Can you make a EMP bomb out of an electric car?
- Thread starter Gizmo j
- Start date
Red Squirrel
No Lifer
I suppose but probably not the cheapest or simplest way. Those battery packs can give out quite a lot of instantaneous power. You'd probably still want a big capacitor bank though. Basically hookup a huge capacitor bank to the battery pack and then build a big ass inductor and then dump all the power into it until it reaches saturation then disconnect it. I think there's more to it than that to make an EMP though but that's the jist of it. Something with a spark gap might be effective too. The discharge of the spark generates tons of RF noise.
Red Squirrel
No Lifer
That's not an EMP that's just a super strong magnet. Honestly not sure how realistic that scene is. Would be interesting to see it tried IRL though...
OK what in Hell are you guys up too anyway? Is this something that I should be contacting the FBI about? I do have an agent's card around here somewhere.
sdifox
No Lifer
- Sep 30, 2005
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Relax, op is musing idly. He wanted to 3d print a computer factory. From inside a storage unit. I think you are safe.
destrekor
Lifer
- Nov 18, 2005
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No
Just... no.
Even a van sized device of much more immense electrical potential, is not going to produce the EMP effects seen in movies.
If one wants to recall the EMP device used in Ocean's Eleven, that device was based off one at Sandia National Laboratories which is something like 100x200ft in size. And even it doesn't black out towns (perhaps only because that's not its purpose, it's an X-ray producer).
The only way to make an EMP weapon the size of a car or smaller, with present energy technologies, is to make a nuclear weapon. Maybe some far-off energy source like anti-matter, dark matter, whatever sci-fi idea that's remotely feasible will be able to drive energy use/production for this type of device at far smaller scales, but we aren't there yet.
brianmanahan
Lifer
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Jon-T
Senior member
- Jun 5, 2011
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Would a Spark Gap Transmitter be able to do the job?
It's an old style radio transmitter banned in the 30's because it produced interference over a wide band of frequencies. It won't burn out electronics, but, it can block transmission over a wide band.
It's an old style radio transmitter banned in the 30's because it produced interference over a wide band of frequencies. It won't burn out electronics, but, it can block transmission over a wide band.
Spark-gap transmitter - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Scarpozzi
Lifer
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zinfamous
No Lifer
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Not anymore, I suppose.
The cars are gone
https://variety.com/2019/music/news/ric-ocasek-dead-dies-the-cars-1203336527/
forums.anandtech.com
Well I really not supposed to talk about why I have an FBI agent's card...One only wonders why...
Red Squirrel
No Lifer
No need to be so condescending about it.
An EMP is not exactly some sci fi shit, it's not that complicated. Movies exaggerate stuff, you can't compare real world to movies, but one could probably still make an EMP with enough power.
Ever hear of a hard drive or tape degauser? That is basically performing a localized EMP. Pretty sure some of them can run off a regular 120v outlet.
destrekor
Lifer
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I think I was having a rough day, I didn't intend to come across quite that way now that I've given it a read after becoming unfamiliar with it for a while. For that I apologize.
In regards to degaussers and other examples, these are localized and notice the size and distance disparity. You are not going to degauss a drive from meters away with a device that is hardly considered portable. Maybe a rolling rack. Otherwise you put up a degaussing tool right next to the drive or you put the drive into the degausser.
Of course, EMPs are real. Nobody is debating the possibility or existence of the tech necessary to produce an EMP effect -- scale is the name of the discussion here.
In regards to large region coverage of an EMP/blast, if you want that kind of spread, you need a large nuclear device generally detonated high up nearer the magnetic field lines. I'm sure there will be reductions in the size of the machinery needed to scale down the electrical way of generating an EMP.
At this point, the idea of movies obviously being an exaggeration isn't all that helpful for this argument, because there have been no practical demonstrations of the capability -- all EM-sourced destruction has been completely secondary to the studied objective. Unless we happen upon exotic substances like dark matter or anti-matter that can be used in quick turn around for energy purposes, we aren't going to see any kind of actually effective large-scale EMP derived purely from electrical input that can fit inside anything any kind of vehicle can move [though I feel the need to disqualify any mention of the Space Shuttle Crawlers, other massive one-off beasts for specialty equipment moving, etc.]
I think it's just that I find this whole thread to be facetious and not to be entertained as a logical and coherent topic. Wanting to make an "EMP" to be able to wipe a few hard drives, other magnetic matter, and various electrical wiring right next to the device, that's one thing - but generally people bring up "EMP" and think of bringing down entire city blocks at minimum. It takes some serious effort to even degauss a hard drive from a few meters away and hard drives I believe are the most vulnerable, so to take on power grids, parking lots full of cars, etc... we just don't have the technology yet. Again, that's assuming we are ignoring nukes, and even those, from way high up in the atmosphere, still only produce very localized effects. Current conjecture is that nobody has a nuclear weapon capable of taking the entire US offline -- amount of power needed is apparently mindboggling.
The only EMP threat today that anyone needs to worry about is that bright yellow ball of fire in the sky. We narrowly missed what could have very well been the worst disaster to ever strike the modern world, where a seriously high-range X-class flare/CME missed Earth in 2012. The Mayan prophecy was nearly right! IIRC that CME missed us by a few days at most, as in we were staring down the barrel and by time the sun shot its load toward Earth's orbit, Earth had already moved out of the firing line.
sdifox
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If I did I would be trying to use it to solve both the World's Energy and Global Warming issues.
brianmanahan
Lifer
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EMP (threat) is greatly over exaggerated. It's possible but most things are annoyance class devices generating RFI hash rather than bonafide electromagnetic pulse energy capable of mass destruction.
A large airburst in the megaton range could theoretically induce damaging voltages across a broad area but that's certainly not something one is going to acquire with ease.
A large airburst in the megaton range could theoretically induce damaging voltages across a broad area but that's certainly not something one is going to acquire with ease.
destrekor
Lifer
- Nov 18, 2005
- 28,799
- 359
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EMP (threat) is greatly over exaggerated. It's possible but most things are annoyance class devices generating RFI hash rather than bonafide electromagnetic pulse energy capable of mass destruction.
A large airburst in the megaton range could theoretically induce damaging voltages across a broad area but that's certainly not something one is going to acquire with ease.
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