[Noisebridge-discuss] Active magnetic levitation

Thomas Stowe stowe.thomas at gmail.com
Thu Sep 16 03:33:59 UTC 2010


I think that it might be neat to look into mechanical movement of the parts
that would be fixed if you create a device like the others listed. It could
controlled by an arduino, done both to see if you can do it with permanent
magnets and also be neat to see if you could manipulate them when the
device(s) is in a fixed position or maybe while it's moving too. I'm pretty
sure that magnetic control of that type might be useful in some way, whether
it be in a machining or production process or in robotics.

I'm thinking that it might be neat to create something to manage a plastic
extruder, radiate heat into the air rather than relying on a heat sink in
equipment that has to cope with heat exchange from an element connected to
the body of the equipment or another piece of equipment but relies upon an
arm that is susceptible to heat. It might be that you can do something with
this in a makerbot.

Or maybe some kind of control mechanism for mechanical movement. What comes
to mind when I think of magnetic controlled movement is the magnets that
create a friction increase and decrease effect that makes my recumbent
exercise bicycle harder and easier to pedal based upon a controller on the
bike that controls the distance of magnets from disk that spins when a user
pedals on it.

It might be also that a novel application for ball bearings could be
developed from it. In fact, I'd hazard to guess that somewhere it already
has.

Also...

I figured you'd like this and so would the fellow who mentioned diamagnetic
effect in materials. From what I gather, diamagnetic effects allow
levitation at room temperature. This is a google docs viewed .doc document
on the principles of Maglev trains and mentions some interesting facts like
that a poweful magnetic field of about 16 tesla must be used to levitate
water drops and some living creatures. Is this what you had in mind more
than playing with magnets to make legos with metal or magnets attached
hover? I find it more fascinating, myself. :)

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:GbTynSTQBsYJ:www.digitaledition.org/adveng/AE0201/AE0201_019-028.pdf+microcontroller+superconductor+magnetic+levitation&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShTL3H3MZ1rOQwQWbSUqdmoJ-93kJgkAv-x5AwoxFBlftWrQ2vc7Z5o60qaFBCv5gFxIpONJn5GQ67pkby5q9L38qqZvG0TGDVgZowRwlaaIZclRPVeEd4nsczIn4vKmm3Xb0HK&sig=AHIEtbQ3ftpKeYq7roWquB75be_cFsgSUA
<http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:GbTynSTQBsYJ:www.digitaledition.org/adveng/AE0201/AE0201_019-028.pdf+microcontroller+superconductor+magnetic+levitation&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShTL3H3MZ1rOQwQWbSUqdmoJ-93kJgkAv-x5AwoxFBlftWrQ2vc7Z5o60qaFBCv5gFxIpONJn5GQ67pkby5q9L38qqZvG0TGDVgZowRwlaaIZclRPVeEd4nsczIn4vKmm3Xb0HK&sig=AHIEtbQ3ftpKeYq7roWquB75be_cFsgSUA>

I also found these two pages interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_levitation

&

http://www.fys.uio.no/super/levitation/

Though this second link may seem rather simplistic, have a gander at the
pages linked on this page. I feel both a newbie and vetted hacker who's
studied magnetic levitation and superconductors can gain something from
this, at the very least having some decent MagLev bookmarks to share with
others. =)

Anyhow, I hope that this has helped you or helped others with some
additional resources in some small way.
I have a friend who goes to Noisebridge from time to time (Travis, if anyone
knows him) who suggested that I join this list (I live in San Antonio, TX)
because you folks bring up topics that I'd be interested in and low and
behold, from both the archive and live list, he was right. I hope i can join
in and add my two cents, research skills or experiences often and I spend a
great deal of time using the 'net and checking my e-mail as I work at home.
=)

Best Regards,

Thomas Stowe

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On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 9:00 PM, Jonathan Foote <jtfoote at ieee.org> wrote:

> Don't forget diamagnetism (negative magnetic moments not subject to
> Earnshaw's theorem).
>
> Mike Kan had a little static levitation demo (using pyrolitic
> graphite?) at the old space: ask him about it, it's super-cool.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 2:07 PM, David Kelso <david at kelso.id.au> wrote:
> > I'm trying to levitate some small objects.
> > I know you can't have stable equilibrium with permanent magnets, but
> > is there a way to do it with microcontroller controlled
> > electromagnets?
> > This is an area I have no experience in - just had some ideas for a
> > project and wanted to see what was possible. Any experiences / reading
> > material would be highly appreciated.
> >
> > david
> > _______________________________________________
> > Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> >
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