DIYbanter - Reading the bands on a Bumble Bee cap

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September 8th 17 04:58 PM

Reading the bands on a Bumble Bee cap

According to a chart I have, they read similar to a resistor.

On those Bumble Bee caps, the first two color bands are the value, the
3rd band is the number of zeros. The 4th band is the tolerance (%).

After a gap, there are supposed to be two more bands that tell the
voltage. Yet, looking at a few of them that I have laying around, and
pictures of the ones being sold on ebay, I have yet to find any of them
that have TWO bands for the voltage.

For example, I have a picture of one right now that has ONE yellow band.
That means "4", which I would consider to be 400v. Is this correct?
Apparently this chart is defective, or else theye stopped using a dual
band for the voltage at some time.....

Most of the time, I've just read the schematic and not bothered with the
band colors, because nearly every cap I use as a replacement is rated at
a higher voltage than the originals anyhow.

Dave M[_5_]

September 8th 17 06:30 PM

Reading the bands on a Bumble Bee cap

wrote:
According to a chart I have, they read similar to a resistor.

On those Bumble Bee caps, the first two color bands are the value, the
3rd band is the number of zeros. The 4th band is the tolerance (%).

After a gap, there are supposed to be two more bands that tell the
voltage. Yet, looking at a few of them that I have laying around, and
pictures of the ones being sold on ebay, I have yet to find any of
them that have TWO bands for the voltage.

For example, I have a picture of one right now that has ONE yellow
band. That means "4", which I would consider to be 400v. Is this
correct? Apparently this chart is defective, or else theye stopped
using a dual band for the voltage at some time.....

Most of the time, I've just read the schematic and not bothered with
the band colors, because nearly every cap I use as a replacement is
rated at a higher voltage than the originals anyhow.

You are correct in your description of the Bumble Bee capacitors. The same
coding applies to paper and paper-in-oil capacitors in general (of the era).
The voltage bands can, indeed, consist of two bands if the voltage rating is
1000V or more. For example, voltage bands of Gold-Red would indicate a
1200V rating (Gold being the color for 1000V). Don't remember seeing any
paper capacitors of that high voltage rating, though.

Cheers!!
Dave M

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