Hello Scott, Here are my rambling thoughts....
For the EU, I think you need to comply with the EMC Directive because I recon your product satisfies the following Directive definition... /‘apparatus’ means any finished appliance or combination thereof made commercially available as a single functional unit, intended for the end user and liable to generate electromagnetic disturbance, or the performance of which is liable to be affected by such disturbance;/ Think about a wall-wart power supply, usless by itself, but it still subject to the EMCD. You need to meet the Directive’s “Essential Requirements”.... 1. Protection requirements Equipment shall be so designed and manufactured, having regard to the state of the art, as to ensure that: (a) the electromagnetic disturbance generated does not exceed the level above which radio and telecommunications equipment or other equipment cannot operate as intended; (b) it has a level of immunity to the electromagnetic disturbance to be expected in its intended use which allows it to operate without unacceptable degradation of its intended use. >From what little I know about your product, in the case of (a) disturbance, I >would write a technical rationale and justification as to how the product >cannot produce electromagnetic interference due to the nature of its design >and operating characteristics. Your product appears to include active gain >stages and therefore has the risk potential of parasitic oscillation. Some >brief measurements with a high impedance oscilloscope probe or near-field >probes and a spectrum analyser /may/ be prudent and include the results in >your justification. In the case of (b) immunity, assuming there is no harmonised standard for you product, I would define my acceptable performance degradation and the disturbance levels by drawing from standards for similar products or from standards for similar markets, e.g. consumer, industrial, vehicular etc., wherever you product is aimed at. You will probably have to test this, radiated immunity as a minimum, perhaps ESD and maybe conducted immunity if there is risk of EMI from the host product. Sounds to me like a very short day at the cheapest test lab you can find, provided it has documented test methods for the tests you have chosen, reasonable quality procedures and calibration. Take the lab’s raw logbook results, plenty of photographs, copies of calibration certificates and write them up yourself, or splash out on a test report if you wish. To do nothing or to say it doesn’t matter if the product fails under electromagnetic disturbance wouldn’t be acceptable, that’s right against the spirit of the Directive which we (well, I) believe you need to meet. Consumers like me expect stuff to work while the vacuum cleaner's running, my daughter's on Facebook via the wireless router, I'm chatting to a friend on my mobile while the 4 DECT phones are ringing, the iron's thermostat is clicking on and off, the washing machine's running, and when I operate it after shuffling across the carpet in my nylon trousers (fussy bunch.... consumers). Compile your product schematics and drawings (or a list thereof), your ratioale and justification for meeting the emissions requirements, your rationale for choosing your performance criteria and disturbance levels, write-ups of the testing you undertook, and hey-presto, you have your EMC Directive Technical Construction File, give it a document name or number. Oh, and don't forget your EU Declaration of Conformity. Just what I'd do, but follow at your own risk :-) T ----- Original Message ----- From: Scott Douglas Sent: 07/12/13 02:47 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [PSES] EMC Required? Hi folks, Consider a simple circuit. IR diode, a transistor or two, some resistors and caps. Receives input from IR remote, converts to electrical and sends down a wire. No clock in the thing so you could call is passive. But does it need EMC testing for US or EU? The IR signal will be in the 35-50 kHz range so pulses down the wire will be the same. Does this make it fit within the realm of EMC required? The device is sold by itself without other products, but is always connected to something else in use. Something else could be a wide variety of anything. I think of it like a stand-alone audio speaker. Purely a passive device that is driven by signals that fall within the EMC required realm. So do you do EMC or not? Looking forward to your opinions on this. Scott - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-! [email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]> - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]>
