Hi all,

Just made another stand for levitation of magnets.
Have noted several items that maybe of interest.

Am using carbon brushes. Four rectangular straight
side carbons per the bottom plate and 4 per the
top carbon plate.  The carbon mounting surfaces
are fiberboard, rectangular pieces.  I didn't note
any differece with the slight areas "open" to
exposure. 

The neodymium magnet I used is a "wing" shape,
about 9/16" long, 7/16" wide and 1/8" thick. The
weight is about 2/10's ounce.

Initial floating attempts, all yielded no better
than a point on the magnet making contact 
somewhere on the carbon.  I then introduced a
rectangular magnet to the side of the floating
magnet, and this seemed to worsen or correct 
the magnet angle.  The distance of the rectangular
magnet is about 7" away; but it will wildly vary
with different setups.  Of course, now it floats.
Maybe this could be called a bias/correction
magnetic field.  One will have to maneuver such
around the area of their own setup.

Unlike a round disk magnet, these wing shapes,
are not directly centered under the vertical
magnet above.  Its not much, but its there, at
least from this first attempt.

The "bias magnet" angle, seems to control the
alignment of the floating magnet.  They both
have the same angle.  This suggests a means of
control of length direction, if desired.

The height adjustments of the ferrite donut
magnet are much more sensitive in adjustment
than with a very small disk magnet (Radio Shack
cat. no. 64-1895).  I'am guessing this wing
magnet is at least 20 times the weight of the
Radio Shack magnet.

Along with the heavier weight, the vertical 
oscillation period of the wing magnet is 
noticeably longer, perhaps between 1-2 seconds.

Fun when it works, frustration when it doesn't.

Meredith Lamb








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