Ultrasonic levitation – the practice of generating standing waves between two ultrasonic sources and positioning light objects so that they can float under the minimum pressure between them – has attracted more than one experimenter. [Peter Lin] demonstrates this in the following video, creating an ultrasonic levitation system by using only the chip NE555 trusted by all real experimenters. (video, embedded below.)
The circuit itself is simple, just a stable type, making 1 billion pagers and flashing LEDs. It drives two ultrasonic sensors in parallel. Through their pointing to each other and some gap adjustment, it can successfully suspend polystyrene. Some work has been done in adjusting the frequency to the resonance of the transducer, but considering the correct instrument, this is not a huge challenge. We can see that this will be a great standing wave demonstration and also a magical desk. There are not many toys.
We celebrated everyone’s favorite timer chip in hackday, so that we recently held a competition to use it to find the best work.