Here is a good question for this thread..... Are LED lights shielded against EMP? Never been able to find a definitive answer on that one. My thought is that any metal cased led is itself a faraday cage. Thoughts?

From every thing I can find out led's are very sensitive to emp.

I've always heard that they're more resistant than incandescent bulbs but the information available isn't very clear. Some theories say that because it's a semi-conductor it would fry in a similar manner to an IC chip. Some say that because it's within a resistor network (as all LED lights need to be), it would be shielded. And some claim that the flashlight itself acts as a Faraday cage and would protect it.

Personally I don't think my gear will ever be exposed to such a pulse and don't really consider it something to worry about.

NOT ANOTHER [next 473 characters censored] EMP QEUSTION!!!! *runs screaming from room*


*walks back in* There, I feel better now. First, I'd say start with a search on EMP (you'll have to spell it out).

The problem with EMP is that everyone's research supports the claim they want to make. Those who want everything to get smoked are able to conclude that everything gets smoked. Those who want EMP to be a minor thing find that most modern technology is too small to act as a viable wave guide. My answer as a computer engineer is, it depends- are we talking about a coin cell light, or LEDs replacing your household light bulbs? How long of leads are you looking at? What is their cross section relative to the pulse's origion? How well shielded is it? Is the circuit grounded or have internal surge suppression? How big a pulse, and how far away? We can ask questions all day and all night for the next week, and we still couldn't be 100% sure of the answers becuase most EMP research results that is available to the public is slightly to very outdated.

IF (big freaking five hundred pound "if" plated in gold and jewels swimming in a pool of crude oil with a 700 peice orchestra bar and a bevy of beautiful people around the edge) a large scale electromagnetic pulse ever actually happens, there are going to be a lot of variables. Will your coin light survive? Who knows- CR123s with the internal regulation might get zapped to. You have a back up plan in any event on the theory you can lose your light, right?

For what it's worth: When I was in the army, they told us that integrated circuts were more susceptible to EMP than vacuum tubes and that Soviet (now Russian) war planes were using very small vacuum tubes.

Sounds like I may be out of luck with my old Petzl unless I want to (shudder) use an incandescant bulb. Thanks for the info.

HJ