Help Building A Faraday Cage

[Victor43]

Hello everyone.

 

Here is my interest and please feel free to ask questions. What I want is to build a Faraday Cage using tightly woven aluminum window screen mesh to keep all Radio Frequencies (1 MHz to 300+ GHz) out of this enclosure so that there is no RF signals entering or exiting the cage. What I would like to know is a few things. First is it possible to bring in power i.e. via a power bar power cable and a lan cable into this RF protected screen room without compromising (leakage) the room ? Secondly are there any places out there (online including) that I can purchase or download a design so that a general contractor can construct this enclosure. I need to construct a room, including a door of about 6' x 6' x 5' (L x W x H) which will house certain computerized items. Lastly will aluminum (window screen) mesh with spacing of a maximum 1 mm work for the entire frequency range ? This project is simply an experiment of mine and there is no other purpose of doing so. I also need to be able to disassemble the cage in the future in the event I decide to move out and move to a different house. Unfortunately I am not a contractor however I will give it a go in case I cannot find anyone who might be able to construct this room. Does anyone know of any architects or engineers that can layout the design in order to construct this room ? It does not matter where these professionals are located inside North America even though I am in Ottawa, Canada.

 

One final note does anyone know if the special paint that is mentioned on the net that keeps out RF Radiation actually works ? Would applying this paint be as effective as the above described enclosure in keeping out all RF signals ? Would it work as a compliment to the enclosure ?

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

 

Vm

Edited May 23, 2012 by Victor43

[Ken]

Hello everyone.

 

Here is my interest and please feel free to ask questions. What I want is to build a Faraday Cage using tightly woven aluminum window screen mesh to keep all Radio Frequencies (1 MHz to 300+ GHz) out of this enclosure so that there is no RF signals entering or exiting the cage. What I would like to know is a few things. First is it possible to bring in power i.e. via a power bar power cable and a lan cable into this RF protected screen room without compromising (leakage) the room ? Secondly are there any places out there (online including) that I can purchase or download a design so that a general contractor can construct this enclosure. I need to construct a room, including a door of about 6' x 6' x 5' (L x W x H) which will house certain computerized items. Lastly will aluminum (window screen) mesh with spacing of a maximum 1 mm work for the entire frequency range ? This project is simply an experiment of mine and there is no other purpose of doing so. I also need to be able to disassemble the cage in the future in the event I decide to move out and move to a different house. Unfortunately I am not a contractor however I will give it a go in case I cannot find anyone who might be able to construct this room. Does anyone know of any architects or engineers that can layout the design in order to construct this room ? It does not matter where these professionals are located inside North America even though I am in Ottawa, Canada.

 

One final note does anyone know if the special paint that is mentioned on the net that keeps out RF Radiation actually works ? Would applying this paint be as effective as the above described enclosure in keeping out all RF signals ? Would it work as a compliment to the enclosure ?

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

 

Vm

 

It's more expensive but I think that copper screening would be better. Any AC is going to carry RF that it picks up in the outside environment. You'd do better with 12VDC from batteries inside the cage, but the networking will be a problem.

 

Grounding can be problematic, you need to avoid ground loops by tying all grounds individually to a single grounding point.

It's been a long time since I did any electrophysiological research but I do recall having a "random" transient that I couldn't eliminate until I realized that it was from the elevator doors opening about 50 ft from my lab. At that point I eliminated my connections to an external recorder and moved it into the cage. <_<

[Victor43]

It's more expensive but I think that copper screening would be better. Any AC is going to carry RF that it picks up in the outside environment. You'd do better with 12VDC from batteries inside the cage, but the networking will be a problem.

 

Grounding can be problematic, you need to avoid ground loops by tying all grounds individually to a single grounding point.

It's been a long time since I did any electrophysiological research but I do recall having a "random" transient that I couldn't eliminate until I realized that it was from the elevator doors opening about 50 ft from my lab. At that point I eliminated my connections to an external recorder and moved it into the cage. <_<

 

Thank you for the reply. Could you explain a little a bit further about the case if I did not ground the cage/room properly ? What would be the outcome ? Would it allow unwanted RF to leak into the room ? How did the external recorder allow unwanted RF signals into the cage ?

 

Lastly could you point me in the direction about the kind of door that will be needed in order to shield any unwanted RF signals that makes it way through door seams/hinges and what not ?

 

Thanks again

 

Victor

Edited May 31, 2012 by Victor43