RF and EMI chambers... still can't get Freeview though
Around the corner from the super vibro machine is yet another bank of ovens, but this time, QNAP tests the completed product as whole thing. After all, everything might be well and good when a board is stripped of the case, but how does it stand up to punishment as a completed unit as the end user would use it? This test aims to find out.
Click for larger imageBut there’s still plenty of testing to be done… so let’s get into the RF and EMI chamber!
For all you tinfoil hat wearers out there, an EMI chamber is the very last word in stopping brain control waves… in fact, as far as negating outside radio waves from across the spectrum, even a Faraday Box has nothing on this. The chamber, approximately 20 feet long, ten feet wide and ten feet high is lined with several layers of radio wave blocking material, the last being a secret ceramic tile.
Click for larger imageDominating one end of the chamber is the detector array, a huge antenna six feet long and 4 feet tall, mounted on a hydraulic platform that can raise, lower and tilt the array to detect emissions from the test sample in any direction. When I asked how sensitive it was, I was told that it can pick up electrical signals produced by the body… which made me wonder how a shell-suited Essex boy would measure on the scale…
Click for larger imageThe subject of the current tests was the QNAP QBack-25, a USB auto-backup device. Seems to me that a bloody great array like that is perhaps overkill for such a small device but then again, if you’ve got the kit, why not test the hell out of everything?
Click for larger imageBut QNAP has a couple of these RF and EMI chambers, both of which are in near constant use. Whilst the first chamber tests the pure RF and EMI output of a device, the second chamber tests the same device in a more ‘real world’ setting.
Click for larger imageAs you can see, much like a sound-proof anechoic chamber, the second RF and EMI chamber is lined with shaped foam panels as well as the emissions-stopping layer. The idea here is to test devices again, this time measuring how the RF and EMI emissions are absorbed by a simulated environment. I guess lobbing in a sofa, some scatter cushions and coffee table with a nice throw rug or two isn’t scientific enough for them…