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Ultrasonic Levitation Rig

Attemting to build a proof of concept ultrasonic levitation rig, for the kind of change you have shoved in your pocket after a night out.

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Inspired by Mike's exploration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy1w6rTpC2g and http://hackaday.com/2013/09/20/diy-ultrasonic-acoustic-levitation, tried to recreate and play with the setup. Turned into a great demo of the phenomenon at a science symposium, and a physical conformation of the speed of sound. With a measured average interval of 5.92 mm (Pixel counting off level photos). With a 28.5 khz standing wave, the theoretical wavelength would be 11.9 mm. Experientially, 11.84 mm is within half a percent error, good enough for me.

Setup itself is two salvaged pieces of plywood mounted on four M8 rails. Transducer on the bottom, mirror glued to the top. Played around with watchglasses as eliptical reflectors, but to no avail, I think they were too heavy. Driven with a potted 555 sine generator circut, hooked up to the secondary of a transformer. All in all, a really fun project thrown together in two weekends.

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loxias wrote 06/15/2018 at 15:17 • point

Really cool stuff!  Especially tickles my happy neurons as DSP (primarily audio) happens to be my peak hobby.  One probably obvious question though:  Your BOM seems to include everything except..... the ultrasound transducer itself?  Though I guess at 28khz, you could use a high end tweeter.  Either way, I'm curious what you used.

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roshantalathi wrote 02/21/2018 at 11:21 • point

i would like to this project for transducer frequency of 35 KHZ. Can you tell me the driver circuit?

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earlwallacenyc wrote 09/30/2016 at 14:00 • point

Thanks for the detailed pictures, especially the one with the ruler and lines.

I would like repeat your experiments.
Can you post a diagram of your driver circuit?

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Dr. Stefan Lutz wrote 01/17/2016 at 09:19 • point

impressing...any chance to see the circuit...only the BOM is shown in the gallery...

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sicarius66 wrote 05/07/2015 at 21:34 • point

awesome

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zuul wrote 07/25/2014 at 19:16 • point
nice

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