Pooch from Repkord dropped by my studio whereas he was in St. Louis, and requested a easy query:
Can a 3D printer’s heatbed act as an antenna?
A good query, as many an antenna is embedded in a PCB lately… and the traces on a PCB heatbed just like the one utilized in Prusa’s Core One look kinda like an antenna, if you happen to squint the correct means.
Actually, something (or anybody) might be an antenna, given sufficient energy.
However to stay to the scientific technique, I had my Dad come over and present me the ropes with a NanoVNA—a useful gizmo radio engineers and novice radio operators use to measure the efficiency of antenna techniques (amongst different issues).
There is a video detailing the entire journey over on Geerling Engineering, and I’ve embedded it beneath:
Too lengthy, did not watch
If you happen to’d reasonably get to the punchline, right here it’s:
When plugged into the NanoVNA, there have been many notches on the SWR chart, like round 1 GHz, 130 MHz, and 43 MHz. They weren’t well-defined, however there have been undoubtedly frequecies that gave the impression to be okay candidates for radio reception!A 3D printer heatbed is designed for low resistance DC energy for heating, so the traces and design are by no means optimized for RF use (both transmit or obtain)Nevertheless… if you happen to’re inside a mile of a high-power FM transmitting tower (like KYKY-FM in St. Louis, which broadcasts at 30+ kW), you possibly can choose up the sign; clear sufficient for stereo reception!
Now I am questioning whether or not Prusa ought to embody a headphone jack of their subsequent printer design…
