Resistors with nice thick breadboard friendly leads? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: jwm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2014, 11:56:21 am
content: It seems like every resistor nowadays is made with super thin leads that can't be pushed into a breadboard without buckling. Even some 1/2 watt ones I got as part of a 'breadboarding kit' still have the same thin leads as the 1/4 watt ones. Is there anywhere I can procure breadboard friendly resistors nowadays? Anyone have specific brand/type recommendations?Random tip, I found that making a set of E1 series resistors fully painted just a single color is handy for breadboarding. 100 ohm painted fully red, 1k orange, 10k yellow and so forth.

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2014, 02:30:42 pm
content: 1/4w resistors are pretty good in that regard.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2014, 02:38:56 pm
content: Really? I find resistor and small capacitor leads to be thin and too easily bent when inserting into breadboards..QuoteGood idea. I do this too, except I use various colors of Sharpie markers. It's quick and not too messy.

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2014, 02:39:10 pm
content: Just the cheap ones. The brand-name ones like Vishay or KOA Speer are good, but you pay for them. I usually buy ones likethesefrom Mouser for the values I use most frequently, and fight with the cheaper ones for less common values.Quote from: dannyf on January 11, 2014, 02:30:42 pmNot the Wun Hung Lo ones.

author: andtfoot
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 11, 2014, 02:47:38 pm
content: Quote from: c4757p on January 11, 2014, 02:39:10 pmI noticed when sorting my resistor collection that the ones that Jaycar (bricks and mortar Australian electronics shops) sells seem to be getting thinner.The ones I picked up recently are apparently 1/2w, and I'm really struggling to put them into my breadboard. I have to use pliers on each leg right at the end to get them through.I just checked with my verniers and yep, old ones are 0.6mm and new ones are 0.4mm.I might have to do a Digikey order for some decent ones at this rate, unless anyone knows of any resistor value assortment kits with decent resistors in them.

author: grenert
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2014, 02:51:44 pm
content: As said above, you will pay more for them, but I really like Vishay CMF55 series for breadboarding. They have strong, stiff leads and the resistance value IS PRINTED RIGHT ON THE RESISTOR! Easy-breezy. Maybe just buy a basic selection of really common values to reduce the cost. I don't find that you need to have exact values for most things to figure out if your breadboard circuit works or not.

author: peter.mitchell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2014, 03:34:52 pm
content: Man, i gotta say though, diodes have great legs on them, almost always, i love the legs on a good ol 1n400x!

author: Conrad Hoffman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2014, 09:20:36 pm
content: The better resistors might have copper leads and will be soft and buckle easily. Others will be steel. I find it helps to clip the ends at an angle so they have a point and insert better. Painting resistors is just silly. You should be doing enough work that you can sight read color codes. Practice, don't rely on a crutch. Yes, the high end resistors with printed values are nice too!

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 11, 2014, 10:52:52 pm
content: Quote from: Conrad Hoffman on January 11, 2014, 09:20:36 pmHave you tried reading resistor colour codes recently? Is that red or orange, is that gold or brown, which way up should this go? All questions I ask myself when binning components.

author: jwm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2014, 11:02:08 pm
content: Quote from: Conrad Hoffman on January 11, 2014, 09:20:36 pmI'll try the cutting at an angle trick, but thicker leads are nice too. I'll add some of the vishay or spheer ones to my next order.And I can sight read resistor codes just fine, been doing so almost as long as I've been able to read written words, that's why I painting them with the standard resistor color codes and not some made up one. What I can't do is pick out a specific value from two feet away from a pile of two dozen or so with my pheripheral vision. finding the nice bright solid E1 resistors is quite easy and more often than not an order of magnitude resistance is enough when initial breadboarding is happening or debugging by switching out component values. pull ups/down, transistor base current limiting, LED current limiting all are pretty flexible about what value is used and are the most common things I need to throw into a breadboard design.Also, it is just an extension of the standard E series, E48 requires three stripes and a magnitude, E24 require two stripes and a magnitude, E3 would be one and a magnitude (1,2,5 is close enough to 1,2.2, and 4.7 to be within tolerance and a common log prefered number series) and E1 just needs the magnitude line so can be painted fully that color, zero ohm resistors with the single black line are examples of E1 standard resistors that are actually sold with this marking convention.

author: LukeW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2014, 10:51:56 pm
content: Sometimes it can be worth buying 1/2W carbons (not 1/2W metfilm, carbons are larger, and 1/2W metfilm are about physically the same size as 1/4W carbon) or even 1W carbons.Because they're physically larger, they fit into the breadboard more firmly... and they're bigger so it's easy to read the colours.Personally I also find beige-background carbon resistors to be much easier to read than blue-background metfilm resistors.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2014, 11:37:19 pm
content: Yeah, the color coding on resistors has gotten pretty poor lately. The colors are often so dark it's hard to tell them apart, like black and brown and purple. Yellow is always easy to see but red and orange? Sometimes it looks like they used the same paint for those.

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2014, 12:21:18 am
content: Ironically the cheap old resistors have the steel leads. Good ones have soft copper leads. 1/4 watt I find to be the most practical size and I believe XICON to have the best properties for bread board. Not the best electrically, but they are cheap and you can get them in little baggies of 200 from mouser or digikey having never been in tape and reel so the leads are long and clean.

author: skipjackrc4
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2014, 01:23:57 am
content: I will second the recommendation for Xicon resistors. $4 for 200 1% metal film from Mouser.