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PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 2:13 pm 
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I have several pedals from the Li'l series and I really like them so far.

My one complaint would be with the tiny 1/8W resistors. It's very hard to decipher their value. The colored bands are near impossible to see. I measure the value of each resistor with a meter and due to their tolerance they may measure considerably off from the standard value, particularly as they get up into the higher values (over 200k). Some of the 500k and 1M resistors have measured nearly half the standard value. On some builds I'm completely guessing which resistor position some of them are intended to be used for. You can measure a resistor and assume it's a certain value and then later come across another that is actually closer...it's actually made me second guess some of my work.

Anyway, not sure how much can be done about this, but it's something that bothered me while assembling a Li'l Opamp Beaver, which I still have yet to finish.


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 2:21 pm 
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Two comments:

1) Get yourself a small/cheap magnifying glass for reading the color bands on these small resistors--it makes it MUCH easier. But it's still a good idea to confirm with a multimeter.

2) There's no way you should be getting readings of half the rated value on a resistor. Most of these 1/8W resistors are metal film (blue body) and have a +/-1% relative tolerance rating. So a 1M resistor should measure between 990K and 1.01M. I suspect that you are placing your finger tips in contract with the resistor leads or multimeter probe tips and are therefore measuring the resistance of your body in parallel with the resistor. For lower resistance values, this introduces a small to negligible error, but for higher rated resistors, this can become a significant source of error, giving a lower value.

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PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 6:02 pm 
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Here's a handy tip, after you get a magnifying glass, or you can get relatively cheap jewelers glasses on Amazon, that's what I use. Sort your parts by value and label them. Makes it so much quicker. I lay them out in a piece of paper and tape one end of the resistors to the paper and label each bundle of resistors on the paper. The resistors slide out from under the tape with no issues.


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PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 10:38 am 
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Quote:
2) There's no way you should be getting readings of half the rated value on a resistor. Most of these 1/8W resistors are metal film (blue body) and have a +/-1% relative tolerance rating. So a 1M resistor should measure between 990K and 1.01M. I suspect that you are placing your finger tips in contract with the resistor leads or multimeter probe tips and are therefore measuring the resistance of your body in parallel with the resistor. For lower resistance values, this introduces a small to negligible error, but for higher rated resistors, this can become a significant source of error, giving a lower value.


This is what is happening more than likely. I use alligator clips and I *always* measure those dang tiny blue or cream thingies. BTW 1/4 watt resistors would be too big for most of the L'il series I suspect...


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