These 3 Cent Components are actually USEFUL?! (Color Ring Inductor) EB#56

I work with old game consoles a lot and these inductors are found on them. Usually they are found in the NTSC/PAL encoding section, as part of the chroma trap or delay line. They are also used in some places as part of a pi filter to provide a cleaner reference voltage for analog sections--at very low current, of course.

They don't list saturation current because they are not supposed to be used that way. They are low current devices, more for filtering applications. Size does matter when it comes to inductors for buck / boost applications. Good overview of them though.

One thing to note is the inductors don't resist current, so long as the core isn't oversaturated. They resist the change of current. They want to maintain whatever amount of current that is flowing through them, including no current.

A useful application of these inductors is as RF chokes for small signals, or to isolate stable supplies better than ferrite beads can (for analog power rails from digital rails). One should mind the self-resonance frequency in these applications.

with mixed "bag's" of components I always end up with 75% of them not getting use, because they are unusual values. Great video 2x👍

There is such a lot of hard, time consuming work put in to produce your videos - very informative and well presented

While I was at uni, the latest craze in power engineering was pcb inductors. You’d have a multi layer board and use the inner layers as inductors / caps / transformers. Maybe that would be a good video.

These are mostly used for audio / rf filters or micro buck/boost psu in some designs that require a stable voltage in a single battery voltage powered device (I've seen even smaller smd versions in cell phones)

Great movie! These elements work perfectly for all kinds of filters in audio and radio circuits. You don't need to transfer high power, just filter out high frequencies. :)

I saw Particle had made some changes this year, including making a free tier for people experimenting. I'd like to see their cellular device used to make an ebike tracking device. Being able to keep track of my ebike without a monthly fee would be really nice.

You answered several doubts I had for such inductors, and demonstrated them in the scope. 👏👏Thanks 👍!

I found one in my tool cab that "was gifted by the lab" to me as a souvenir. I have encountered a problem when I am designing a Bluetooth wireless headphone that the RF transmitting noise will leak through the power bus to be amplified by the power amplifiers. so I just connect the ring inductor in series to the Bluetooth board and ass a bypassing cap. It miraculously made the noise dissappear.

I use them for tweaking the LED current on rechargeable solar lamps. They can also be paired with a ceramic capacitor and LED to make "wireless" LEDs.

Great video 🙌 I learned a lot in such a short amount of time honestly. Thanks for driving in on this often inconspicuous component :)

Interesting information and presented in a sequential manner. my regards

Like most people pointed out, color ring inductors or the equivalent in SMD footprint are not used for power applications but for filtering. I should also point out that datasheets for this kind of devices do exists which usually state: inductance, tolerance, minimum Q, minimum self-resonant frequency (SRF) in MHz, DC resistance (DCR) in ohms, and rated current. These values are also specified and tested at a specific frequency, like 0.8, 2.5, 8, or 25 MHz. In my opinion, they are certainly not particularly useful in the through-hole footprint, so SMD are more prevalent.

I'm glad you made this video. I, too, had a small box of these laying around for a number of years, but I never used them because, as you pointed out, it is impossible to find reliable data sheets on them.

I saw those resistor looking power inductors being used in cheap outdoor lights that are used in the joule thief circuits

That was amazing loved the interesting angle you can at inductor properties and info. I would watchin this kind of video about many basic parts

Always excited when new uploads appear! Great video.