Maglev Pen Display stand

[BradG]

Maglev Pen Stand


Probably the largest piece of aluminium I have purchased. Quite a lump!


I drilled a hole through the side for the supporting arm, and as a cable entry point to the base. five cores run through the arm. the other two wires protuding are for the power supply. 7.5V 1A



Here you can see the base is flipped over which reveals where the circuit board is hidden. inside here is three buttons for adjusting the power of the electromagnet to accommodate objects of different weight upto around 80 grams. at this stage bottles and things are propping it up as the supporting arm is not yet fixed in place. If you look closely, you can see there is two magnets levitating there with quite an impressive air gap.



The top was machined from aluminium scaffolding, and the end pieces from solid bar. I wish I photographed the bottom end cap as that was quite intricate. the inside profile was made to cause the bottom cap to wrap around the height of the electromagnet to act as a heat sink. the endplug is also hollowed out so that the electromagnet is sitting on a 1mm layer of aluminium, just behind the black foam pad you can see in later pictures. This was done to maximise the air gap, as further into the enclosure the electromagnet goes, the further away from your pen it will be.





The make or break test. I sellotaped a couple of magnets onto the end of one of my pens to test it out, and was relieved that after a little bit of tweaking, the pen was levitating.


View attachment 21072
















Techie stuff:
I programmed a PIC microprocessor to take a reading from a hall effect sensor which is placed in the end of the electromagnet. This sensor measures the electromagnetic field and adjusts the current of the electromagnet to compensate. Basically as the pen moves towards or away from the electromagnet the field changes, and the microprocessor compensates to either pull the pen closer, or let it move away, causing it to levitate.

 

[Penpal]

Brad I admit freely the only thing I ever heard of Mag Lev was a train your train of thought so well expressed left me at the first sentence to acknowledge your acheivement is easy long live the King. When I left Xerox as Service Manager for my State I had been the 5th technician hired by the company in Australia held every Service Record there was the Australian Service Manager Arthur Burrows stood up at my farewell in 1972 where all the Service Managers in Australia were gathered together he said get a bucket full of water and stir it continuously for ten minutes stop stirring for ten minutes this is the effect one leaves in life life goes on. Sure I watch you and Skippy Stephen closely to see what comes next being the best fan you both have thankyou Brad for making my day with your acheivements.

Kind regards Peter.

 

[Terry]

Clever bit of work Jim and an excellent idea !!!

 

[BradG]

Thanks for the kind words Peter. Sounds like you too loved a technical challenge back in the day! I hope retirements treating you well.

 

[BradG]

Not quite sure who Jim is but il accept the accolade on his behalf

 

[stevenw1963]

Forgive Terry, that's why he's chairman of the plonkers club on here, gaff after gaff after gaff

Love that levitating stand.

 

[chas_41_uk]

Thats clever Brad and goes with the pen perfectly
Does it hum like a reactor on the Death Star? :wink:

 

[bassethound]

Brad, that is quite something mate! thanks for posting it...

 

[Lons]

Great bit of innovation Brad

 

[Penpal]

Morning Brad forgot to mention the said Arthur Burrows became Art Burrows owner of the publication Australian Woodworker he is quite ancient now always remembers me cause when he went arty farty called himself Art my voice saying Hi Arthur reminds him of the old days.

Peter.

 

[BradG]

No hum unfortunately Chas ;)

Thanks everyone for commenting

 

[Bill Mooney]

Agreatpiece of engineering Brad. A nice result.

 

[wm460]

Great innovation Brad, well thought out, electronics are a mystery to me.

 

[bellringer]

Really cool idea just quickly in the first picture I would be carefull holding bar with the jaws that far out you be better using a set of external jaws it much safer

 

[BradG]

Really cool idea just quickly in the first picture I would be carefull holding bar with the jaws that far out you be better using a set of external jaws it much safer

Some others highlighted this too :)

I opted for the full contact length of the jaws, oppose to a surface area three times smaller by using the externals. Next time il use externals :)

 

[bellringer]

Some others highlighted this too :)

I opted for the full contact length of the jaws, oppose to a surface area three times smaller by using the externals. Next time il use externals :)

It more to do with how the chuck hold if holding like that the jaw are angle the wrong way I can't explain it very well

 

[Penpal]

Thanks for the kind words Peter. Sounds like you too loved a technical challenge back in the day! I hope retirements treating you well.

Best part of twenty years now mate exciting so far I remember clearly when black box circuitry became the norm the diagrams with photocopying machines since they were combining physical operations they were tricky enough now we had to accept as read the circuit went in and came out as something you could not follow a mongrel for fault location. The first Rank Xerox machine was the only one so primitive it was a winner because it enabled masters to be prepared for printing machines enabling rapid, cheap, controllable making. Since photography was my hobby then and a sparky by trade I felt in a great place for many years. Before I left we had a machine that made fast masters in a machine of incredible output the size of a room it had diagrams in book form several of them. I left them to buy a Photo Studio in another area 60 miles away. Photocopying machines developed to the stage where computer printers have hand in hand wonderful times. Retirement has given me an oportunity to do so many things especially to enable the marriage to come first so important.

Peter

 

[Moondoggy]

Cool stuff Brad.
Are you going to market them?

 

[BradG]

Best part of twenty years now mate exciting so far I remember clearly when black box circuitry became the norm the diagrams with photocopying machines since they were combining physical operations they were tricky enough now we had to accept as read the circuit went in and came out as something you could not follow a mongrel for fault location. The first Rank Xerox machine was the only one so primitive it was a winner because it enabled masters to be prepared for printing machines enabling rapid, cheap, controllable making. Since photography was my hobby then and a sparky by trade I felt in a great place for many years. Before I left we had a machine that made fast masters in a machine of incredible output the size of a room it had diagrams in book form several of them. I left them to buy a Photo Studio in another area 60 miles away. Photocopying machines developed to the stage where computer printers have hand in hand wonderful times. Retirement has given me an oportunity to do so many things especially to enable the marriage to come first so important.

Peter

A happy wife is a quiet life

 

[BradG]

Cool stuff Brad.
Are you going to market them?

Not as a finished product due to the time involved machining the aluminium. I am tempted to make the electronics as a kit so they come fully assembled just ready to be built into an enclosure. This would involve the end user having to make the stand itself to encompass the electronics. Personally, I think one made out of wood would look far nicer than this metal one.