[sdiy] resistor wattages

[Harry Bissell Jr]

Good question

In general you can use the larger resistors with
no problems.  In 'some' circuits where stray
inductance
is a problem, size will be a penalty. If they are
Carbon composition resistors, they will have excellent
power capability for short pulses (they could probably
stand pulse overloads to 20W).

Carbon comp or carbon film tend to be more noisy than
metal film resistors... important in a preamp for
example.

They might be wirewound resistors as well... these
usually have a lot more inductance than the film or
comp varieties.

Go ahead and try them... or buy some 1/4W 1% metal
film from Mouser (or so) for $.02 each in 200 quantity

H^) harry

--- creekree at gmx.de wrote:

> hi all!
> 
> i recently was given a huge  amount (about 2000 or
> so) of resistors for 
> free, all packed in neat little plastic bags, sorted
> by resistance - i 
> just have to take the ones that schematics call for.
> and thats nice 
> indeed, BUT:
> these are the rather huge 2 watt type.
> my question: is it possible to use them instead of
> the common 0.5 watt 
> types? (lets forget about their size for the moment)
> i am not really familiar with electronics (just able
> to reproduce, not 
> invent nor calculate anything really) and i guess
> that there is indeed a 
> difference between those wattages, but how important
> (or unimportant) is 
> it?
> if, for instance, i were to build a distortion stomp
> box and used these 
> resistors, would it work? would it sound very
> different? or is there no 
> difference at all? (and no... i am not building a
> stomp box atm)
> 
> bleep, creekree
>