I’m not going to bother picking a side in the debate as to what the ‘REM’ in ‘REM pod’ actually stands for. ‘Remote Electronic Monitoring’? ‘Radiating Electro-Magneticity’? Either way, it has something to do with electromagnetic fields. As ghost hunters claim that spirits will utilise and disturb electromagnetic fields (EMF) in order to ‘communicate’, you can see how this links up. If a ghost approaches the device, it will light up and make a sound. We’ve talked about this when we discussed the EMF meter.
They wave EMF meters around to either find nothing, or detect an electromagnetic field. Especially with the cheaper K-II style devices, they are very dependent on how they handled. These ones (curiously preferred by paranormal investigators) only measure in one plane at one time. Without manipulating them on every axis, it’s impossible to confirm a proper negative result. And when they get a positive result, it’s often caused by something innocuous: wires, electrical equipment, mobile phones, walkie talkies, even the user being grounded can cause a deflection… if only they checked for those things, eh.
Now I’ve seen some investigators waving REM pods around too, negating the one benefit of it. Wait! What? A benefit? Let me explain. You switch it on, put it down, and walk way. When used correctly, the REM pod removes a concern often levelled by skeptics- that of user interference. Eliminating the interaction of the user makes this device sound much more like it hits the ‘scientific’ button. Alas, this small truth is the best way to sell the bigger lie.
Let’s get technical. The REM pod is essentially a Colpitts oscillator containing two capacitors, coupled with an NPN transistor that creates a stable sine wave at a certain frequency depending on the resistance of the circuity. With an antenna attached to the circuit, our own body will act as another capacitor to ground, and change the oscillation frequency slightly. This all sounds terribly complicated to anyone without a degree in electronic engineering, so let’s show you what it really is, in the following video.
Are these similarities a coincidence? Hardly, the REM pod is nothing more than a theremin. Actually, it’s only a Junior Theremin, available from Rapid Electronics, for just over £10, a huge saving over the £50 price tag for a REM POD from a UK-based shop for ghost hunting. Okay, for a tenner, you do have to solder it together yourself, and you’ll still be wanting to extend the wires to the LED bulbs, add a proper aerial, introduce an on/off switch, and find a box to mount all this stuff in it. In reality, these don’t cost a lot.
The Assembly: Levelling Up
Up till now, you’ve wired stuff on a breadboard; plugging jumper wires into sockets. You’re asking yourself whether this is feasible. Can I take on a project like this fiddly? Of course you can. It’s what we’ve been building up to. It may be the first time you’ve soldered something, but we’ll get to that in a moment. Open the box and these are your instructions that come with the bag of components. My instructions were in black and white, so relish in this colour version:
What do you need to know before you make this project? Obviously, these components are tiny, fragile, sharp, easy to mix up, and can be inserted the wrong way round. Don’t panic. If you are thorough, and take your time, you’ll have no problems, and still safely create this project. Look carefully at the pictures and the board, and you’ll finish up with a working REM pod. If you’re feeling confident you can plan to add an on/off switch and extend the lights before you start. Otherwise, build it as it is. You can always tweak it later by desoldering some bits and adding in some new wires. Let’s look at some fiddly bits.
Resistors
These never have numbers on them, but lines of colour, each representing a digit or a multiplier. Using a magnifying glass, divide them carefully according to the colours you have on the sheet. I gently poke them through the page where they are listed in section 1. Three of them are identical, so separate these 100R resistors first. Now you should have two that are identical; these are your 1K components. By this time, you should have two left, one with green (1M) and one with orange (10K). Separating them in this way works well with this project, and offers good practice for how to go about identifying them in later projects.
Capacitors and LEDs
These can be put in the wrong way round, so remember that the short end is -ve. Look carefully at the board and instructions to see how these are identified. In this project, the LEDs are not attached identically, but switch around each time, so take care.
Integrated Circuits
‘Chips’ to you and me. These slot into the sockets you have soldered to the board and are not resoldered again. You do need to be careful when you poke them in the sockets, as it’s really easy to bend a leg. Be slow and careful. Also, pay attention to the notch on the socket and chip, ensuring they are both aligned with how it is printed on the board.
Okay, that’s all the important stuff. Just double check all your stuff before you switch it on.
Some notes on soldering
If you’ve done this before, your first time probably wasn’t a memory you chose to remember. This is not a bad project to practice with, as the board is quite spacious underneath. What are you soldering with? If it looks like a poker from grandad’s furnace, it’s time to treat yourself to something more modern and refined. I’ve got something like below. I set it to 400 degrees, and the solder has a flux core which makes it a doddle to use with the small chisel tip. I can see what I’m doing because it has a magnifier and light built in, and two helping hands that hold stuff still.
Even if you have the stuff, it doesn’t make you good at it. To get the best from your project, watch the next video in its entirety. Warning, it is in American-English and they cannot properly say ‘soldering’, but say ‘soddering’. If you can get past that barrier, your beginners start to soldering will be vastly improved as long as you follow the suggestions included in the video. Just do what they say.
Final things to remember: Don’t overheat your components. Remove your soldering iron when they tell you to. Get used to that pattern and you’ll soon be whizzing through your project. That said, take your time and don’t rush it. Remember to clean your flux off the bottom of the board with some isopropyl alcohol or Flux-Off and a cotton bud, then dry it gently. Your circuit should last longer if well assembled.
Taking It Further
You can put your circuit in a box, maybe even the plastic tub that your takeaway food came in, last weekend. You may have to extend the wires, and add a switch, maybe a new aerial. I housed mine in an old bean can. The battery sits in the bottom of the can, is wire to the switch that is mounted on the side of the can, and the circuit sits in the non-conductive bag. I had a spare aerial from the Spirit Box project, which I’ve plugged into a 3.5mm jack socket I had in my box of bits, and soldered the orange aerial wire to the sleeve of the socket. I didn’t bother extending the two buttons to the outside of the can. They only change the octave at which your theremin, sorry, I mean ‘REM pod’, actually screams at, both of which are annoying anyway.
How you actually use this is up to you. Feel free to go ghost hunting with it. If you’re considering this as an instrument, then it may be some time before you can have Jean Michel Jarre on speed dial. In the meantime, pat yourself on the back for taking a big step forward in a making world.
If you are looking for more things to develop in this way, I can recommend a book for an absolute beginner, with enough to keep you going for a long while. It’s also an ongoing series of books, so you can always build up a big library of books, components and vital experience. Keep in touch to let me know what you’ve built. It doesn’t even have to be for ghost hunting. I’m just delighted to hear tales of your curiosity. Enjoy.
