Floating Bonsai

Building the base

To give the device an attractive appearance, the base itself was handcrafted to house all the electronics.

The electronics

To make the bonsai float, a magnet is hidden at the bottom of the moss ball. This magnet is repelled by a ring-shaped permanent magnet in the base. However, since, according to Earnshaw's Theorem, permanent magnets alone are not sufficient to keep a magnet stable, additional electromagnets are required. These use Hall sensors to measure the position of the bonsai and then use a PID controller to keep it centered at all times.