Electromagnetic Floater

Step 6 Start Floating

All that is left to do is start floating the objects.
This is done by holding the object under the magnets and slowly bringing it up. When It nears the point where it wants to float up, push the button. This will set the level to float at to the current height.

Next, hold it just below where you set the hold height, so the LED lights up. Hold it there until it simply floats out of your hand. This happens because the microcontroller slowly adjusts the hold height up, to where the electromagnets have enough power to control the object.

You may also notice some buzzing coming from the electromagnets. This can be easily fixed by inserting some padding around the electromagnets.

If you do make this I would love to see some photos. It would also be great to hear any comments you have.

Comments

[bkrishnan1]

its very nice can you send which electromagnetic coil used

[pianoman2011]

i was thinking... since the power jack is a 1/8" audio jack, if you used a jack converter and plugged the device into a cd player/iPod, would the change in the electrical signal when you play a song sort of move the magnet with the music? would an amplification system be needed to strengthen the signals to sufficiently power the device, if this was all possible?

[J_Hodgie]

not really, it needs a constant power supply and more power then the audio feed could supply.

[scraciun]

hello i really need your help:) you didn t say anything about the program 

[pianoman2011]

but if you amplified the audio feed current, or just added to it so that the slight changes in voltage would make the magent float, it still wouldnt work?

[J_Hodgie]

That might work if the coils were stronger than what I used here. It might even act as a speaker.

[pianoman2011]

that would be neat. but i gues i am only dreaming lol

[Aercimete]

you might be able to put a secondary electromagnet in(much weaker) so that the primary suspends it and the secondary just kinda wiggles it lol

[coleyy]

it might be easier to do that to a smaller magnet like Aercimete said and put that next to the object

[pianoman2011]

lol nice idea. but now that i really think about it, i don't think having it wiggle to music would be that fascinating... still worth doing though.

[DehLeprechaun]

wonder if you could beef it up and make floating furniture

[pyrotech45]

they actually do have floating beds but they are expensive

[DehLeprechaun]

send me a link i'd like 2 luk at it

[pyrotech45]

http://zedomax.com/blog/2007/02/18/magnetic-floating-bed/

[Chimex14]

DANG!

[gtyrfdrty]

holy crap thats cool

[natman3400]

And then sit in it. That would be awesome. Or a floating bed-sized ferofulid ball that you could sleep on.

[monkeys98]

it would suck if it stopped working when you were sleeping SMACK!

[DehLeprechaun]

i think the ferofluid would be a bad idea the second you lay on it you would fall through and be soaked in it. not to mention you might drown.

[natman3400]

Fill a waterbed with it?

[DehLeprechaun]

that would probably work better but theres no telling what shape it would be or if it would float at all

[dombeef]

It would spike you though

[natman3400]

make it weak then

[dombeef]

It would just be a regular water bed then

[killerdynamo]

no, it'd be a really badass waterbed

[natman3400]

It be a really badass floating water bed. PWNT fools.

[dombeef]

It would be a watery blob,if it was in a skin of some kind it would be a cool bean bag chair

[killerdynamo]

and if your pants were magnetic... now we're getting somewhere! haha

[dombeef]

Owww, ultra wedgy

[MrmHend]

Will Any Object Float?

[melyguitargirl]

no..i think it has to be magnetic..i suppose that the yarn ball has some kind of magnet inside of it..

[mwagner63]

its not a yarn ball its a die

[DehLeprechaun]

i was wondering if you could put a seperate coile to power a lap floater or if that would interupt the field holding it up

[DehLeprechaun]

i wonder if you could intigrate this into a vehicle and like have a second one in the back that pulsed to propel the car forward then you could sink magnets into the streets

[Wannabe117]

Hey was wondering is their anyway you could create a small "spin" in the magnetic field to make your object spin slowly all day would look great, also this is my first project and would like to know what substitue parts i could use as i cant find the entire list in my area

[infactiam]

Actually, this could be accomplished fairly easily, without what most would consider a motor, but it would require making another device almost identical to the original floater. You could hide a small vertical conducting loop in your object and add a second solenoid pointing sideways at the object. This magnetic field induces a current in the loop by Faraday's Law when its plane is not parallel to the magnetic field (which it never perfectly is), and there's a torque on the resulting current loop in the preexisting magnetic field. The only caveat is that like any electric motor, the torque will switch directions every time the plane of the loop crosses the field and, if left on, drive the loop to that parallel position. So you have to pulse the magnetic field to be on only for half of the time, for which you would need another sensor and essentially be building a second floater. Electric motors accomplish this switching either with a moving wire brush contact or with electronic timing. I would suggest an optical sensor and a marking on your object. To get really sneaky, you could make it an infrared sensor and get some infrared reflective paint so no one can tell the difference.

[infactiam]

btw I probably should have been more clear that in this case you also need an oscillator for the voltage through the electromagnet (the induced current will respond to CHANGES in the magnetic field!).

[necropolian]

a microwave oven motor is perfect for this. slowly spinning...

[killerezv]

, make the base bigger, I would add a motor to it, and have it spin, though add the rare earth magnets on the motor and have it balanced will be tricky

[xtremd]

You could spin a magnet and the floating magnet would also spin.