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How to make a laptop EMP proof:

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ARCHANGEL111

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Nov 28, 2010
Info. 1) Let's begin with the laptop itself. Most companies use either a plastic or acrylic shell to encase the sensitive electronic components that actually make the device work. These types of shells are not EMP proof at all. There are two types of laptops that could stand up to a blast more easily: Mac and Toughbook. Both brands have models where the protective shell is made of either steel or aluminum, effectively acting as armor.

Info. 2) Simply having a metal laptop does not guarantee your computer's safety. You need to construct something called a Faraday Cage. This is a type of box with which you can place vulnerable electronic equipment. All the faraday boxes I have found are extremely lacking. So, I devised my own super-ruggedized version.

Step 1) Acquire a Pelican Case for your laptop. Find the right size model and order it. This is a Fire-Proof, Water-Proof (make sure you don't get a water-resistant one, you need water proof!), Corrosion-Proof, Bullet-proof, Shock-proof, and Freeze-proof case. Make sure it has the foam inside when you order it.

Step 2) Go to your local metal-shop and ask for some scrap pieces of sheet metal. You will need two large pieces for the lid and bottom of the Pelican Case and four smaller ones to cover the edges. You may be able to pay the mechanics to just make you some, cut to order. The sheets should only be about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick steel.

Step 3) Acquire several rolls of thickened Aluminum Foil.

Step 4) Acquire several square feet of Copper Mesh with relatively small holes.

Step 5) Acquire some heavy duty Gorilla Glue.

Step 6) Installation - Coat the backs of the sheet metal and glue it into place inside the Pelican Case. This is your main EMP protection. (like a medieval knight's platemail)

Step 7) Glue several layers (up to 1/4 inch thick) of Aluminum foil all around and on top of the plates. (You shouldn't see the plates anymore.) To make it even denser, you may use a small weight (like a 5 lb. dumbbell) to gently compress the layers tighter together.) This is your computer's secondary protection, like the chainmail that would go under a knight's platemail.

Step 8) Glue several layers of Copper Mesh on top of the Aluminum foil. This is the final layer of EMP protection. (like a knight's leather pads) Entire buildings used to be covered in this during the cold war as an attempt to protect them from potential EMPs.

Step 9) Allow everything to dry. You may now place your foam back into the Pelican Case along with your laptop.

This system will protect not only your laptop, but also several external hard drives. You aren't going to have the internet, so stock up on as many songs, books, webpages, games, and video as you can. As an example, I currently have 3.75 terabytes of memory getting quiet full of survival info.

Total cost should run you between $150-$200.

~Archangel
 
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I don't want to rush to judgement about you, but you seem like some 2012, post apocalyptic, y2k psycho. Even if an EMP did occur, my instinct wouldn't be to listen to music and play video games all day long. This is useful info if you are the president but why share this with overclockers?
 
This was posted first in an old (2003) thread, where a parent poster was curious as to how this could be completed for a computer case.

It isn't something I will be rushing out to do, but it may tickle someone's fancy here. It isn't like every project needs to be entirely practical to be fun.

Anyways Archangel, thanks for sharing your thoughts with our forum.
 
I forgot to mention that you will need to acquire an isolated electricity source as well. It doesn't matter how EMP proof your computer is if it's plugged into a wall outlet. The particles in the blast waves would surge through the country's power grid and force their way through the electrical wiring in your house (or wherever you happen to be). If your computer is plugged in the neutrons will simply travel through your power cord and fry your motherboard, among other things.

The best (as far as I have found, along with my personal preference for isolated power) is a company called Goal0 (Goal Zero). They have a wide array of solar charging stations which can be mixed and matched to best suit your individualized goal. This way you are essentially off the grid and still functioning whilst the rest of the country is out of power. Depending on your setup and your seller this could cost between $300 - $2,500.

Oh, by the way. An EMP isn't like your average, run of the mill atomic bomb. It is detonated between 30 and 300 miles above the surface of the Earth. If this were the case for America, 98% of the entire North American Continent would be electronically powerless... unless you're off the grid. The affected area would cover the American mainland completely, would cover half of Canada, and half of Mexico. Now just imagine if there was more than one bomb...

