YouTuber Idea - Testing Latency Issues From Interference

[Chief Blur Buster]

First, read about Scientific Legitimacy of Latency from EMI Issues.

While these are clandestine end-user tests, more review websites need to make field trips to extremely interference-problematic location (like a country, a city, or a house with 100x+ more interference) and do some detailed tests (e.g. a million-view YouTuber or tester).

Emulate an unfortunate part of the world where all this stuff is behind the wall behind the computer room in a cramped developing-country apartment tower. Or you're emulating a house built underneath high voltage lines -- some countries build them unusually close to the lines!

EMI is location specific. There are billions of places in the world to live, and some computer owners are just plain unlucky.

Idea #1: Computer Desk 10 Meters Under 500,000 Volt Power Lines

Bring a generator (or one of these large batteries) and set up a computer desk under the highest-voltage power transmission lines you can find within driving distance. Look at power companies and find out what voltages they use for their power lines.

Heck, bring a fluorescent tube too, find a location that glows brightest with a vertically-held fluorescent tube -- it's your defacto equivlaent of a geiger counter for the specific radation signature of power transmission.

These ordinary fluorescent tubes (like those in office) aren't connected to electricity. They're glowing from the radation emitted by the high voltage lines!

Now set up a computer desk here (on generator)! Try esports with long mouse cables underneath 500,000 volt power lines between two transmission pylons. All those cables flailing around behaves as antennas for the high voltage electricity. Even coaxial cables are no match for sufficiently strong radiation powerful enough to light fluorescent tubes.

Remember to use a glass-side computer case, so you've eliminated your Faraday Cage, with a big open barn door for electromagnetic radiation to enter your computer. (Not that the puny Faraday cages can even completely repel radation from 500,000 volt power lines, but you need to bluntly swing all doors wide open for intentional tests).

Idea #2: Intentionally Create a Noisy Electrical Environment

Or set up an array of intentional-interference like setting up all of this all at the same time in the same room:
- a 1920s fridge running concurrently with;
- a 1950s TV running concurrently with;
- a 1950s sparkgap-transmitter based japanese remote control toy, running concurrently with;
- an old dryer machine with its cover removed (to eliminate its equivalent of a faraday cage shield), running concurrently with;
- A partially leaky microwave oven, running concurrently with;
- All running in the same small room as a gaming PC in close vincinty with each other
- You can substitute these devices with known major EMI/EMF emitters. Have multiple in the same room, inches or feet away from computer. You may only need 1 or 2, or you may need a huge array running simultaneously (like a next door neighbour)

Remember To Use a Borderline Computer Where EMI More Easily Tips Domino Effects

1. Build a computer with a cheap power supply with poor power factor correction (skip the 80Plus stuff, or go Bronze only) with a budget occasionally-crash-prone motherboard
2. Push the clock limits to just before crashing (slightly overclocked computers are sometimes more interference sensitive)
3. Keep adding interference-generating appliances to the room until the computer finally starts crashing when everything runs.
4. Back it off a bit (e.g. slightly increase distance of computer away from appliances)
5. Then test the computer latencies with these devices enabled/disabled.

If the computer doesn't crash yet, find something else that does. Make sure you're using a sacrificial computer, as bad electricity (surges) can damage a computer, but many YouTubers intentionally destroy computers in the name of popular science and views... So go nuts surrounding a computer with sparking motors and ugly old industrial equipment (similar to mega air conditioners that may be hidden underneath an apartment tower's mechanical floor) and whatever interferency-stuff you can get your hands on from discarded appliances/electronics. Some countries/cities are full of these, while others are not.

This is very voodoo stuff to the main stream, but it's actually already part of university degrees in electronics design.

I suspect we could use a million-view YouTube megastar or a web reviewer, to do some tests. This is NOT Blur Busters speciality, but some parts of the world is prone to really nasty interference. Not everyone is as lucky to have great electricity and free of interference as we are.

Disclaimer: Electricity and old appliances can be dangerous! In all cases, do safety precautions, stay safe, "don't do this at home", etc.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Thread edited/updated with "intentionally set up an esports rig on a generator under high voltage lines" idea.

Yes, you heard right. This is a new YouTuber idea for this fairly unusual subject (albiet very scientifically real problem). Drag your computer all the way to the grass field directly under power lines, hook the gaming computer to the generator, and start doing latency tests. Test offline latencies while there, and while away from power lines. Framerates may be a few percent lower, etc.

Find the highest voltage lines you can find. It may not work with 100 kilovolt lines; you may need to find higher voltage lines, like 500 kilovolts (a longer drive away) or even 735 kilovolts to 1 megavolt (fly to Quebec / China). Those voltages have a lot more radiation.

Yes, 100 kilovolt lines could also work too, if you can get a lot closer to them than with 500 kilovolt. Depends on the country you live in, you might get lucky and find a highway overpass that gets unusually close to 100 kiovolt lines (mere feet underneath) -- I've witnessed some crazy-close locations, standing on a bridge staring at high voltage lines from a distance only maybe 4-5 times the length of the ribbed disc insulator holding up the lines (the length of the insulator is a good indication of how much voltage the line are carrying)-- crazy close. So close that I could have easily hand-thrown some metal rope and watch major hell break loose from heaven above after being instantly killed. But watch those steel girders of your overpass, the concrete overpasses pass through radation better.

If you want to doublecheck, count the discs of the insulator. 500 kilovolt lines use insulators that are about 24 discs long! Each insulator disc is about 5" to 10" long, so the longest insulator chain for 735 kilovolt lines are literally something like 6 meters long (about 20 feet). And never get closer to these power lines than maybe three or four times the length of these insulators. Too close, and you risk a spark jumping from the lines to your body, probably killing you instantly. And definitely avoid testing on humid/rainy days.

Also, I can't put enough of a disclaimer that youtubers have been killed from things like climbing power lines for selfies, so don't be that stupid. Oh, and please don't climb power transmission pylons just to get more likes/views. However, roaming the grass fields underneath power lines is pretty much generally fine, as that's why they build towers to keep lines high enough away from the ground to prevent a sudden lightining-bolt style spark jumping to the ground. People walk dogs under power lines all the time in the nice open-to-public grassy fields under power towers, and it's fine to walk under. Trails and a bicycle cargo trailer can help pull your computer to a secluded site too. Common sense prevails.

Now, don't forget the rule of the inverse. Doubling distance away from power transmission lines is only 1/4th EMI. Quadruple distance is only 1/16th EMI. The EMI from power transmission is wireless (over the air), but it can induct currents in wires such as mouse cables, USB cables, but can also wreak havoc on longer circuit lines (such as PCI Express bus lines).

You need to intentionally inject an error-correction storm-from-EMI that adds latencies. (That's how EMI causes latencies). Turn your PCIe lanes into a crappy DSL connection, in a manner of speaking!

So try to get as close as possible -- find a small grass hill between power pylons. Use a fluorescent tube at night as a makeshift radiation meter. Once you found the highest voltage lines, you may want to download GIS systems or use Google Maps Satellite (with 3D altimeter information) to plot out likely locations where highest voltage power transmission lines are closest to the surface of Earth.

There are many possible workflows to pull this off, so do your homework well. Do not just find a random location -- you need to cherrypick. American homes aren't closer to power lines than the homes in some countries, for example. So you may have to intentionally drag out a generator-powered computer desk much closer, to emulate an unluckier resident of Planet Earth.