Posted on Sunday, 2nd May 2010 by Auw Jimmy

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After reading my article about finding out capacitor inner-outer foil, some of my readers asked me to do the similar test on the resistor. Well, technically speaker, resistor shouldn’t have any inner or outer foil, since most likely it’s a piece of carbon or wire on the ceramic core. But let’s see the testing result. On this simple session, I used Kiwame (Carbon Film Resistor) and Mills (Wirewound). I also have some Riken or Shinkoh, but not really available in many values. For Kiwame, I used 1M, 470K, 100K, and 2K2. For Mills, I picked one value, 22K.

1 MegaOhm readings below showed 332 mV.

If I reversed the orientation, it read 248 mV.

470 KOhm readings was 200 mV.

If I reversed it, we got 132 mV.

Getting lower, I tried 100 KOhm. We got around 59 mV.

If I reversed it, we got around 52 mV.

I went even lower to 22 KOhm with Mills. I got 57 mV readings.

Again, let’s switched the orientation and we got 52 mV readings.

Now we went even lower to 2K2 Ohm, back to Kiwame again. The first readings showed 7.4 mV.

If I reversed it, I got 7 mV.

Some conclusion from my own is:

  • I rarely see any resistor marks the in and out orientation.
  • The larger the resistance (for the same resistor) the larger also the different between one side and the other (on 1 MegaOhm resistor, the different was between 332 vs 248 mV, while on the 100 KOhm resistor, we got 59 vs 52 mV only).
  • Just like the capacitor, different type (structure, design, material, etc) may have different noise level (as you can see on the test above, 100 KOhm Kiwame has similar noise with 22 KOhm Mills, one was Carbon Film while the other was Wirewound).
  • Can I ignore those resistors orientation? For most value, around 100 KOhm, I think the different is so small to be noticed. But if you are a perfectionist, you better measure it one by one – at your own pain of course ;)

Here is some of my collections used for the testing purpose.



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Posted in DIY Audio | Comments (27)

27 Responses to “Resistor Orientation on the Oscilloscope”

  1. Dino Ary Says:
    May 3rd, 2010 at 16:17

    Yippeee….
    Uncle Jimmy and his new toy!!..Haahaa…
    Moga2 jadi tambah kaya websitenya Oom!
    Selamat…!!



  2. Jimmy Auw Says:
    May 3rd, 2010 at 20:43

    Thanks Kumendan! :)
    Iseng2 aja sich hehehe.



  3. pamuji Says:
    May 6th, 2010 at 07:42

    Dear pak Jimmy,
    Saya pengen tahu bedanya Rikken vs Takman secara alat ukur, krn Takman ini dibilang lebih bagus untuk audio menurut infonya (suara lebih refined)..
    Selamat atas observasinya dengan mainannya..
    Many thanks



  4. Jimmy Auw Says:
    May 6th, 2010 at 11:30

    Halo Pak Pam,
    Kalo resistor rasanya sulit dilihat faktor suara via alat ukur. Jadi ya the best way is to hear it.
    Thanks.



  5. eherdian Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 00:33

    Pak Jimmy,

    sy sudah pernah coba orientasi resistor mulai dr dale, riken, takman, mills, KOA, kiwame, semuanya menunjukan perbedaan kok, misalnya pada dale, searah arah baca suaranya lebih tegas, kalau dibalik suaranya jd lebih sweet dan airy, jd sy kalau mau upgrade sy selalu coba2 2 orientasi, mana yg lebh cocok.
    @ pak Pamuji, sejauh yg sy coba suara riken tetep lebih maknyus buat telinga sy, takman carbon beberapa kali sy notice membuat suara female vocal agak sedikit “hard”
    boleh coba kalo ada dana lebih ke Vishay TX2575
    yahuud banget



  6. Jimmy Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 09:33

    Who would have thought it!!



  7. Anonymous Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 17:07

    Pak Eherdian, bagaimana dengan Tantalum?

    Salam,
    Arie



  8. eherdian Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 21:52

    Pak Arie,
    untuk tantalum yg pernah di jajal shinkoh ma audionote, karakter suaranya lebih condong ke vocal yang sweet dan analog, ttp (menurut sy) terlalu over ke vocal, untuk shinkoh, bassnya agak kedodoran,tp highnya airy bgt, audionote bassnya lebih tight,kurang airy, tp sy lbh cocok suara audionote sampai akhirnya ketemu dg TX2575..
    suaranya neutral kemana-mana, bassnya tight, clean, less noise, musical..(jd kayak ngiklan hehe..)
    maap ya pak Jimmy… :)



  9. Jimmy Auw Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 22:06

    Karakter Foil Resistor memang seperti itu, seperti juga pendahulunya Vishay S102. Cuman kalo buat saya, dia terlalu licin, jadi kurang ada nuansa analognya. Tapi ini tentu preferensi pribadi masing-masing yang bisa berbeda-beda.

