain why, but I really liked the way they looked.
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/atta...ntid=74199&d=1356114833
The light beige ones were the most common, and were 10% carbon comp, but there were some in shades of green that were also carbon-comp (sometimes 20%). But note the green one furthest from the camera, just in front of the larger 33k. Although it's not really possible to see from the photo, that one is actually a carbon film. In the flesh, you can see the spiral through the paint. I had loads of these in a broken Metrosound amplifier and re-used lots of them in projects - Hacker used them in the Sovereign III and related sets. They're nice. One problem that can affect all of these resistors and caps with the pre-formed legs/end caps: the caps can break. It's often an invisible - or near-invisible - crack in the metal that causes all sorts of random stuff.
(Picture credit - the last two came from "Dazzlevision" on UKVRRR: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/show...hp?t=91511)
When it comes to component identification, and especially with capacitors, a picture says a thousand words
https://res.cloudinary.com/rsc/image/upl...0-01?pgw=1&pgwact=1
But I remember being initially confused by these:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e1/67/4e/...1dfebc.jpg
Which are carbon film, but don't have the bulges at the end. If you hold them at the right angle, you'll be able to see the spiral cut into the film. I bought a large box of these from an auction at uni about 30 years ago and almost forgot about them, but now I use them as a period-appropriate replacement for carbon-comp resistor in transistor radios.
Have a look at the resistors on this board: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RmX0J5gCH7Q/Ta...mp-top.jpg
I can't immediately remember the name for them - if I could, I'd perhaps be able to find a better image - but I remember being very confused when I first saw these in an old car radio. In my defence, I was only 9 or 10! The PCB didn't have a silk-screen - unlike the Hacker Hunter shown in that image - but there wasn't anything else they could be, so I deduced that they had to be resistors. I didn't have a multimeter by this point.
The Erie caps Amie mentions are also fun. She might have been referring to a different type, but the ones I immediately think of are the ones with pre-formed legs. The body colour was a strong clue for me - I was already familiar with the colours used for the resistors, and some of the caps had the value printed rather than colour coded:
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/atta...ntid=74303&d=1356354571
Another variation is shown in the Hacker Hunter image above - in red, just above R7 and R9.
As for the resistors, I recycled a lot of those when I was a kid. I can't explain why, but I really liked the way they looked.
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/atta...ntid=74199&d=1356114833
The light beige ones were the most common, and were 10% carbon comp, but there were some in shades of green that were also carbon-comp (sometimes 20%). But note the green one furthest from the camera, just in front of the larger 33k. Although it's not really possible to see from the photo, that one is actually a carbon film. In the flesh, you can see the spiral through the paint. I had loads of these in a broken Metrosound amplifier and re-used lots of them in projects - Hacker used them in the Sovereign III and related sets. They're nice. One problem that can affect all of these resistors and caps with the pre-formed legs/end caps: the caps can break. It's often an invisible - or near-invisible - crack in the metal that causes all sorts of random stuff.
(Picture credit - the last two came from "Dazzlevision" on UKVRRR: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/show...hp?t=91511)
When it comes to component identification, and especially with capacitors, a picture says a thousand words
