bugshaw: (Default)
Bridget ([personal profile] bugshaw) wrote2006-12-26 02:11 pm

Theremin-building

Um, it appears that I have forgotten how to read resistor codes. I remember that the colour stripes tell you the resistance (and tolerance), and the colour sequence (black brown red orange yellow green blue violet grey white) but the rest I will have to Google for. Also my eysight is less good than it was as a teenager, and it's hard to see the stripes!

I have made some theremin noises already, but only in my throat as I wailed at the resistors :-)

[identity profile] alex-holden.livejournal.com 2006-12-26 02:31 pm (UTC)(link)
You can always cheat and use an ohmmeter to measure them ;)

[identity profile] bugshaw.livejournal.com 2006-12-26 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I have one of those - also a book of colour codes :-)

I might resort to the ohmmeter, it's darned hard to tell the red/orange/yellows apart and the green/blues.
damienw: (xmas)

heterodyning oscillators, batman!

[personal profile] damienw 2006-12-26 03:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Ohmmeter all the way for me, but I'm colour-blind. For theremin building I want an oscilloscope... darn tuning. Which circuit are you using?

Re: heterodyning oscillators, batman!

[identity profile] bugshaw.livejournal.com 2006-12-26 03:49 pm (UTC)(link)
This circuit:
http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_103277/article.html

It came in a kit with the parts.

I'm not colour blind, but the different colours have a very similar quality (tone? hue?) so the red and orange and brown and purple look very similar.
I started trying to identify the resistors by writing down the colour codes on a bit of paper. Then I turned the page and found the parts list included colour codes, so I could cross check them. I got around half the colours wrong!! And that's before I try to decode them...

Re: heterodyning oscillators, batman!

[identity profile] alexmc.livejournal.com 2006-12-27 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
Is that not the definition of colour blindness? *some* colours are hard to differentiate if they have the same shade?

[identity profile] alexmc.livejournal.com 2006-12-27 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
Oooh, I've always wondered abou building a theremin but suspect my skillz are to weak.

[identity profile] alexmc.livejournal.com 2006-12-27 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
Spellin skillz