Improvised Faraday Cage...?

[Raven]

Although I believed that the objects you were protecting had to be insulated from the metal cage else when there is a spike - it touches the cage and then the electronic and still fries the chip rendering the electronic unworkable?

I think the anti-static bags are maybe for small charges not large ones like an EMP or solar flare.

This looks a decent site.
https://www.instructables.com/id/Stylis ... aday-Cage/

[Son Of Andrew]

Yeah, that's what I thought too. Thanks for your input, there's some good info there. It would appear that the earth spike isn't entirely necessary except in the event of very high levels of EMF radiation. That's no reason to omit it though, in my opinion. Seems like a good idea to cover the bases, better to be safe than sorry...

[Raven]

Seems like a good idea to cover the bases, better to be safe than sorry...

My approach to most things in life

Can I ask what you would like one for?

[Son Of Andrew]

Small items mostly. Spare batteries (car/mobile), solar panels and solar generator , mobile phone(s), HAM radio(s).

[Raven]

That's useful to know in terms of size...I want to do something similar for emergency solar panels too.

As in are you protecting against a EMP or solar flare or just shutting down the gov being able to track your phone? etc

[Son Of Andrew]

Naturally occurring solar flares do not concern me, but an EMP could be triggered as a pre-cursor to a major military conflict. In that event, it's highly probable. The probability of the actual conflict itself? Very slight, I think, but I intend to take adequate precaution as necessary.

[Lemne]

This is something that I have in mind to build at some point. I looked around and I liked the ones built from empty ammunition boxes, especially this build. It seemed clear and straight forward to do. Lots of boxes on Fleabay for a tenner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiNQbWZFe-E

[The Green Man]

I need some advice regarding faraday cages/protection for an external hard drive, I am looking to protect an external HDD which contains important documents and family photos in the event of a solar flare or EMP event.
The HDD isn’t much bigger than a mobile phone, it needs to be stored indoors (probably in the loft)
Will these phone/car key RFID type wallets work? I have a couple which are too small for the HDD & I have placed my phone inside and it does lose signal, but I’m not sure it’s going to be adequate in the event of an EMP event.
I don’t want to buy a bigger wallet for it not to serve it’s purpose, I don’t mind building a faraday cage but I don’t know have to test it if I do.

[GillyBee]

I think the easy route to earth is the key component for protection in a Faraday cage.

We have just had an object lesson in this sort of thing.
We were struck by lightning in the big storms of early August. The lightning went to earth down the now unused, metal flue liner in the chimney. We saw the blue flicker inside the lounge as the lightning struck and expected the worst.
A quick safety audit ensued.
Roof undamaged. Loft area - nothing smouldering. Neighbours - nothing obvious.
Electrics - "That's funny the power is still up. The TV did not even flicker." Checked the electrics and discovered almost everything untouched.
The only damage was to the broadband router, phoneline and the network switch. As far as we can work out, the old metal flue gave the lightning an easy path to earth so that the only impact was the electrical socket on the chimney breast which provided a secondary path to earth from switch to router to phoneline. Oh and the metal chimney cap is now at a jaunty angle.

So based on our completely unscientific experience a good route to earth will shunt power well away from your precious gadgets and keep them safe. And this principle will apply to Faraday cages for EMP and solar storm just as well as to lightning.

[Yorkshire Andy]

I think the easy route to earth is the key component for protection in a Faraday cage.

We have just had an object lesson in this sort of thing.
We were struck by lightning in the big storms of early August. The lightning went to earth down the now unused, metal flue liner in the chimney. We saw the blue flicker inside the lounge as the lightning struck and expected the worst.
A quick safety audit ensued.
Roof undamaged. Loft area - nothing smouldering. Neighbours - nothing obvious.
Electrics - "That's funny the power is still up. The TV did not even flicker." Checked the electrics and discovered almost everything untouched.
The only damage was to the broadband router, phoneline and the network switch. As far as we can work out, the old metal flue gave the lightning an easy path to earth so that the only impact was the electrical socket on the chimney breast which provided a secondary path to earth from switch to router to phoneline. Oh and the metal chimney cap is now at a jaunty angle.

So based on our completely unscientific experience a good route to earth will shunt power well away from your precious gadgets and keep them safe. And this principle will apply to Faraday cages for EMP and solar storm just as well as to lightning.

Wow you got lucky!


Next door had a similar initial strike down the flue liner into back boiler taking it and gas fire out the wall!

Chimney stack "exploded" blowing bricks 3 gardens over

This removed 50% of the roof tiles on 3 sides and penitrated the flat roof back way...

Blew plaster and render off between numerous sockets / switches to the metal corner beads

Phone master box was in bits etc etc etc





On the cage front I hear a old microwave grounded is a good cheap option