Electromagnetic Photo Wobbler

The electromagnetic photo wobbler is a cute little gadget that will sit proudly on your desk. It really gets the attention of everyone who passes by. So it is very convenient if you want to show off your new boy/girlfriend in a 'discrete' way.

I have entered this instructable into the kynetic sculpture contest so if you like it then please vote for it.

Step 1 How does it work?

This gadget is based on something that almost everyone knows about: magnets. Opposite poles attract each other and same poles push each other away.

There is a magnet attached to the base of the pendulum. When a current is applied to the coil next to the magnet, it becomes magnetic and thus it gets a magnetic field. The magnet is attracted to the coil and pulls the pendulum to one side. When the magnetic field disappears the pendulum swings to the opposite side.
On the opposite side, there is a reedswitch that is activated then the magnet passes it. The reedswitch is connected to a microcontroller that will activate the coil again when the pendulum is on its return swing.

And then everything starts over again.

This device also has LED's that get activated when the ambient light drops under a certain level. It is done by using a LDR (Light dependant resistor) and the ADC channel of the microcontroller.

Comments

[ndinitz]

Cool!!!