It can be tough to find detailed information about electromagnetic simulations online – at least as things stand in the present internet. Where information is present it is provided in some standard form as outlined by textbooks and it is not always immediately apparent how this textbook knowledge can be translated into implementations. In this article, I build a very simple and maybe inaccurate PID control system that very superficially pretends to run on a microcontroller. To support this, since I don’t have a real system to test on, I outline a very quick and dirty approach to modeling electromagnetic levitation of a set of coils above a track using python and a recently developed package: Magpylib.
Category: Electrical Machines & Electronics
555 Timer PWM Power Control for Hot Wire Foam Cutter
Have you ever wandered the streets wondering, ‘Boy o boy! I wish I had more control over my life!’? Well! Wander no more and come into my parlour as I take you through the exciting world of power control. In this article, you’ll learn to take control of your life by designing a simple PWM control circuit that drives a MOSFET. Underlying this little circuit is a 555 timer. Adjust the frequency using the capacitors, add a variable resistor – and voila! Power control! I designed this controller for use with a simple hot wire foam cutter.
Magnetic Properties of Materials
Designing electric machines sometimes requires an understanding of the physical properties of the materials we’re working with. In this article, I’ll be exploring the magnetic properties of materials. I’m particularly interested in a diamagnetic material called pyrolytic graphite – the strongest room temperature diamagnet in existence today. My goal is to understand how magnetic and diamagnetic materials interacts with an externally applied magnetic field.
A Simple 3 Phase Power Supply
You know that fancy looking motor with the three or four funny looking wires sticking out of it? Yeah, you know the one I’m talking about! Yup, that’s a 3 phase motor! Well wouldn’t it be fun to get that thing working through your normal single phase household supply … or better yet, from a DC power supply 🙂 Well come on in and have a look at my design for a 3 phase power supply. The supply generates a low voltage (<18 Volt) low current 3 phase sinosoidal waveform. This waveform is used to switch high power MOSFETs on and off producing a 3 phase high current square wave output. Yes ... yes you'll get all sorts of harmonics and noise driving the motor from a square wave ... but, hey - at least it'll work. Note that this design hasn't been tested in real life yet! Only, good ol' spice simulations.
Who the Devil is Maxwell?
Maxwell? Who is he? Why should we even care who he is? And ohhh … god! What is the insanity behind his equations?! … these my friends are the questions that run chills down the spines of us normal folks. We are like fish out of water, thrashing about in an insane desperate struggle to comprehend the great questions of the universe. Well, lets try diving back into the ocean … and gaze upon the incredible deliciousness of physics at work.
Magnetic Levitation, Potential Energy and Earnshaw’s Theorem
Earnshaw’s theorem demonstrates that stable levitation isn’t possible using static magnetic or electric fields. His proof relies on the idea that the potential energy surface at all points in space in any static system has no local minima. In this article, I’ll discuss potential energy and its relationship to Earnshaw’s theorem and verify that the theorem is, in-fact, correct.