levitating

3 Articles

Gravity-Defying Water Droplet Fountain Gets An Upgrade

February 25, 2020 by 2 Comments

When we last saw [isaac879]’s levitating RGB time fountain, it was made of wood which meant that it would absorb water and didn’t really show off the effect very well. His new version solves this problem with an acrylic case, new PCB and an updated circuit.

Like the original, this project drops water past strobing RGB LEDs creating an illusion of levitating, undulating colored water droplets. The pump at the top creates the droplets, but the timing has a tendency to drift over time. He thus implemented a PID controller to manage the pump’s drip rate, which was done by having the droplets pass by an infrared diode connected to an ATTiny85. The ’85 used the diode and PWM to control the pump motor speed and communicated to the Arduino over I2C.

The video shown below shows the whole process of designing and building the new time fountain. Everything from circuit and PCB design to 3D printing to assembly is shown along with narration describing what’s going on in case you want to build one yourself. If you do, all the files and components required are listed in the info section of the video.

There’s more that [isaac879] wants to do to improve the time fountain, but V2 looks great. It’s sleeker and smaller than the original and solves some of the design issues of the first. For more inspiration, check out some of the other levitating water fountain projects that have been posted over the years.

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Easy Toy Hack Makes Floating Death Star

August 14, 2016 by 2 Comments

It always seems odd to us that magnetic levitation seems to only find use in big projects (like trains) and in toys. Surely there’s a practical application that fits on our desktop. This isn’t it, but it is a cool way to turn a cheesy-looking levitating globe into a pretty cool Star Wars desk toy.

As projects go, this isn’t especially technically challenging, but it is a great example of taking something off the shelf and hacking it into something else. The globe covering came off, revealing two hemispheres. A circular hole cut out and inverted provides the main weapon. Some internal lighting and small holes provide light. Some fiber optic sanded and tinted green make the weapon fire. The rest is all in the painting.

There’s even a tiny imperial ship orbiting the killer man-made (or is that Sith-made) moon. If you want a bigger challenge, you might try bamboo. Or you can go minimalist and let your eyes and brain do most of the work.

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You May Have A Nixie Tube Clock, But Can Yours Levitate?

July 31, 2016 by 19 Comments

Nixie tubes, electromagnets, levitation, and microcontrollers — this project has “Hackaday” written all over it!

Time Flies: Levitating Nixie Clock comes from [Tony Adams], and uses a lot of technology we’ve seen before, but in a new and interesting way. A nixie tube clock is nothing new, but using electromagnets to levitate it above a base certainly paired with inductive coupling to transmit power using no wires make this floating nixie build a real treat.

Continue reading “You May Have A Nixie Tube Clock, But Can Yours Levitate?” →