How to Make an Electromagnetic Field Detector

In order to solve the mysterious problems with the RC Interceptor I purchased and have been reading the book "High-Speed Digital Design A Handbook of Black Magic" by Howard Johnson and Martin Graham. Based on my current knowledge of electrical engineering, this book is just what I need in order to advance my understanding even further. In this book they describe how to make a very cool electromagnetic field detector which I feel is worth writing about.

You can take an oscilloscope and connect its ground directly to the end of the probe tip. When you do this, you can take the loop and place things inside of it that you want to measure EMF output from. You also have to turn the voltage setting very low in order to see the EMF on the oscilloscope. Take a look at the EMF output from the RC interceptor compared to the Teensy development board. The RC Interceptor is the image corresponding to the crazy waves. There is no way that this bad boy would pass a FCC EMF test! It probably also has a lot to do with why it wont operate in a stable fashion. I could go on forever about a lot of the concepts I have learned from the book, but I would recommend you pick it up. Even though it was published in 1993 this old guy still sells for $60 or so. The main focus is designing circuits for high speed applications. However it contains a LOT of information that anyone trying to design circuits should know.



To summarize, if you couldnt read between the lines, you can make an electromagnetic field detector by connecting the ground clamp of an oscilloscope directly to its probe. You can then place the loop created by the ground and probe near items you would like to measure output from.