Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [colour-coding]

Colour coding is about using choosing colours to indicate different things such as the function of wires in a cable or the the resistance value of a PTH resistor.

One of the most common colour codings is for power connections:

Red = +
Black = -

Resistor colour codes:

enter image description here

USB cable usually has the following colours:

Red = +V
White = D-
Green = D+
Black = Ground

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Headphone wire color coding

How do I tell which wire is which if I have a copper wire, red and green coded wire? Is the unshielded copper wire ground?
stanigator
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Just chopped a cable, is red power, black ground?

I've just chopped a usb to micro-b usb cable. There are 4 small wires inside Red Black White Green Isn't it universal that Red is power and black is ground?
Jason94
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Resistors with ends of the same colour

I know the values of resistors if they are gold-colored at the end. When both ends are the same, such as brown-o-p-brown and red-x-y-z-red, I am in problems. How to know which side has the last colour and which side is the starting end?
hhh
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What is a good methodology to identify small SMD components?

Having been in the position of trying to identify a strip of mystery 0603 components I found on my floor, I thought a good general question to pose to this community might be what a recommended set of steps could be to identify similar unknown…
DanSut
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What is the color code for CAN Bus?

I would like to know if there is any color code specified for CAN Bus communication wiring, maybe in ISO-11898-1? (I have no free access to the file) I looked for any official documents without any luck. When I asked to my colleagues about it, they…
ErnstOlch
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What do the colors of resistor bodies mean?

I don't mean the colored bands, but the colors of the bodies themselves. They come in brown, blue, green, etc. Is there a standard? For instance, epanorama says: But there are two resistor body colors which you should know what they need if youre…
endolith
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Purpose of resistor colour code

What would be the purpose of using a colour code for resistors instead of just printing their values?
Chuck
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Phasing Order in IEC Color Codes

Currently, IEC 60445 international standard is used for conductor terminal color identifications. I've obtained different versions of the standard (2017 being the latest) and also IEC 60446, which was replaced. In the recent versions of all of these…
obareey
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Why does this resistor not exist?

I have a 5W 5-banded resistor that shouldn't exist according to the color code chart and I've never come across this before. The color bands are brown, green, silver, gold, black. Now looking at it in both directions it's not a part of the logical…
Z Ack
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Australian 3-Phase Colour Code Standard

We're ordering some machinery from China and need it manufactured to Australian electrical standards including the wiring colour code. Unfortunately we don't have any electricians or engineers that work here (I'm an engineering student) and online…
Seano
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SMD precision resistor color code (0805)?

We have specified some 0805 resistors to be 0.2ppm/C. On some boards/batches these are green. On others more "normal" looking. We specified Vishay. Is there some color code that indicates ultra-precision packages? We have noticed different…
Dirk Bruere
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What is the right-most component in this picture?

I'm reverse engineering an old RF transmitter circuit and I can't seem to figure out if the right-most component is a 3 band resistor (+/- 20%) or a capacitor (as the label on the board would indicate). If it is a resistor, my best guess is that…
Yoshiyahu
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Value of 5-band resistor (current sense)

I have some blown current sense resistor and I don't know how to figure out the value of it. Resistor is blown so I cannot measure it. Well, I know about standard rules, unfortunately none I know applies to this. Color bands are quite…
Chupacabras
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Red for +ve, black for 0v, ...which colour for -ve rail?

I'm bodging together a bench PSU from an old server PSU, about to order a mixed bag of terminal posts for the front panel but then tripped over the problem that I'm not sure what's the correct or most common colour to use for the -ve rail on a…
John U
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Determine of the colour of laser

I am currently working on a project which requires the the circuit to perform specific task if a specific colour of laser is detected (something like a basic remote control). Is there a sensor or a way to make LDRs sensitive to only one colour of…
Aadarsh Ganesh Goenka
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