A side message to Terminator: Half of the info on my hard drives is survivalism, not games. While those who do not take this possible threat seriously enough struggle to simply find any food at all, my team and I will have the information on how to make fires, build shelters if need be, find and purify water, along with how to find food.

Remember, if you fail to plan... you plan to fail.
 
Survivalist information can be found in something called a library lol. Only usefulness is if you have Gov't secrets or anything highly classified and worth while keeping. If your an average user then I think the vacation photos aren't the least of your worries. What team? Are you guys conspiring an EMP so you can to give us the TOLD YOU SO when it "detonates".
 
If your computer is plugged in the neutrons will simply travel through your power cord and fry your motherboard, among other things.
Epic fail.

Neutrons are electrically neutral (hence their name) and are not conducted by copper. Furthermore, neutrons have nothing to do with the destructive power of an EMP. An EMP is propagated by photons just like any other electromagnetic field or force ...
 
Epic fail.

Neutrons are electrically neutral (hence their name) and are not conducted by copper. Furthermore, neutrons have nothing to do with the destructive power of an EMP. An EMP is propagated by photons just like any other electromagnetic field or force ...

Neutrons, photons, ninjatrons, whatever. Your computer is still fried...
:comp:
 
Not trying to be a jerk, but since internet access would most likely be fried, wouldn't simply printing such information be more helpful? Make manuals.
Last I checked paper is fully EMP proof without shielding.

BTW, I am a country boy. Survival information is practice rather than lesson. It's far more valuable to be out in the field using these skills than it is to huddle in your basement fearing for your computer's survival, or to be the last in your state playing Halo.
Having the only working computer for several hundred miles is little comfort considering a PC's strength is in networking thousands together...a network that would cease to exist.
Just food for thought...with my age came wisdom, and we made it 3 million years without them.
 
Not trying to be a jerk, but since internet access would most likely be fried, wouldn't simply printing such information be more helpful? Make manuals.
Last I checked paper is fully EMP proof without shielding.
Having the only working computer for several hundred miles is little comfort considering a PC's strength is in networking thousands together...a network that would cease to exist.
Just food for thought...with my age came wisdom, and we made it 3 million years without them.

Yes, paper is EMP proof, and it also has weight and size. I would challenge you to pick up a library and carry it in a suitcase. What about carrying ten libraries worth of information? Now hold them in the palm of your hand. My point is that given the right equipment, a hard drive can be just as EMP proof as paper, yet hold infinitely more information. As I mentioned above, I personally have 3.75 terabytes (about 3,750 gigabytes give or take, or roughly 3,750,000 megabytes, or 3,750,000,000 kilobytes. Of course at this point those numbers are highly generalized). An average webpage is only a few megabytes (usually between 1 and 3) in memory space, and the average PDF file is only a few kilobytes. This allows insane amounts of knowledge (literally ten entire libraries or more) to be safely stored on a laptop and a few external hard drives. You can also store thousands of instructional videos. Because of this, you don't NEED a network. You're a one man show!

Here is a simple example... I downloaded Wikipedia.
That's over 3.4 million articles. Print that out. :cool:
 
BTW, I am a country boy. Survival information is practice rather than lesson. It's far more valuable to be out in the field using these skills than it is to huddle in your basement ... [snip]
I agree completely. You can know all about it (from a book) but without practice you're dog food - or maybe bear food would be better wording ... ;)
 
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*scratches head*

This is defiantly a strange topic, though cool sounding. 1 question though, once you install it is there a way to test it to make sure it actually worked? I mean thinking your laptop is EMP proof and ends up not being is 2 totally different things. As well wouldn't it be easier to make a room in the house fully EMP proof to keep a server, desktop or such equipment so its not fried since you can fit lots more information no those pieces of equipment. Or even portable hard drives if you just need something a little smaller.
 
