Electronic – Using PC audio to listen to electrical noise on power line

computersfilterinterferencenoise

I have done a bit of research on digital filtering and I was wondering if it would be possible to use the audio hardware of my computer tu listen to the electrical noise on my powerline ? If it is possible, does anyone have an idea of how to proceed ?

I was thinking I could maybe plug a cable linked to the house line into the microphone input channel of the computer. But I don't know how I would have to proceed to get it to work… I can imagine the computer not liking the 240V straight from the mains very much.

The reason why I'm interested in this is to be able to monitor the activity of some of the appliances around the house based on the conducted interference they cause on the house power line. From what I have read I expect the frequencies of the interferences to be around 40 to 80 kHz.

Best Answer

NEVER make a straight connection between mains power and any other device unless you 100% know what you're doing. Since you have to ask, I assume you lack the knowledge to work with mains voltage directly.

Indeed computers do not like straight connections to mains but computers that are blown up can be replaced. However, humans can die when connected to mains.

You will need to use a mains transformer, if you have an old mains adapter that supplies an AC voltage like 12V AC, this could be used safely. Adapters that output a DC voltage are NOT suitable for what you want.