Resistor question

Hello! SO I'm brand new here and to electronics as well. I consider myself an intermediate programmer, and I got my arduino to enhance those skills as I'm going into computer science. Anyway for my first project I need a 220 ohm resistor. I bought one those starter kits with a uno R3. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CZTLHGE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and they all have 5 bands as opposed to 4. I googled this subject and found a band resistor calculator for 5 band resistors and I think it would be red, red, black, orange, and my guide for it doesnt have a tolerance specified (does it default to something?)

What would happen if I put the wrong resistor there?

Also, does it matter where you put all this in the breadboard? Is there a website that may help me with some of the electronics stuff?

Are 220 ohm, resistors fairly common? Like is it sure to be in my starter kit?

Like I said I'm kind of on my own with this I don't know anyone in real life that can help me with this, but I kind of want to do as much of it by myself as possible (at least the programming aspect of it).

I think the pic attached is of a 220 ohm resistor but not entirely sure.

Thanks in advance!

ugh here is the image

In the 5 band resistor world...
Red-Red-Black-Orange would be 2-2-0 x1000 or 220K (the fourth band is the multiplier or # of zeros).
A 220 Ohm would be Red-Red-Black-Black, 2-2-0 x1 ( no added zeros).

The picture shows a strip of 5K1 resistors which is 5,100 Ohms. (Green-brown-Black-Red).
The fifth band (Brown) indicates a tolerance of 1%.

Usually when resistors come in strips like your picture the value of the resistors is printed on one of the adhesive strips, in the case of your picture, 5K1, which is shortened from 5.1 K, replacing the decimal point with the K, for thousand. Strips with resistors below 1000 are usually marked with an R, like 220R. A 2.5 Ohm would be marked 2R5.

When the resistor body is blue it becomes difficult to distinguish between certain colors, such as Brown & Orange. Best to always check with an Ohmmeter, especially if the two outer bands are the same color.

Ok I think I found the right resistor in my newly attached picture.

I don't have an ohm meter but I am looking at this one right now: https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-MSR-R500-Multimeters-Electronic-Multimeter/dp/B01N9QW620/ref=sr_1_2?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1530574402&sr=1-2&keywords=ohm+meter&refinements=p_72%3A1248921011

  • Would it be sufficient to test my resistors? What other functions do they serve? Is it just nice to have around when working with circuits? What about my other questions?

Thanks!

That meter will probably do OK for you, although for ten dollars I would not expect outstanding accuracy. If you have a Harbor Freight store in your area, they often give away a free multi-meter sometimes just for showing up at their store. Go online to them a get a coupon.
Most multi-meters have several functions besides reading resistance: AC & DC voltage, DC current, continuity test, and diode test. If you are going to build electronic circuits a multi-meter is indispensable.

The picture you show now does appear to be 220 Ohm resistors, as indicated by the value written on the tape. They are quite common and used for limiting current to LED's, connecting external devices to your Arduino to protect inputs, and tons of other uses. Using the wrong resistor in a circuit can result in various outcomes, from nothing notable at one end to the release of the magic smoke from usually the most expensive part in your project at the other end, interspersed with weird circuit behavior and unexpected results in between..

5,100 Ohms. (Green-brown-Black-Red).

Green-brown-black-brown I hope? (5 1 0 <1 more zeros>)
For LED current limiting, 220 or 330 ohms is frequently used in tutorials, but anything up to about 2k should work fine with modern LEDs. I usually use 1k resistors with LEDs.

Good catch, errors occur when I rely on my faulty memory!

Interestingly I gave up reading resistor colour bands when metal film resistors came in. I always
use a meter for through-hole resistors now.

The problem with metal film resistors is the blue background colour of the resistor (carbon film is beige,
metal film is blue), which shows through the colour bands making orange red and brown very hard
to distinguish in particular, particularly in artificial light. Since these three colours are commonly
used for the multiplier its easy to get the odd resistor wrong by a factor of ten.

Another issue with the blue metal film resistors is the color banding. Take a 10K 1% resistor and a 120R 1% resistor and lay them side by side. Without knowing where they came from, can you easily and reliably tell from the color bands which is which? They are both marked Brown-Red-Black-Black-Brown or Brown-Black-Black-Red-Brown. It's nearly impossible to tell which end is the tolerance band. Would have been nice if the manufacturers would make the tolerance band double wide, like that's ever going to happen.

You might want to invest in some better probes for the multimeter.
The cheap ones that come with your intended meter will most likely be a real pain in the arse to work with.
A cheap-ish pair of probes with flexible silicone cables will set you back another 15 bucks or so, but it will be so much nicer to work with!

Due_unto:
That meter will probably do OK for you, although for ten dollars I would not expect outstanding accuracy.

Actually I've never seen a multimeter that was poor accuracy, they are uniformly sub-1% in my experience,
the good ones say 0.01%, which will never matter unless you are working on precision analog circuitry
(in which case you'll be using a calibration service regularly for all your test equipment!)

By the by, how do you help your kids to remember the values of the color bands? We learnt this one:

BB ROY of Great Britain has a Very Good Wife
(BB ROY GB V G W)

B ===> Black : 0
B ===> Brown : 1
R ===> Red : 2
O ===> Orange : 3
Y ===> Yellow : 4
G ===> Green : 5
B ===> Blue : 6
V ===> Violet : 7
G ===> Gray : 8
W ===> White : 9

4-band Resistor:
1st-band 2nd-Band x 103rd-band ohm +/- (the 4th tolerance-band : Golden/Silver)

| | | | ===> RRO = 22x103 = 22 k