I was finally putting together my makerbuino yesterday and broke one of my resistors. The 4.7k ohm resistor to be exact. I was looking in to buying another to replace the broken one on amazon, but am a bit confused as to what I’m looking for. I am new to this scene so I don’t know if I’m supposed to be buying a “tolerance 1%” or “tolerance 5%”.
According to the calculators I’ve found on this site the 4.7k ohm resistor (yellow, violet, red, gold) measures at a +/- 5%. Will it matter if I buy a 1%?
Resistors come in Standard Values with different tolerances. This allows for a degree of overlapping of values without having to manufacture a vast range of values.
But if you require a more precise value of resistance, say for a Timing Circuit, then a better Tolerance Value (1%) would be preferred.
Although Resistors are a cheap passive component, when buying 1000’s at a time, cost might be more of an issue.Therfore if your circuit will function well enough then a a not so good Tolerance Value (5 or 10%) would tend to be a cheaper option.
Also Resistors come in many shapes and sizes depending on how much Current it will allow to travel throgh it, or Voltage across it. This will govern what wattage the Resistor needs to be too, and there are several “Triangle” calculators such as Ohm’s Law to help with this. The higher the wattage, then the size tends to increase. The Makerbuino 4k7 or 4.7k or 4,700 ohm resistors are probably 1/4w or one quarter watt. 1/2w resistors would be physically a bit big, plus would cost fractionally more.
The tolerance of this resistor is not critical. Even 2K2 or 5K6 would do the job. And if you’re not using the I2C extension ports, you can even leave them off the print.
