[Speedskater]

I saw this in a catalog. It's a $30 EMI/RFI meter, but I have no idea how well it works.

http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/SearchDetail.asp?productID=20143

[BobM]

You may be able to pick up one of these before long (a Start Trek tricorder)...



Here's the whole story
http://gizmodo.com/5055962/california-scientists-design-working-tricorder

Live long and prosper,
Bob

[Brown]

How about a Guass meter for EMI ? Rat shack has them.

[Speedskater]

A Gaussmeter will detect electro-magnetic fields. But steady state electro-magnetic fields are not usually the cause of our EMI/RFI problems.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Mark - Good idea about a couple at a time, but I'd prefer to have the "impact" of the before and after thing. Small differences made some time apart may possibly give the (audible) impression that I've made no difference at all. However, One large change in a short period of time might have a bigger impact.
Know what I mean?  aa

Speedskater - I like you idea of this little unit:
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/SearchDetail.asp?productID=20143
Does anybody know if this would work for AC EMF detection around the back of audio/video equipment?

Thanks guys!
Bob

[kyrill]

Bob i understand your search for, how it can be even better?

Why not assume the worst? So you dont have to measure it.
So you have oozes of EMI/RFI bombarding each other and from outside. So
take care of all yr cables are shielded  and the shields grounded in star config.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Well, I'd just like a baseline. Maybe I'm being "anal", but I'd like to know if my sweat equity paid off.
I've never built serious cables before, nothing you'd call "nice". They've all been run of the mill wires to get from point "A" to point "B" with whatever I happened to have on hand at the time. So, being the cable novice I am, I'd like to know if what I built is better than what I replaced.

Bob

[kyrill]

better cables are not only defined by their emissions or vulnerability to pick up.
to get the best of cables is a complex thing. really really complex.

equal effect is the damping characteristics of the feet of yr components
or the cleanness of yr wall current. Ah well this never ending journey IS
a hobby with no ends

[Speedskater]

The best un-balanced cables have a heavy braided (or spiral) copper outer conductor.
The best balanced cables:
Have a braided or spiral outer conductor.
They do-not have an internal drain wire.
Even better is 4 conductor balanced wire.

[Speedskater]

One problem with metering EMI/RFI  is that the power supply transformer creates a field that is dealt with during the design stage. But this field makes it hard for a meter to discriminate between it and the EMI/RFI.

[satfrat]

One problem with metering EMI/RFI  is that the power supply transformer creates a field that is dealt with during the design stage. But this field makes it hard for a meter to discriminate between it and the EMI/RFI.

That would be a nice thought but is it really 1005 dealt with? sure the design might deal with emi in the circuit but what about the field in the air. Is the circuit board actually being totally protected w/o an actual faraday shield covering the transformer? Bob wants to mesure the EMI surrounding his components but I'm wondered if he shouldn't also be wanting to measure the EMI inside his components also?

Personally I subscribe to kyrill's philosophy of assuming the worse and dealing with that expectation, even if it does add up to overkill.


Cheers,
Robin

[rydenfan]

Here is a brand new product from CES for you, and only $8,000 

http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2009/the_silence_of_grounding/

[satfrat]

Here is a brand new product from CES for you, and only $8,000 

http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2009/the_silence_of_grounding/

Wow,,, sure wish I could try it out but if I can't afford $3K rsonators, I surely can't do 8K grounding conditioners. I'll just have to settle for Audio Magic's Pulse Gen ZX in all my components & breaker box. Fighting EMI from within.


Cheers,
Robin

[Speedskater]

For testing at the circuit level, here is an article on building and using a sniffer probe:

"Sniffer probe locates sources of EMI"

Bruce Carsten, Bruce Carsten Associates Inc

http://www.edn.com/archives/1998/060498/12df_04.htm

It's a simple little probe, one coil and one resistor.
The section on using it, spends a lot of time on testing power supplies.

This 7 page article when printed as a pdf, does have a font problem with the words ohm & figure.