    Masalah orientasi, saya belum sempat bandingkan di circuit. Namun hasil pengujian memang menandakan ada perbedaan, tapi untuk nilai yang besar (di orde K). Kalo untuk orde kecil (Ohm), sepertinya bedanya akan semakin tipis.

    Thanks.



  10. Anonymous Says:
    May 8th, 2010 at 16:25

    Pak Eherdian,

    Terima kasih atas sharingnya..
    Maaf ya Oom Jim, numpang ngobrol di blog nya hehehehe.. :D

    salam,
    Arie



  11. Jimmy Auw Says:
    May 8th, 2010 at 22:08

    Monggo Om Arie… silaken.

    Thanks.



  12. Aria Says:
    May 16th, 2010 at 04:42

    hukum tangan kanan berlaku? (buat komponen yg materialnya digulung-gulung).



  13. rizal Says:
    May 26th, 2010 at 19:30

    Pak jimmy sy msh newbie, mau tanya nih, di PCB tertulis resistor 332R, itu artinya nilainya brp ya? Sy ty ke penjual komponen ada 2 jawaban:
    1. Nilainya ya tetap 332 ohm
    2. Nilainya 3300 ohm ato 3k3
    Sy jd bingung, yang bener yang mana ya om jimmy??
    Thank u…



  14. Jimmy Auw Says:
    May 26th, 2010 at 21:25

    Halo Pak Rizal,
    332 Ohm Pak.

    Thanks.



  15. rizal Says:
    May 26th, 2010 at 21:52

    Ohh gitu ya… Hehhe
    Kalo 332 ohm ga ada yg jual kira2 sy kasih nilai brp utk 332 ohmnya,
    1. Kalo sy ganti 330 ohm gmn pak?
    2. Atau ada saran nilai yg cocok lainnya?
    Thank you pak



  16. Jimmy Auw Says:
    May 26th, 2010 at 21:56

    Tergantung posisinya Pak. Mestinya 330R tetep Ok koq.
    Thanks.



  17. rizal Says:
    May 29th, 2010 at 18:20

    Pak jim, sy liat di salah satu blog anda, ada kapasitormeter digital yg selectornya dr 200pF smp 20mF(picnya lg ngukur caps black gate F 680uF).
    Itu merk n type apa ya pak? Hrg kira2 brp? Thx



  18. rizal Says:
    May 29th, 2010 at 18:27

    Pak kalo py ref utk penjual capsmeter spt py om jim bisa email ke sy pak, thx
    ermac_1982@yahoo.com
    Thank u



  19. Jimmy Auw Says:
    May 29th, 2010 at 21:19

    Hi,
    Cari aja di Glodok. Harganya 150-200rb-an. Mereknya suka ganti2, namanya juga barang China punya.
    Thanks.



  20. rizal Says:
    May 29th, 2010 at 22:33

    Tanya lagi om jimmy :D

    Mau cr caps electrolit yg 330uF/100v ama 330uf/50v, tapi kok susah ya, Kira2 yg bagus pake yg type. N merk apa saja ya om? Nemunya cm silmic II yg 220uF aja..

    Minta saran2 n refnya donk om jim…
    Thank u



  21. Jimmy Auw Says:
    May 29th, 2010 at 22:43

    Hi Rizal,
    Cari caps yang bagus memang susah koq sekarang. Elna Silmic II itu sudah cukup OK.
    Yang lain bisa coba Elna Cerafine, Black Gate (N series kalo ada budget), Panasonic FC, Rubycon ZA/ZL, Jensen, etc. Tapi semua merek ini agak susah didapat di Indo akhir2 ini.
    Thanks.



  22. rizal Says:
    May 30th, 2010 at 21:48

    Om jim, kalo diantara cerafine, silmicII, ama blackgate STD plg bagus yg mana ya?
    Ato msg2 karakter suaranya gmn om?
    Thx u



  23. Jimmy Auw Says:
    May 30th, 2010 at 21:54

    Hi,
    Silakan dicoba sendiri. Saya lebih prefer Cerafine atau Silmic daripada BG Std.
    Thanks.



  24. yomi Says:
    August 9th, 2010 at 22:52

    bagaimana dengan karakter resistor dale ?
    dimana tpt jual kapasitor bagus ??



  25. Auw Jimmy Says:
    August 9th, 2010 at 23:02

    Coba cari di Glodok bro, atau di LTC.

    Thanks.



  26. gtachmad Says:
    August 21st, 2011 at 06:33

    om jimm resistor dale vs takman bagus mana ya om?,,
    ko hrgnya mahal takman (pa betul mhl takman),,sharenya dunk om,,tq



  27. Auw Jimmy Says:
    August 21st, 2011 at 23:12

    Halo Pak Achmad,
    Takman secara grade di atas Dale. Bagus jeleknya sih cocok2an juga.
    Thanks.



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