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[Andres]

Anyone know how to prevent the electricity from damaging power armour or the person inside the power armour? Some kind of surge protector? Bonus points if an electricity gun can recharge the batteries but not overcharge them.

[~Neri]

Insulate the armor. Basically make it a faraday cage. It prolly won't charge the batteries though. Or if it does, it runs the risk of explodering.

[Magistrum]

As Kevak said, or make it not conduct, or conduct all the power.

[H4zardZ1]

As Kevak said, or make it not conduct, or conduct all the power.

Do both. Let the outer part ground the electricity and the inner part insulate your body. Batteries and cables must be properly insulated too.
The whole part of outer part conductor is to prevent lighting and armour failure damaging you.
_{don't let me fall into the colour v. color}

[Bumber]

Do both. Let the outer part ground the electricity and the inner part insulate your body. Batteries and cables must be properly insulated too.
The whole part of outer part conductor is to prevent lighting and armour failure damaging you.
_{don't let me fall into the colour v. color}

Wouldn't that make you a lightning rod, which might then heat up the outer shell to extreme temperatures due to resistance or magnetic flux?

[NullForceOmega]

Not really, unless the armor just so happens to form the shortest route between the upper atmosphere and the ground.  And if that's the case it really doesn't matter what you've done to the armor, it was going to conduct anyway.

[Bumber]

Not really, unless the armor just so happens to form the shortest route between the upper atmosphere and the ground.  And if that's the case it really doesn't matter what you've done to the armor, it was going to conduct anyway.

I wasn't just talking about literal lightning. If you're trying to protect something from electricity you don't coat it in a (non-Faraday cage) conductor. The Faraday cage itself probably isn't practical on a walking suit of armor.

Maybe you could use just a few electrodes if you want to charge a capacitor. Probably needs a cooling system.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

That said, the helmet becomes mandatory protection if you try to conduct through the armor surface. Go all CS Goto and you're gonna have a bad day.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Anyone know how to prevent the electricity from damaging power armour or the person inside the power armour? Some kind of surge protector? Bonus points if an electricity gun can recharge the batteries but not overcharge them.

Well surge protectors between segmented pieces. I.E. if there's some malfunction in the arm, stop any sort of electrical burst from traveling back up the arm to what presumably would be a servomotor, don't let malfunctions break the wearer's body kind of thing. In terms of raw current going through the metal plates, the user should definitely wear an insulated bodysuit. For areas where there may be difficulties in covering the body fully, like the head, some insulating layer between the outerwear and the inside would work best. I imagine something like how astronauts once clipped helmets on: you have your electrically insulated bodysuit that covers you completely except for your head. To ensure a completely insulated covering you'd have to connect the suit to the helmet.

The safest bet would be to have some sort of system where the user can manually reopen circuits, turn on/off the electrical current from the power source, etc. Because if something DOES go wrong the user should be able to either reactivate the suit or be able to get out of their own accord.

Finally, when you talk about protecting the armor I assume you mean protecting the powered bits? I'd like to imagine the best way would be to isolate each limb and relevant appendages as well as the chest and groin areas through surge protectors and parallel wiring or even just wiring each section entirely independently to the power source and computer.

[Andres]

Basically if someone were to shoot a lightning gun at someone wearing the armour, the lightning gun would a) recharge the armour's power cells, b) not damage the armour, and c) not damage the guy inside the armour. Experimental solutions are acceptable.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Basically if someone were to shoot a lightning gun at someone wearing the armour, the lightning gun would a) recharge the armour's power cells, b) not damage the armour, and c) not damage the guy inside the armour. Experimental solutions are acceptable.

Well the armor would melt, the batteries would probably explode, and the guy would be pretty dead.

[Arx]

Keep the entire thing cooled to -40C and use hydrogen sulphide as a superconductor to charge massive capacitors? Then discharge the capacitors into the batteries or some kind of ground - possibly a spike in the boot.

[Magistrum]

Well, experimental... Arx has the best option efficiency-wise. You just let the current charge up somewhere and then find something/someone to discharge it into. Congratulations, you are now super shock.

[Sergarr]

Basically if someone were to shoot a lightning gun at someone wearing the armour, the lightning gun would a) recharge the armour's power cells, b) not damage the armour, and c) not damage the guy inside the armour. Experimental solutions are acceptable.

Well the armor would melt, the batteries would probably explode, and the guy would be pretty dead.

That would require some hilariously overpowered lightning guns. Metal armor is fucking hard to melt via electricity. Also, if the armor is properly isolated from the wearer, the death will not occur. Like with aircraft - lightning hits them regularly, usual effects - nil.

EDIT: fixed a (9) type.

[Magistrum]

That would require some hilariously overpowered lighting guns. Metal armor is fucking hard to melt via electricity. Also, if the armor is properly isolated from the wearer, the death will not occur. Like with aircraft - lightning hits them regularly, usual effects - nil.

Indeed, for lighting guns to have any range they would already be trowing all the energy output to voltage and would pack very little current.