4 ms·

Very cool. Might make for a fun chess board or model train/model city layout. Edit: Glad he mentioned Carl Bugeja's youtube channel, this instantly brought Ca

• nvalis 5y ago
  The model city application is indeed currently developed [0] at the Miniaturwunderland [1] in Hamburg, Germany. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPUEOhMBpUw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPUEOhMBpUw (in German) [1] https://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ https://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/
  • jacquesm 5y ago
    That first video is amazing, what a dedication. And they got it working in the end. Super impressive.
• amelius 5y ago
  How many robots can you move independently though (all moving in different directions or staying in place)?
  • prox 5y ago
    Would you need to if they can move at 36cm/s ?
  • jcims 5y ago
    Seems like any magnets on the same coil will move in the same direction. So it boils down to how well you can isolate the coils and/or orchestrate their motion so they aren't sharing a coil when you don't want them to be. I wonder if you could use induced currents in the pucks instead of permanent magnets to create the opposing force. Then you could tune the PCB coil to target specific elements. So 212kHz moves puck A, 241kHz moves puck B, etc
    • jacquesm 5y ago
      Once you get rid of the permanent magnets though you'd need to power the pucks somehow. With permanent magnets you don't need any kind of active element on the pucks for movement alone.
      • amelius 5y ago
        You could let the pucks make contact with the PCB, and power them like that. If the pucks are pulled towards the PCB, then it is easy to let them make contact.
        • jacquesm 5y ago
          That would cause the whole thing to wear out in no time. I don't think any contact scheme would work for this kind of application you'd get all of the headaches of motors with brushes but on a tiny scale. Spark erosion would destroy the traces. Part of the elegance of this design is that it is non-contact.
          • amelius 5y ago
            You could power inductively, perhaps. So create a fluctuating magnetic field to deliver power to a coil (which is on the puck), then let a microprocessor on the puck control the flow of current to different coils (also on the puck) which are then pulled towards permanent magnets in the PCB.
            • jacquesm 5y ago
              Hm. You got me thinking about this: another layer below that can send a 'charge' pulse to a coil on the puck to charge a super cap. Bonus points if you can turn that into a levitation mechanism.
              • _Microft 5y ago
                Have through hole vias everywhere and turn your PCB into the surface of a tiny airhockey table?