Yes, you can prove it. Just take a look at these images. These are faraday cages. These in particular are made of simple fencing and are being exposed to the direct current of a Tesla tower. As the electricity approaches the man, the fencing absorbs it and channels it around him. The electricity never touches the man.

http://www.faraday-cage.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/faraday-cages.jpg

In this next example, two girls are in a similar faraday cage. One is even pressing her hand against the cage while being exposed to high levels of electricity. The cage, however, is diluting the effect so much that the girl is not harmed at all, whereas normally her hand would be severely burned.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cage_de_Faraday.jpg

The cage I have designed takes this concept further by including smaller, finer copper mesh along with some heavy duty steel which is coupled with high-compressed aluminum. The aluminum essentially acts as a molded secondary shield under the sheet metal. This is simple science.

Yes, it works.

Also, while using my method to coat a room would indeed be effective, all the effort would be in vain if the electronics were plugged into a wall outlet. In order for a piece of electronic equipment to be EMP proof it must both be shielded and have an isolated energy source. Otherwise the EMP wave particles would simply travel through the wall outlet, power cable, and into your computer. It would be like the Trojan Horse. It doesn't matter how mighty your wall is if you invite your enemies in through the gate...

On the subject of a room verses a portable system, Yes, a room could potentially hold much more information than the portable version. This is great, unless something happens and you NEED your equipment to be portable. It would be far safer to simply use portable hard drives in your faraday cage and give yourself the ability to be flexible in your survival plans. Besides, after you spend all the money to coat the room, you could have spent the same amount of money on hard drives, still protected in a smaller cage.

And the last subject. While a desk top generally has more memory space than a laptop, this is only true if the laptop is STOCK. (meaning that you have not changed any of its functioning parts since it left the factory.) If you give it aftermarket parts a laptop can far out-memory a desktop with the advantage of portability. I have plans to take the 250 GB hard drive along with the disk driver out of mine (when its warranty is done) and replace them both with a 1 TB hard drive each. This will give me 2 TBs of internal memory space, far more than the average desktop.
 
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Alrighty, EMP bombs are a real, so lets go in to a little detail,

it was first noticed during early atom bomb tests that electronics near the blast would get fried as if they had been hit by lightning, what happens is that an atomic bomb also releases an intense burst of radio waves that travel through the air and then convert to very high voltage electricity when they hit the wires inside an electrical device. This was dubbed Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP)

More primitive electronics like light bulbs, capacitors and vacuum tubes are mostly resistant to this, but more advanced stuff like transistors and silicone chips are more sensitive. The more advanced the more likely to get fried.

you can stop this by carefully constructing your electronics or placing them in a protective 'faraday' cage.

a EMP bomb is designed so that when it goes off it will release a very short but extremely powerful electromagnetic wave that simulates that from an atom bomb. One design I saw involved a simple cone shaped coil of wire, electrically charged and then explosively collapsed to make a pulse at it's tip.

My thoughts on what's been said so far.

- Lets not mock the guy, yeesh, behave! I'm going to answer and comment respectfully.

-EMP bombs are hard to build and I think their range is quite limited. Radio waves disapate very quickly, it's highly unlikely one bomb can fry all electronics in the country. You would need many many bombs to do this.

- using a laptop made of metal will not work, the pulse would simply enter in to exposed ports or the display. So just get a high end toughbook like this one
http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/fully-rugged-laptop-toughbook-31.asp#/31
and put it in a faraday cage. just don't think the laptop itself will protect against EMP no matter what the case is made of.


-enclosing the laptop in a metal pelican case might work, but not one made of aluminum, magnetism goes right through that.

- building a faraday cage is within the means of a home builder, but how will you test to make sure that it (or the pelican case) are working properly? an EMP bomb is a massive pulse that is hard to test for. one overlooked item and you are screwed. Be very careful when constructing.

- You talk about being able to run around with a library on your hard drive, but how much survival info do you really need? I think a few books with pictures will do.

