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#1
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solar flare resistant PC cases ?
A friend of mine keeps his USB drives in biscuit tins, to protect
against a monster solar flare. He said there were flares in 1859 and 1921 that would have crippled lots of electronic devices, and there is a good chance of another within our lifetime. And when it happens, banking and utilties would crash, so you might not be able to rush out a buy a replacement anyway. So it got me thinking: how many devices are inside a metal box that can shield them? I had at look at some PC cases. Obviously the wanky gamer cases with perpex sides are out. And in many cases, the front panel is mostly plastic - covers for DVD or floppy bays, and a plastic mesh air filter lower down. So what cases have a front that is nearly all metal? And what of the ventilation holes you see all over cases? How small do the holes have to be offer protection? |
#2
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solar flare resistant PC cases ?
On Thu, 16 May 2013 04:06:18 -0700 (PDT), BW wrote:
A friend of mine keeps his USB drives in biscuit tins, to protect against a monster solar flare. He said there were flares in 1859 and 1921 that would have crippled lots of electronic devices, and there is a good chance of another within our lifetime. And when it happens, banking and utilties would crash, so you might not be able to rush out a buy a replacement anyway. So it got me thinking: how many devices are inside a metal box that can shield them? I had at look at some PC cases. Obviously the wanky gamer cases with perpex sides are out. And in many cases, the front panel is mostly plastic - covers for DVD or floppy bays, and a plastic mesh air filter lower down. So what cases have a front that is nearly all metal? And what of the ventilation holes you see all over cases? How small do the holes have to be offer protection? 0.000001 NM -- |
#3
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solar flare resistant PC cases ?
BW wrote:
A friend of mine keeps his USB drives in biscuit tins, to protect against a monster solar flare. He said there were flares in 1859 and 1921 that would have crippled lots of electronic devices, and there is a good chance of another within our lifetime. And when it happens, banking and utilties would crash, so you might not be able to rush out a buy a replacement anyway. So it got me thinking: how many devices are inside a metal box that can shield them? I had at look at some PC cases. Obviously the wanky gamer cases with perpex sides are out. And in many cases, the front panel is mostly plastic - covers for DVD or floppy bays, and a plastic mesh air filter lower down. So what cases have a front that is nearly all metal? And what of the ventilation holes you see all over cases? How small do the holes have to be offer protection? The secret to any form of protection, is knowing what the threat is. I wouldn't be "reaching for my biscuit tin", without knowing whether it would truly be effective or not. ******* Solar flares affect satellites, because the satellite is outside the protective layers around the Earth (the atmosphere, the magnetosphere). Solar flares also affect long-distance power transmission lines, by inducing a current into them. Your computer does not have long enough dimensions to be affected, but the connection to the power grid, might be an exposure. (I don't know what the rise time of such an event is. It could be slow enough, the HVDC transmission system is destroyed, but other levels of the power system, open breakers in time.) If an actual radiation pulse made it through, it would likely have as much affect on you, as on your computer. There are other mechanisms, unlikely ones, that can do something like that. I'd be more concerned about one of these events. Move to the basement, and cover the ceiling with lead plate. http://news.discovery.com/space/astr...ays-130207.htm If the threat you were protecting against, was E1 from an EMP, perhaps a Faraday cage constructed around the computer would suffice. With a rise time of 5 nanoseconds, the fundamental is going to be somewhere around 200MHz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare Maybe you could find a biscuit tin as big as the computer, but then, you'd have a *lot* of biscuits to eat. Your microwave oven door, demonstrates the size of hole to block 2.45GHz radio signals. Just to give some idea how it's done. The door is a high pass filter, which cuts off 2.45GHz or lower. Being a high pass filter, it passes light (which is a very high frequency by comparison). Changing the size of the hole, changes the filter corner frequency. Apparently, the circular shape of the hole, is so there is no filter performance dependence, on microwave polarization. (Figure 5-7 on page 63.) http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent...context=theses While the fundamental of the E1 of the EMP, might be 200MHz, you might still want to raise the high pass frequency of the filter, just to ensure the large magnitude of voltage, is filtered out. For all I know, a small mesh might still be called for. ******* Physicists like Faraday cages. There is an example of one here. A physicist typically makes the cage large enough, so the human operator can sit inside (so you can monitor equipment or make adjustments). http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...raday_cage.jpg We had those kinds of cages in the basement of our university physics building. The Faraday cage used pure copper window screen, which admitted fresh air. The seams are done with copper foil. Stuff was likely soldered together, for good electrical performance. Really very nice looking construction job. And at the time, graduate students used to do their homework inside them. The cage was big enough for a card table and chair, and grad students would fight over who got to use them (it was a bit of a joke amongst them - they have a strange sense of humor anyway - you should try working there sometime...). Paul |
#4
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solar flare resistant PC cases ?
