Make Your Own Levitation Device with this Tindie Kit

We’ve been trained over the years by magicians to view levitation as an illusion or parlor trick, but true levitation is possible. It can only be done with very small and light objects—at least at any reasonable power level—but it can be done. Surprisingly, it’s neither expensive nor difficult to achieve. In fact, you can build your own levitation device with this $29 “Phenomenal Levitating Ball Kit” available on Tindie.

This kit was designed by MadLab, and relies on ultrasonic levitation. Ultrasonic levitation is a form of acoustic levitation, in which sound waves are used to keep a small object hovering in the air. If the object is small and light enough, the ultrasonic sound waves will carry it continuously upwards against the pull of gravity. But if you have one ultrasonic transducer pointing upwards and a second ultrasonic transducer pointing downwards, a series of small pockets will be created in the areas between where the two waves intersect. The object will happily float in that area, as it is simultaneously pushed up and down by the ultrasonic waves.

The Phenomenal Levitating Ball Kit provides an affordable and easy way to make that happen. It comes with the custom PCB and all of the electronic components you need, with the exception of the pair of 9V batteries required to supply power. The PCB is designed to be snapped into multiple pieces, which are then soldered together to form a 3D structure that supports the two ultrasonic transducers. After assembly, you’ll be able to levitate things like small pieces of paper or Styrofoam. There is even a built-in experimental “tractor beam” feature, which will move the object up and down by a few millimeters by sweeping the phase angles of the ultrasonic waves.