Gadget Freak Case 107: Magnetic Levitation Mystery

By Design News Staff -- Design News, September 3, 2007

Nathan Loden’s Magnetic Levitation experiment started with the basic problem of stabilizing a frictionless position control loop with inherent metastability. A fast controller with phase-lead compensation took care of that. Then he discovered a strange phenomenon: The levitated object begins and continues oscillating in rotation about a vertical axis. Explanations have been proposed and discussed, but they remain theories. Can you reproduce his result and discover the cause? The apparatus consists of a wooden frame, a bolt with a coil, a power transistor, an infrared emitter and detector, a few op amps and passive components.

Build Instructions | View Parts List | Watch the Video | Post a Comment

Amt	Part Description	Allied Part #
1	1k ohm potentiometer	754-2371
1	10k ohm potentiometer	754-1146
2	1k ohm resistor	832-0537
1	1.2k ohm resistor	832-0697
1	11k ohm resistor	832-0708
2	100k ohm resistor	832-0706
1	22k ohm resistor	296-4755
1	56k ohm resistor	832-0859
1	360k ohm resistor	895-0861
1	0.1 uF capacitor	881-0453
1	IR LED (SE3470-003)	276-0018
1	Phototransistor (VTT9103H)	980-0108
3	LM358N op amp	288-0544
1	2N3055 power transistor	248-2042
1	1N4001 Diode	266-0001
1	Large bolt and coil (see text)
	5V and 12V dc power supplies (see text)
Get Build Instructions

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Talkback

Has anyone built this? I tried and I can't get it to work. I would appreciate talking with...
- 2007-11-10 11:16:46
Is there a link for the schematic?
- 2007-09-11 13:24:48
In reading through the comments on the strange effect, I noticed one thing was overlooked.The...
- 2007-09-06 10:13:07

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