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Become Very Unpopular Very Fast with this DIY EMP Generator

posted by martyb on Sunday October 16 2016, @07:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the do-not-try-this dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Taking a break from his book, "How to Gain Enemies and Encourage Hostility," [FPS Weapons] shows us how to build our own handheld EMP generator which can be used to generate immediate dislike from anyone working on something electronic at the hackerspace.

The device is pretty simple. A DC source, in this case an 18650 lithium battery cell, sends power to an "Ultra High Voltage 1000kV Ignition Coil" (as the eBay listing calls it), when a button is pressed. A spark gap is used to dump a large amount of magic pixies into the coil all at once, which generates a strong enough magnetic pulse to induce an unexpected voltage inside of a piece of digital electronics. This usually manages to fire a reset pin or something equivalent, disrupting the device's normal operation.

Fun project in the spirit of TV-B-Gone.

[Ed note: This may or may not be legal in your area. It is definitely not recommended for use when a passenger on a moving vehicle.]

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 16 2016, @08:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 16 2016, @08:44PM (#414941)

    This device produces EMI (electromagnetic interference) not EMP (electromagnetic pulse).

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday October 16 2016, @08:55PM

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Sunday October 16 2016, @08:55PM (#414944)

    It produced a cheap Youtube video and an uninteresting article on SN - also called "internet noise".

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 16 2016, @10:00PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 16 2016, @10:00PM (#414985)

    Agreed. Back in the late 1970s I had a CB radio with a 100 watt linear amplifier, it did a good job blanking out TVs and radios in a 1 block radius, opened garage doors, and set off burglar alarms.