--- title: Newton’s Cradle Isn’t Really Perpetual | daily.dev description: A DIY Newton's cradle that runs indefinitely using an ESP32 microcontroller and a proximity sensor to detect ball movement and inject small electromagnetic... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/newton-s-cradle-isn-t-really-perpetual-be2j9ltlb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Newton’s Cradle Isn’t Really Perpetual | daily.dev og:description: A DIY Newton's cradle that runs indefinitely using an ESP32 microcontroller and a proximity sensor to detect ball movement and inject small electromagnetic... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/newton-s-cradle-isn-t-really-perpetual-be2j9ltlb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/bE2J9LTLb.png og:image:alt: Newton’s Cradle Isn’t Really Perpetual og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Newton’s Cradle Isn’t Really Perpetual **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A DIY Newton's cradle that runs indefinitely using an ESP32 microcontroller and a proximity sensor to detect ball movement and inject small electromagnetic pulses at precisely the right moment. The build uses mostly off-the-shelf modules, a 3D-printed case, and a pre-made toy cradle, making it a convincing faux perpetual motion machine suitable as a desk piece or science classroom demonstrator. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Sliding Into Perfection: The Open Task Light](https://daily.dev/posts/sliding-into-perfection-the-open-task-light-hzpp0rguq) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Self-Powered Top Spins For Hours](https://daily.dev/posts/self-powered-top-spins-for-hours-ebqbahn5h) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [You, too, can build this ESP32 3D-printed solar system model, and yes, it spins](https://daily.dev/posts/you-too-can-build-this-esp32-3d-printed-solar-system-model-and-yes-it-spins-po3uvw5aw) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#iot](https://daily.dev/tags/iot), [#embedded](https://daily.dev/tags/embedded) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/newton-s-cradle-isn-t-really-perpetual-be2j9ltlb) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Newton’s Cradle Isn’t Really Perpetual","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/newton-s-cradle-isn-t-really-perpetual-be2j9ltlb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/newton-s-cradle-isn-t-really-perpetual-be2j9ltlb"},"datePublished":"2026-07-13T08:04:07.401Z","dateModified":"2026-07-13T08:04:27.184Z","description":"A DIY Newton's cradle that runs indefinitely using an ESP32 microcontroller and a proximity sensor to detect ball movement and inject small electromagnetic...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c5768619df2cee189179029577a3f14d?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c5768619df2cee189179029577a3f14d?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hackaday","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hackaday","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--JhDfhy70--/f_auto,q_auto/v1767541814/logos/hackaday","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/newton-s-cradle-isn-t-really-perpetual-be2j9ltlb","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"iot,embedded","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hackaday","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Newton’s Cradle Isn’t Really Perpetual"}]} ```