Bill Muller has shown it too !

[pinobot]

Simplified the design. 

[Low-Q]

Simplified the design. 

Is it any reason why the sphere magnet at the bottom want to leave the ferro material and follow the curve? What part of the path determine the direction of the sphere magnet? Could it likely move the opposite direction?


Just very sceptic, but you should buy yourself a couple of magnets and play with them.


Vidar

[pinobot]

Hi,
As the magnetic ball falls, the idea is that it's slowly moved out of range of the ferrous metal.
I ordered some small balls at Dealextreme to do some simple experiments with a seesaw.
This is still just an idea, the final design will probably look completely different. Maybe i'll need to design on that has multiple stages or something.

[pinobot]

OK, got a few magnetic spheres and did some testing, ordered 12,7 mm which is the same size as GeoMag balls.
The problem is that these spheres have a north and a south pole, as soon as they get near ferro metal the ferro metal is magnetised and the sphere can't roll because it's stuck in the magnetic field it created.
So what i need is a monopole, not a real one of course but a hollow sphere  that has the north pole on the inside and a south pole on the outside (or vice versa).

[pinobot]

For the one with the bar magnet and steel ball i need a long bar magnet that sticks out well above and  below the contraption so the ball won't stick.