EMF electronic safety?

Hello,

For a biology project, I am testing the effects of electromagnetic fields on plant cells. What I want to do is rig up a 16awg 18 turn coil with a diameter about the same as that of a pop can. Then I am planning to hook that up to my SCR fired 170V 45000uF capacitor bank.

Well, I am hoping that I can send the large amount of current to the coil while it is on the stage of a microscope. A camera will be mounted to the eyepiece of the microscope where I can look at the results on the computer.

My main question is, do you think that the EMF from the coil that is about 1 to 2 feet away from the camera will damage the camera? I just hate to damage school equipment if you know what I mean :lol:

Unfortunatly I cannot get a hold of a gaussmeter.

Thanks!

18 turns isn't much of a coil... and you'll be pumping DC it sounds like? so you'll generate a brief polarized magnetic field around the coil, but not really any 'electromagnetic radiation' (which could be RF or microwave or whatever depending on frequency?)

why would you suspect the brief magnetic field would damage a camera, especially from the distance you mention?

you would need an incredibly strong magnetic field to damage a digital camera (think MRI super conducting magnet strong, aligning the hydrogen atoms in your body) - a mechanical analog camera would be more susceptible, given some of its internal mechanism could become magnetized and stop working properly. The only effect on a digital would be physical damage from magnetic parts being pulled out of calibration - or if your field were incredibly powerful and oscillating (as to cause induction), you could have damage from inductive heating and/or induced voltages - but you're talking about weaponized EMP here, not a small jolt from a simple magnetic coil… in the case of weaponized EMP, I would be more concerned about physical safety of the person conducting the research – damage to your cornea, retina and skin could occur with excessive exposure… protect the camera and / or operator with a faraday cage.

Thank you, I really appreciate your quick response.

I realize that it wouldn't be a very strong field at that distance, but I just wanted to make sure. I just was going by the "do not stick magnets on electronics" methodology to be safe. I initially thought that it would not do anything to the camera, but I wanted a second opinion. Most likely I will double or triple the turns on the coil.

Thanks again!

freeskier89 said:

Unfortunatly I cannot get a hold of a gaussmeter.

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you could build a simple one by gluing a magnetic compass and a protractor to something solid, like a clipboard or some wood ... then you can measure the deflection of the needle at measured distances from the source.

of course, this won't give you an actual gauss reading, but it will give you a repeatable realative field strength indication.

I hadn't thought of that.

I also was thinking of making my own electronic one sometime. Of course it would not give an actual reading without a lot of tweaking, but it would show you the general field strength

freeskier89 said:

Hello,
What I want to do is rig up a 16awg 18 turn coil with a diameter about the same as that of a pop can. Then I am planning to hook that up to my SCR fired 170V 45000uF capacitor bank.

Click to expand...

make sure the wire won't burn in that intense currrent.

I have already tested shorting the capacitors with the coils and it seems to be fine.