well, they actually do not “wear out” in the same sense as a pair of shoes. The primary failure mechanism is that the copper wires bend many times until they break. I keep trying to improve the design, but it is down to trade-offs between cost and weight and stiffness vs durability. I think of them as being like a tooth brush or anything else that gets a lot of wear and tear against the body: best to replace them from time to time. So, primarily I am trying to keep costs down and tweak the design to keep it essentially unchanged while improving durability incrementally.
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“expanding the magnetic field”… forgive my “laym” understanding, but can i put the coil on a copper foil and that foil would be a pulsing “magnet sheet” that I can use? I am assuming the magnetic field would be weakened being distibuted across that sheet. I’m just wondering if it would be “THAT EASY” to increase surface area for a blanket or mattress of pemf and just put setting on max.
and sorry… i know i’m prolly oversimplifying something complicated as you’ve reprimanded me many times before haha… but would be a quick hack to spread that healing pulse if it were that simple 
I would think that would induce electric current, not magetic field, in the copper foil. So you would be spreading a surface current without much penetration. Whereas just using coils normally you are inducing a deep current which can then flow around on its own as currents do.
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The reason I was asking is that for the past 2-3 weeks I’ve had a lot more finger and wrist pain, in spite of wearing the 2x2 coils overnight every night. I could hear the pulsing in both sets of coils, so just assumed something else was going on.
But now that I’m using “fresh” coils, I’ve noticed that my hands are starting to feel better. I was just wondering if this might be a real connection or just coincidence. Thanks for any opinion you might have on this!
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Coils are one of the more challenging aspects of these systems. I can tell you that I have similar experiences: just two weeks ago I was getting more and more lower back pain, despite wearing my M1 every day and changing batteries frequently (every ~ 2 hours). The coils sounded like they were working properly, but when I finally got around to testing them with the hexagonal coil test chip, I discovered that only one of the two rings was working properly. My set of coils was about 6 months old, so it was ready to be replaced for sure. With a new set of coils, and both rings working properly, the problem was solved, and no more back pain!
This sometimes happens where one ring of the coil will stop working. Or sometimes the coil will fail intermittently, such as when the wire is bent sharply and repeatedly near the gray rubber of the coil. It may test OK, but then when you put the coil where you want it, it may be bent in such a way that the wires disconnect.
That may have been what was happening in your case. I always try to remember to test each ring periodically and then to replace the coils completely when they start to act flakey.
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Now I know to keep testing, and not just rely on my ears
I’ve been wondering whether I should try experimenting with coils that are bent into a shape, but I don’t know what this would do, in terms of the electrical currents. (I’m also reluctant to do something which could reduce the durability of the coils). Can you give me an idea what sorts of changes would occur?
Is this something you have found to be helpful?
Peter
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The coils are specifically made using a soft medical-grade rubber so that they can be shaped a bit: long and narrow or bent to fit an ankle or wrist. A little bit of this should not cause harm and reduce durability. The main thing you want to avoid doing is twisting, bending, and pulling at the cable where the black wire goes into the gray rubber ring.
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Yes @Bob – this is it exactly! I’m delighted to have the mystery likely solved and to cherish my tester and keep it close always.
I just got the 2x2 for my a9, but when i tested against the hex, they don’t light up as brightly as the single coil. I’m just assuming that it’s bc they are reduced by 4 coils and the light is less bc of that, right? the a9 was at max setting when i tested, but the hex returned a faint green.
correct: same total energy, less energy at any one point in space, more spatial volume energized (equates to larger pad area).
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P.S. What is the right way to get rid of dead coils? Are they considered electronic bits (here in Toronto that puts them in a special recycling bin)? Or is there somewhere that can re-cycle the copper directly?
Thanks!
They are basically insulated copper wire, so I would recycle them with general electronics.
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To increase the tension required to damage the coils when they are accidentally pulled while sleeping I came up with the following strain relief. I put a loop of the wire through the coil then around the base of the coil and put electrical tape to hold it in place. See photo below. I suspect the wire looping through the coil will interfere with the magnetic field of the coil. @Bob What do you think of this?
Video showing how I looped the wire through the coil:
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that should work well. There should not really be any significant interference.
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Welcome fellow biohacker! Based on your name, you’re from my hometown (I now have a practice and live in Niagara)
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Very nice to hear from you Dr. Friesen. Yes, well pretty much—I’m from nearby London and did also live in Toronto. I still travel to Ontario occasionally as I have some farmland to inspect in Chatham-Kent. I was planning to visit now but the border is closed so I will probably wait a year.
Be well!
Robert
Very cool. Drop me a line if you ever want to discuss biohacking
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what an excellent design improvement… what do you think @Bob of this suggestion for product improvement?
well… the design for most of the system has converged to a point where almost any change will get about 50% of people who like it, and 50% who do not.
In this case:
–about 50% will say they like more durable coils, but…
–about 50% will say it is too bulky (or have some other complaint)
So… my strategy is to gravitate to a design that is simple, inexpensive, and easily modified by the user as they see fit. That means that the current design is just fine for people who want more robustness at the expense of added bulkiness.
For the others, they will not make this change.
But, by NOT changing the design for every suggestion there is one way in which I can make everyone relatively happy: no need to increase price to defray $50,000 of tooling and production costs with every change.
So, people can modify, or not, as they see fit. That is a key aspect of ICES-PEMF products in general.
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