An engineer purchases a $30 levitating globe desk toy to reverse-engineer its magnetic levitation control system. The post covers initial impressions, a critique of the control system's poor damping (estimated Q of ~10), the tradeoffs of a unipolar electromagnet design, and hands-on experiments using rare-earth magnets and steel rulers to probe the device's behavior. Key observations include underdamped oscillation, poor large-signal disturbance rejection, and clues about the cup-shaped pole piece geometry. Part 2 promises an actual physical teardown of the electronics and magnetics.
