Go to any control systems class, and you’ll see a final project that demonstrates loops, integration, and everything else that can be learned in a semester or two of control theory. This project is not from one of those classes. It is, however, very cool: it balances a 40mm steel ball on the rim of a lasercut wood wheel using nothing more than a solar cell as a sensor.
[Manuel] was inspired to build this ball-balancing device after seeing a similar project at CCC about six years ago. He doesn’t remember who made it, and eschewed the PC/Matlab architecture of the original, but this build retains one interesting feature of its muse. The input to the control system is just a high intensity light bulb and a solar cell. The 40mm steel ball blocks the light reaching the solar cell most of the time. Slight variations in voltage go through the control system to keep this ball balanced on top of the wheel.
The only hardware for this build is a motor, a motor driver, and an ATMega644P. The first revision of the hardware was just a few breakout boards stuffed into a rat’s nest of wiring in the base of the build, but this has been fixed in version two with a new PCB. Video below.
