Automower interference madness

[Svenne]

A question to tech-savvy musicians ...

You know these kinds of lawn robots that do the mowing for you?

Well, my neighbour got one last year. Pretty great that I don't have to suffer through his endless mowing sessions, right?

Sadly a whole new world of frustration arose when I found out that such a device uses a magnetic field to know where the boundaries of the lawn are ... and that magnetic field is picked up by guitar (and bass) pickups, resulting in a nasty interference that sounds something like this through a high gain amp: https://www.dropbox.com/s/b5u4ro189kdqs8a/sukablyat.mp3?dl=0

My home recording activities are basically made impossible from spring to fall by this interference. I have tried different cables, power conditioners, moving my setup to different rooms, and so forth. All in vain. The only thing that works is asking my neighbour to shut down the mower, which is not a workable situation.

Does anybody here have a good idea how to deal with this? I'm aware that building a Faraday cage should theoretically work, but I'm not in the position to do any modifications to the house. The manufacturer of the device doesn't reply to my questions (but did subscribe me to their newsletter- thanks!).

It is possible to disrupt or knock out such a magnetic field?

 

[Pharaoh's Curse]

Some sort of magnetic shielding perhaps? Maybe run cables through covered conduit?

https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-shi...ocphy=9005660&hvtargid=pla-351535732057&psc=1

 

[Svenne]

Hello, thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately that does not work. The interference sent out by that device is "atmospheric," so to speak, and is picked up by the pickups guitars. :-(

 

[Pharaoh's Curse]

Hello, thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately that does not work. The interference sent out by that device is "atmospheric," so to speak, and is picked up by the pickups guitars. :-(

That sucks, maybe you could line the pickup cavity's with that shielding?

Edit* That might mess with your pickups though, don't know man?

 

[Svenne]

That sucks, maybe you could line the pickup cavity's with that shielding?

Edit* That might mess with your pickups though, don't know man?

That doesn't work, I'm afraid. These contraptions even distort record (vinyl) players with their magnetic field. I even read about people with hearing aids getting distortion when there's one around. I fear that these things will become a problem for a lot of guitarists around the world.

My only hope is to "cancel out" the magnetic field this thing generates at the source. I'm not sure how to do that with my high school physics knowledge. :-(

 

[newamerikangospel]

I am planning out an official studio buildout, and because of all this nonsense I had thought alot about building a farraday cage under the sheetrock.

 

[Svenne]

Is this a problem you are dealing with right now or are you planning on building a faraday cage as a precaution?

Hard to believe that I seem to be the only guitarist with this problem. I spot these contraptions everywhere.

 

[newamerikangospel]

I have home security system that has a cellular component in a closet by the room I am currently in, and it causes a pretty consistent "hum"/intermittent buzz on my closest monitor, and I have noticed a very similar one in my hardware preamp/eq. With my future plans of going into a hybrid mixing setup, I figure Iay as well plan for the seepage of signals. Worst case scenario I dont need it and everything will be clean in the converted living room/dining room.