A mag-lev effect implies a pretty powerful magnetic field. And the plant sits right in the middle of it.
I wonder whether that may have any influence on its longevity (novelty aside, a bonsai is supposed to last a long time)
The plant is likely to withstand the largely DC magnetic field with ease.
My guess is that there are magnets in not just the ārotorā (the levitating part) but also in the āstatorā, with the active electromagnet coils just balancing the field.
Is there any nice opensource implementation of this? Could be fun to hack onā¦
Jerry Uelsmann approves.
That is so cool. Too much price but if i had deep pockets iād love to have one of these.
What happens as the plant gets heavier? How do the magnets compensate?
Just get some really thin string and hang it from the ceiling. Cheap version.
Some combination of increased power consumption and lowering of the levitation height.
PID feedback loops via some sort of sensors, either optical positioning or sensing the magnetic fields of the floater.
Requires space between the plant and the ceiling. Not optimal.
This seems highly dubious to me. The closest example I can find to this is held down with a piece of string.
While it could be possible to do this with active control, no one out there seems to do quite this kind of levitation.
Edit: Ah, nevermind, I should have read more closely. From the linked article: a similar product.
Video here, including a setup and behavior.
Also, some mod of such globe to make it rotating. Shows the base and the floater exposed, covers removed.
http://hackedgadgets.com/2010/08/30/levitating-rotating-globe/
Iād love to see the schematics of the baseā¦
This would be great, until thereās a power outage and the bonsai falls over and breaks a branch.
āMag lev bonsaiā - Thanks BoingBoing! I needed that phrase!
sounds like a good school science fair experiment! Just figure out a control and compare their growth!
(Which seems to lead to a dead youtube video and web page) also did the levitating rotating thing - at least i seem to recall it did - now that it is not there i cannot check if it is the one that I remember. Could get something like that and rip out the speaker bits and add a plant.
This would have gone perfectly with that movie that was shown in 3D and had blue natives and unobtanium whose name I canāt remember now.
If you provide your own plant, itās actually only $200, which would seem reasonable for a long-lasting product. Unfortunately, I donāt know how long-lasting this is.
Is that your new band name?
OMG Y.E.S.!
(filler text here)
You trim it back, probably. It is bonsai, after all.
