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Need a Circuit Schematic to detect Static Charge with an Ammeter Answered

I been trying to find a Circuit Sim app to play around with and create a real circuit that can detect Static charge, which in theory Paranormal Investigators say ghosts can give off a static DC charge to the meter. The only thing I can do is....build this little Circuit like this http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/emotor/chargdet.html - just with a LED to dim indicating a Charge, but I wanna go for a more complex version of this by adding in an ammeter to Detect the Charge as (Milliamps) MA about 0-20 for sure, but I don't know how to make do to that.

So I been wanting to build something both cool and try to detect Ghosts with this thing, and just have fun with Circuitry.


You won't be able to build one with an Amp meter. What that circuit is detecting is Electromagnetic Fluctuation (EMF). The circuit isn't detecting current. It's detecting the small fluctuations in the magnetic field. A search for Arduino EMF detectors will lend you many projects. Many of which use a light bar to indicate the strength of the magnetic field being detected. The detected input can be translated by the Arduino into an analog output to drive a small 0V-5V analog meter with some tweaks to the code. You can find more in depth discussion of such projects at the Arduino Forums.

I could use a Multimeter and set it VIA on mA and see what's the reading if I can see the physical number in mA if it low I'll revise the Electro static circuit of this icircuit can help me a lot.

Measuring the amperage at the LED will give you the same number no matter what. The EMF is causing a small static charge that the antenna is picking up. This is an AC charge and as it fluctuates up and down it's triggering that transistor on and off vary rapidly. The 1Meg resistor is there to slow it down. The same voltage and current is being supplied to the LED every time that transistor turns on. The rate at which the transistor is flipping on and off is affecting how bright or dim the LED is. This is too basic of a circuit to do anything interesting with and certainly couldn't pass as an exceptionable means of detecting the supernatural. Not that there is such a thing as exceptionable tech for ghost detection. Look into using a better EMF circuit.

There's no good priced Arduino that can be turned into a EMF, I'm on a very tight spending limit of like 90 dollars, depending on how I want to build a EMF with Ammeter or volts whatever the REAL EMF ghost Detectors use. Sparkfun only has the 0-5 Volts panel not wanna go with amazon to get a higher one because it's from china.

The arduino is your best bet. You can get a vary basic model for $30. A 5V analog meter shouldn't be more than $7 before shipping. 5V is all you need since the Arduino only works with 5V. The setup only requires a 3.3 M resistor and some wire. The Arduino is able to detect the fluctuations and gives you the ability to display or manipulate that information in almost any way you want. You can have it displayed on your analog meter, display a number on a 7 segment display, or just light up LEDs on an LED light bar. Once prototyped on a basic arduino you can buy just the chip with arduino loaded onto it from sparkfun for about $14. Then all you need is a crystal and you can make a bunch of these things for a decent price and put them in a nice small package.

I'll get the Uno Model from Sparkfun https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11021 they price it at $24.95 which I'll take along with some 2 volt meters and 2 Ammeters and will be powered with a 9v battery but I'll need to drop the voltage for the circuit, so how much ohms I'll need to drop it to 4-5 volts? I'll use the volt one and look at the LED bar EMF one to program the Volt meter,

You can adjust the output from the arduino in code. The analog outputs can basically go from 0 to 5v. Just a matter of doing the math so that the highest possible reading from the analog input doesn't exceed 2V on your analog output to the meter.

The LED bar one has each segment of the bar on a different Digital output. So as the reading gets to a certain level the arduino turns on the next digital pin. The analog meter will need to me more dynamic than that. It will take some playing around to get it right. You'll find all the help you need at the Arduino frorums.

Okay what kind of math I'll need, Basic? advanced? and other thing do I really need a Uno Shield or I can just stick a breadboard with some stackable pins and use that? Plus I would love the Voltage Analog meter to max out to 5v so I'll play around with the coding to make it just right.