just a guess but?....

[b0rg13]

yes it was a video just like that which kinda made me think..can it be used to upset the balance of a wheel and move it... it should self start.

[TinselKoala]

The moving magnet inside the conductive tube generates eddy currents in the tube. (move a magnet near a conductor, what do you get?) The eddy currents in the tube dissipate power as heat. This power comes from....the energy you put in by raising the magnet to the top of the tube.
It is a DRAG force and it operates always to oppose the motion of the moving magnet.
It has nothing at all to do with gravity or the weight of the magnet; raising and dropping the magnet is what makes the magnet move, but ANY motion of a magnet near a conductor will experience a drag from the eddy currents, no matter the direction of motion or the source of it.
There is no way to use this effect in a gravity motor for anything other than a brake.
And this is also (another reason) why many magnet motor designs such as Archer Quinn's cannot work: the magnets move near conductors like steel or aluminum plates or tubes and thus experience DRAG forces which oppose, not aid, their motion, regardless of the direction of motion.

[b0rg13]

thanks TK thats what i needed to know(but did not).

[mr_bojangles]

the problem is that it gets lighter on the way down and heavier on the way up which is the exact opposite of what you would need to make PMM

like a bucket in a well