Sensor for detecting electric field?

Other Hardware Sensors
1

Hi all.

I'm new here - my first post! :slight_smile:

I need to be able to detect an electric field, in this case from jammers. My friend is
an operator, and has arcade and pinball machines in the field. He also has slot machines,
and would like to be able to detect when a jammer is being used on them.

Any advice would be great! I have several Arduinos lying around for the job :slight_smile:

Thanks!

2

Define the type of jammers you expect to be used on the machines. An EMP jammer tries to induct power on the circuit, so it's more difficult to keep the Arduino running in the existence of such a field than to detect it. Take care that the electronic is shielded perfectly (and grounded), so the jammer won't succeed. If you want detect the existence of a jammer, define what the minimal power is that you want to detect. If that limit is to low you will detect every cell phone of a user in front of the machine.

3

Interesting problem. How do you propose to not detect the electric fields from the game equipment?

Paul

4

Paul_KD7HB:
Interesting problem. How do you propose to not detect the electric fields from the game equipment?

Paul

I would assume that the amplitude would be a lot higher for the jammer, than the electronics?

Yes, I would have to do something like "if sensor value is larger than, then".

But I am unsure about what kind of sensor I need for this?

Thanks,

Nicholas

5

Try a metal plate, insulated, not grounded, place it near the front of the machine, or outside the machine facing the customer, around the most sensitive electronics. This will act as your antenna. use the potential between it and ground for your signal, and protect your device with a capacitor, or 1:1 transformer/isolator. it will take some experimentation with real world conditions. or your could just shield all your electronics and wires. Google "Faraday Box" on how to protect the equipment. Google "Tesla"'s work on picking up electric fields.

6

What do you think about something like this?

7

AE35:
What do you think about something like this?
EMP sensor / module for lightning detection | eBay

That's funny! It is just a simple "field strength meter". The OP should look at some of the hundreds of circuits and products for field strength meters.

I saw an EMP detector built by Boeing for the Air Force. It was a rack of a dozen or more simple receivers and a correlator. Each receiver was fix tuned for a frequency covering the spectrum from about 100 KHz to 30 MHz. The correlator looked for a pulse from each of the receivers at close to the same instant and this was an EMP.

Did it work? Don't know.

Paul