This DIY Electromagnetic Pulse Generator (EMP) Is Easy to Assemble and Does Not Fry Small Electronics
If you’re looking to get your hands dirty on a semi-complicated electronic project, this DIY EMP generator is a fun, if not a bit dangerous build to try. It won’t fry very much except for very short distances, so you have to be careful with it, but you’ll learn a lot in the process.
The video above tells the story, and the project is actually the work of YouTuber FPS Weapons . Towards the end of the video, you can see how he used it to create the oldest Game Boy Advance boot loop and how he toasted a couple of old smartphones. Of course, if you build it yourself, you shouldn’t be running around and killing human peripherals, and anything even remotely well protected can withstand what it will produce – but the process of creating this will teach you a little about electromagnetic fields, and how to generate them. and how strong they can be depending on the energy source you provide. Hackaday Notes:
The device is pretty simple. A constant current source, in this case an 18650 lithium battery, sends power to the “1000kV EHV ignition coil” (as it is called in the eBay listing) at the push of a button. A spark gap is used to simultaneously discharge a large number of magic pixies into a coil, which generates a magnetic pulse strong enough to cause an unexpected voltage inside a piece of digital electronics. This usually activates a reset contact or something similar, disrupting the normal operation of the device.
While you are unlikely to really seriously damage anything with this little EMP, it can still interrupt an important memory write or radio signal and thus damage it. This is a great way to experience the real shock of life if you’re not careful. Either from an HVDC converter or FCC fines.
This last part is important to note, so if you do decide to try this project, keep it within your own home or local hacking space where you can freely experiment with such things.
How to Make a Portable EMP Silencer »Wiki Useful FPS Weapons (YouTube) | via Hackaday