Magnetic Levitation Device

Working on the Lathe

To start off, I was paired with another one of my classmates to share a bench lathe.

I clamped the aluminum stock in the chuck of the lathe and properly machined the part within the tolerances, according to the drawing on the right.

Working on the Mill

After machining the previous part on the lathe, I moved oon to the milling machine to produce the PCB mount.

There were a few challenging parts, such as ensuring the center slot was positioned correcty, but the part was machined within tolerances.

After using the mill, I used a sheet metal brake to bend the outer shell into the proper shape, then further spot welding the upright part onto the shell.

Reading Circuit Diagram and Placing Components

After the machining part of the project was complete, I moved onto the electrical assembly of the MagLev ciruit (shown on the right).

I read off the components from the diagram and figured out where they needed to be placed on the PCB diagrams shown below.

Soldering Components and Troubleshooting

After figuring out where all the components needed to be, I began soldering them to the PCB. The completed PCB is shown on the left.

When the circuit was completed and assembled into the device, I began testing it. I ran into the problem of it running for several seconds then shutting off.

I went into the electrical lab to check the circuit and I found one of the transistor leads short circuiting onto another. I trimmed the leads down and it worked properly.