"BW" wrote: A friend of mine keeps his USB drives in biscuit tins, to protect against a monster solar flare. He said there were flares in 1859 and 1921 that would have crippled lots of electronic devices, and there is a good chance of another within our lifetime. And when it happens, banking and utilties would crash, so you might not be able to rush out a buy a replacement anyway. So it got me thinking: how many devices are inside a metal box that can shield them? I had at look at some PC cases. Obviously the wanky gamer cases with perpex sides are out. And in many cases, the front panel is mostly plastic - covers for DVD or floppy bays, and a plastic mesh air filter lower down. So what cases have a front that is nearly all metal? And what of the ventilation holes you see all over cases? How small do the holes have to be offer protection? Solar flares are charged particles thrown off the sun by giant bursting loops of magnetic field. They are not gamma radiation or other kind of electromagnetic radiation, and that is why we get a day or two warning of their arrival. They are largely deflected by the planet's magnetic field, and some of the particles are funneled into the polar regions (not exactly at the poles, though) where they impact the upper atmosphere, giving the Northern and Southern Lights. Since the sun doesn't have much in the way of heavy elements, most of the particles are hydrogen nuclei (protons, and a few proton/neutron pairs from deuterium), and helium nuclei (two protons bound with one or two neutrons), and single electrons. Since the particles are charged, those that reach the ground are greatly diminished in kinetic energy due to interactions with the atmosphere, and simple charge-dissipation should suffice to bleed off any charge build-up. *TimDaniels* |
#5
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solar flare resistant PC cases ?
A friend of mine keeps his USB drives in biscuit tins, to protect
against a monster solar flare. I hired a crane to place a large faraday box over my house . . . |
#6
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solar flare resistant PC cases ?
On Thu, 16 May 2013 04:06:18 -0700 (PDT), BW
wrote: A friend of mine keeps his USB drives in biscuit tins, to protect against a monster solar flare. He said there were flares in 1859 and 1921 that would have crippled lots of electronic devices, and there is a good chance of another within our lifetime. And when it happens, banking and utilties would crash, so you might not be able to rush out a buy a replacement anyway. So it got me thinking: how many devices are inside a metal box that can shield them? I had at look at some PC cases. Obviously the wanky gamer cases with perpex sides are out. And in many cases, the front panel is mostly plastic - covers for DVD or floppy bays, and a plastic mesh air filter lower down. So what cases have a front that is nearly all metal? And what of the ventilation holes you see all over cases? How small do the holes have to be offer protection? It won't work--you've got a nice antenna feeding the power into the drive--namely, the USB cable. |
#7
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solar flare resistant PC cases ?
On Thu, 16 May 2013 04:06:18 -0700 (PDT), BW
wrote: ....a monster solar flare. He said there were flares in 1859 and 1921 that would have crippled lots of electronic devices, and there is a good chance of another within our lifetime. And when it happens, banking and utilties would crash . . . -- That would be the prototypically the emergent consciousness within such empiricism of the loci standi of eminence ensuing from Prussian and then Austrian collectivism preceding a fundamental nature and behest for mechanistic warfare, as the world knows even residually today;- typically regarded for patriotic fervor at its highest frenzy, when the King of Waltz Time, Strauss the Younger of Johann, was in spirit of jubilant times resurrected for suitable flurries of waltzing on a polished porticos, everywhere, whence trodden boots of a newly organised German militia steeped in a lively two-step, indeed, to a newly regained frontier given Austria, once again, under old Germanic auspices. Although predominate Dutch mercantilism allied with Royal Navy of course predates any such custom as first discovered by templars erected to coffee houses, wherein conduct ensured its earliest securities were formally invested bylaws of contractual agreement on and in a hold figuratively fraught with debilitating tempests, naturally or otherwise incurred-- margin options for shoring goods as capitalistic expenditures succicently were so in such entrenched, well in form and manner -- for the societal omnibus, weighty indeed, to exact a pervasive power inveighed to bear upon in reception and consequence to mechanistic warfare, whenupon a saddled Germany was charged to remunerate over a sum(s) debt to total expenditures shared by all within the gestalt of an inspired Michavillian juggernaut directly unveiled. |
#8
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solar flare resistant PC cases ?
On May 17, 6:30*am, Loren Pechtel wrote:
It won't work--you've got a nice antenna feeding the power into the drive--namely, the USB cable. He is not operating them in the tins; they are just for storage. They are kept in a different room to the computers, to minimise the chance of damage to both, and also hidden out of sight of burglars. |
#9
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solar flare resistant PC cases ?
On Fri, 17 May 2013 03:33:53 -0700 (PDT), BW
wrote: On May 17, 6:30*am, Loren Pechtel wrote: It won't work--you've got a nice antenna feeding the power into the drive--namely, the USB cable. He is not operating them in the tins; they are just for storage. They are kept in a different room to the computers, to minimise the chance of damage to both, and also hidden out of sight of burglars. Then he wants a faraday cage. Someone with more knowledge of it than I can tell you how small the holes must be. The case is *NOT* adequate. It still doesn't matter, though, if we get hit that bad they'll be useless becuase there won't be any power. |
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