- independent power supply (solar). If your laptop is connected to the wall outlet when an EMP goes off your system will be fried for sure. But your solar cells are also prone to EMP, so you will need to protect it as well, which makes the faraday cage look more practical, especially if you want to store other electronics in there, such as a radio or television for keeping up with the news (yes, there will be government broadcast television news after an EMP blast) Power tools, flashlights and other electrical lighting, a All Terrain Vehicle (the ignition components are vulnerable) to get around on, walkie-talkie's to communicate with your team, ECT. If you plan on all this you will need a large solar power supply to charge all these batteries and run all the lights. A laptop uses about 90watts when running.

- I think I see some weaknesses in your planning 1)you seem to me to assume there will be only one EMP bomb strike. what happens if there are several waves of strikes on different days or weeks? your electronics survive the first blast, you deploy your solar charger and get caught in another blast. 2)the rest of the world will still be operating and have all this info. What you store will be of value for only a limited time.

- I skimmed over the GOAL-ZERO stuff you mentioned at donrowe.com. The LARGER solar panel is only 27 watts, which is a very small amount. you'll need 2-4 hours of solar charging for each hour of laptop use, it will take about six hours to charge that sherpa 120 battery pack. Be careful of the shelf life of the battery pack, I suspect that six year shelf life spec they quote is very optimistic in real world use. Read the manual on storing this very carefully. In my opinion you should look at buying larger solar panels and storing them in the faraday cage. Again, going back to the multiple EMP strikes you may need multiple solar generators to deal with all this.
 
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China has emp missles and has tested / used them on the US recently.

It may still be in google. I won't link it since it should still be classified unless eye witnesses have reported it. A US battleship was also tested on.

EMP's are also released when transformors on high voltage wires going to your home fry during storms...ever see those bright blue flashes?? These can send emps at a min of 250ft surrounding it in all directions. Dense vegitation can block some of this.

Aluminum blocks magnitisim...go ahead test it with some foil and a magnet.

The issue is STRONG RF waves that convert to electrical waves when it hits wires or other DC currents. And AC appliances can be disrupted as it charges those circuits. You will need a second un used shielded UPS and atleast 2 surge protectors that will flip on a surge. And a secondary power source as an emp blast has been known to discharge charged batteries.

A Faraday cage is only known to shelter against electricity. And blocks only some RF frequencies. ULF UHF can sometimes break through. Not sure what frequencies exactly. Or how.

The internet is basically 2 or more pc's that can talk to each other and share information. So, having a pc that works is a good start to restoring the internet in the case of an emp attack. Or nuclear, or power failure. You will need 2 or more ethernet NICS and wifi adapters. Keep these and the drivers even cd's inside a shielded case. Just having how -to's and music will be invaluable to the survival and sanity of everyone willing to be civilized. Like how to filter radiation from water, food and produce animals. Medical treatment. And formula's for medicine. Without such things...it may be hundreds of years before basic survival could be maintained. It took maybe 2500years for us to learn how to grow our own food. even cook it. Knowledge will spread beyond the keyboard as well. taught to generation after generation by word of mouth and written literature. Without saved data of some sort. most of the information we know now will be lost ultimately. Therefore it should be a priority to keep what you can even if it's for mere entertainment.

1/4" thick steel blocks most forms of radiation. Including RF. And so does plastics. If there are gaps in the shell, you'll still get some exposure. NEutrons and Neutrinos are two diffrent things but exist where any form of electrical or magnetic discharge occurs. Neutrons will discharge on contact. Depennding on their source. determines their capacity for damage. Such as a nuclear reactor vs nuclear bomb. A nuclear reactor will have greatly higher charge (fukushima's fallout is still produceing particulate with 1000's of volts capacity thankfully it is discharged mostly in the air) and damage ranges over a bombs more localized area. A sun burst or nuclear reactor has neutrinos along with Neutrons. There is no known substance that will stop neutrinos. Although there is hopeful research in hydrogen gels. And ice. And there may be some material known to help. But i just don't know it yet.

We should encourage anyone with any kind of confirmable and useful information to share this anywhere they can. We shouldn't flame,mock or belittle this kind of information.

:grouphug:
:salute:
:comp:
:chair:
:attn:
 
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