Forget the zero point nonesense. Environment change of objects is better.

[Low-Q]

If rotation direction can be clearly determined, it might be worth a try. If there is 50/50 wheter it will rotate clockwise or counter clockwise, it will probably not work. This is also  general tips: Try to imagine how your design could run in the oposite direction than initially expected. In most cases there should not be a reason why a motor shouldn't run the other direction too - which means the motor will not run at all.

Vidar

[DreamThinkBuild]

Hi Nicbordeaux,

Here some interesting observations when playing with your idea.

I cut a small square(1/2") section of polystyrene from some packaging. I stuck a toothpick in the center and placed a small ring magnet on it. Took a clear plastic glad container and filled it with half water. I placed a large neo mag underneath and dragged it back and forth. The little magnet was attracted to large magnet but the flat edges of square polystyrene caused a noticeable delay/lag in movement but it will continue until it hits the edge with some force from the mass of the attached magnet.

Another idea I tested but gives a weak pulse is take the same square and magnet but sandwich a piezospeaker in between wrapped in a plastic bag with the wire sticking out. If you move the large magnet up and down under the container it will squeeze the piezospeaker between the small magnet being pulled down and the polystyrene trying to float up generating a small pulse.

Placing 4 long north pointing magnets up around the bottom outside container and adjusting the long magnets angle in small increments causes the polystyrene square/magnet in the center to slowly spin.

In your idea of using a ping pong ball you may want to use two or three so they are all fighting for equilibrium with the magnet underneath. They should swirl around each other until finding balance all you need to do then is just create a little jitter in the magnetic field to get them going again.

There are so many other ideas to test with this, thanks.

[nicbordeaux]

Sounds interesting. Great observation, didn't think about the compression/seperation tendancy of the mag material and the float. Don't know much about mags and electricity, if you use piezzo you get very little juice. If you use a shake-a-gen type float, do you get enough current to feeback to magnet so as to create instabilty ?