Week of 2/10 - 2/14

This week I mainly focused on how to spin my magnet so that it can be stable when it starts levitating. My first Idea was to make something similar to a centrifuge. The idea was that the magnet would be held in place by "arms" that would be pulled together using a small rubber band, but once they started spinning fast enough, the arms would pull away from the middle and let go of the magnet, letting it stay suspended in the air. This idea seemed to be good so I designed it in Fusion 360 and printed it out which didn't take very long since it was very small. I had to find a way to attach the arms to the spinning part though so I am temporarily using thin metal rods but I will create a more permanent solution once I have gotten it to work.

Spinner at rest

Spinner after getting enough speed

After testing it out and using a motor with a high enough rpm, I found that it worked well when rotating the magnet and eventually letting go of it. This is where I encountered an error, however. When spinning the magnet underneath the electromagnet it worked well getting up to speed, however, once it was released it kept getting attracted to the electromagnet rather than sticking to it. I originally thought that this was simply due to the magnet not being stable enough, but when I was trying to think of a way to fix it, I figured out the real reason behind this issue. It was because the motor I am using has magnets inside of it and therefore will affect the magnet itself as well as the hall effect sensor which makes the electromagnet pull on the magnet more. To fix this I would have to create a way that the motor could be far away enough that it doesn't affect either of them.

Video of spinner working

Motor affecting the magnet

I had the idea to use a motor band to spin the spinner from a distance that would not affect the magnet. This took me a while to design but I ended up with the design below, I plan to print out the wheel-like part that will attach to the motor and laser-cut the flatter part but since the laser cutter was broken I did not get the opportunity to cut it on Thursday so I will cut it out today if it is fixed.