Magdrives and their magnetic fields?

[tseongsun]

Ok, I know I read a magdrive thing before saying that HDD's are very well insulated, but I just turned on my w/c system for the first time today (woohoo!) and it caused huge interference with my monitor. Luckily I am at home and it's just my crappy 14" and not my 22" up at my apartment. Anyways, If it's strong enough to give off a magnetic current that will disrupt my monitor, will it be strong enough to corrupt my hdd's which are in the cage directly below it?

http://www-scf.usc.edu/~rlockwoo/wc/pump.jpg

[MajinSSJVegetto]

I am not sure about the HDD, but I know monitors can EASILY be affected.
When my TV turns on my monitor shacks. Or other way around.

CRTs work by using magnets to aim electrons. Slight magnetic feilds can easily move them.

[cack01]

I know Hoot has a pump in the same spot as yours, and he seems to be doing fine. But that is still taking a big risk, I wish you luck in finding out.

[Diggrr]

I found my distortion in my first watercooled rig was caused by the cords in the back. I changed the routing somewhat, keeping the monitor cord away from the power supply and pump cords, and the distortion disappeared. Try that, it's a free fix if it works for ya.

Clean setup, by the way. Nice job!

[SkiFletch]

I doubt it. because of their construction and operation, monitors are VERY sensetive to rantom E&M fields. hdds however might be less suceptible to the A/C magnetic field of the pump, but thats just speculation on my part. if you want, you could put some extra metal up there to surround the pump. another interesting thing with monitors, put a cell phone under the lip of it, and have someone call it... the thing TRIPS OUT, its histerical :D

[Inept]

It's safe. You have no idea how strong the magnetic fields produced in HD's are. The tiny little rare-earth magnets used in HD's can hold like 40lbs, and they're floating microns above the platter! It takes very concentrated magnetic fields to write to an HD, your pump wouldn't be able to reproduce that sort of magnetic field if it was inside your HD, never mind beside it :)

[Colin]

Put a floppy on your pump for a week. You will find the data will be fine.

Two easy things to try to reduce interference are floating the pumps ground and switching the AC polarity. This only works if there is a ground loop causing feedback to the monitor.

The other options are relocating or shielding the pump.

[Lt. Max]

what kind of material would u get to sheild the pump my friend has the same prob wit his ..

[Inept]

Ferrous metal, that is to say, iron. A faraday cage would also work, but would be very hard to make and very expensive to buy.

[Lt. Max]

hmm. so if we took a sheet of metal, would that work? like those metal sheets u put on a roof n stuff.. is that iron? like steel or aluminum or smthing?

[Mpegger]

Originally posted by Inept
It's safe. You have no idea how strong the magnetic fields produced in HD's are. The tiny little rare-earth magnets used in HD's can hold like 40lbs, and they're floating microns above the platter!I had an old SCSI drive from work that was dead and I took it apart. When I got to those magnets I was thinking "Htf can they have these kinds of magnets so close to the platters???" They are defenitly very strong and will do some damage to your fingers if you accidently let them slam together on your digits.:D

[MajinSSJVegetto]

What kind of magnet is it? Neodynium?
Neodynium is AWSOME.

[SkiFletch]

not sure what those roofing tiles are made of. as a general rule, you want only either iron, or steel for sheilding. both metals are usually (with the exception of stainless steel) not of a uniform shiny surface. other metals like alluminum, zinc, or chrome are shiny and uniform, steel and iron on the other hand can be shiny, but may have numerous slightly darker or less shiny speckles on it.

[CrashOveride]

i woudl think it is prolly the monitor power cord going byt he poump or it's power cord, i know stuff likehtat can happen i have never seen it with a monitor but a lot with speakers and amps, i9 thought i toasted my amp in my room but it was jsut the speaker cord goin right next to liek 3 power cords, i would try re routing the corda a bit and see in that works, otherwise gl if finding somthing:D :eh?: :D

[Diggrr]

Excellent point Collin. If simply moving the cords away from each other isn't working, you could try one of those little three into two adapters on either the pump or the monitor. This would remove it from the ground that everything is sharing.

[Silversinksam]

Some small family run hardware stores have Lead sheeting thats 1/8th" thick and in many widths, I used to have a 20' sheet of it

1/8th" x 12" x 20'

Being that lead is so soft it could be manipulated into any shape.

[Since87]

Originally posted by Silversinksam
Some small family run hardware stores have Lead sheeting thats 1/8th" thick and in many widths, I used to have a 20' sheet of it

1/8th" x 12" x 20'

Being that lead is so soft it could be manipulated into any shape.

Lead is not ferromagnetic. It will not help. (Unless of course you want to make a hat to keep the aliens from reading your thoughts.)

The steel roofing material might be a cheap and effective way to go. Try sticking a magnet to the material in question. If it sticks it will shield. The harder it sticks the better it will shield.

[Colin]

16 gage cold rolled steel, grounded, with a 3/8” to 1/2” gap between the pump and the shield is the first step. If this does not solve the problem a second shield of Mu Metal, grounded, with a 1/4” to 3/8” gap around the steel shield should take care of it.

This information came from an engineer that specializes in shielding for aerospace applications.

[Since87]

Originally posted by Colin
16 gage cold rolled steel, grounded, with a 3/8” to 1/2” gap between the pump and the shield is the first step. If this does not solve the problem a second shield of Mu Metal, grounded, with a 1/4” to 3/8” gap around the steel shield should take care of it.

This information came from an engineer that specializes in shielding for aerospace applications.

Yes this would be close to ideal magnetic shielding, although the grounding isn't really necessary since only the magnetic field needs to be shielded in this case.

However, Mu Metal is seriously expensive, and needs to be heat treated after working to maintain it's magnetic properties. Multiple layers of the cold rolled steel with 1/4" air gaps between would probably do the job well enough in this case.