DIY Wireless Magnetic Levitating Moon Lamp

If your child ever makes a special wish, you will do everything in your power to make it happen, right? So, my daughter's wish was a 'moon lamp'. And here is it: a magnetic, levitating (MagLev) wireless moonlight:

MagLev Wireless LED Moon

It is the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, so I thought that that wish needs to be realized.

To build it, I used the following:

• A laser cutter or access to it (I used an enhanced version) to cut plywood and PMMA material
• A 3D printer or access to it (I used an Ultimaker 2) to print the moon and a white PLA
• 3D model of the moon: I used the fantastic work from Leung Chan (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3242080)
• MagLev Kit, search the usual vendors, e.g. this one: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32826436109.html
• For a wireless moon illumination, search for “Magnetic levitation wireless power supply module,” e.g. this one: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32822002952.html
• For a battery/USB-based LED kit with remote controller, see the following: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32998601607.html

The wireless LED module gets placed into a 3D-printed enclosure:

Wireless LED Module

The magnet is put inside the enclosure and the LED module is glued on top of it:

LED Module With Magnet

Below, a test with the 4″ version of the moon:

4-inch Moon Version

The module gets glued into the moon while it's printed. Below is the 6″ version of it:

LED Module Placed Into Moon

I printed the moon without any support, with 100 percent infill, and using a white PLA. To stabilize it, I used some scrap plywood to keep it in place:

Fixing the Moon While Printing

MagLev Base

The original MagLev base came with 8 LEDs on the side. I have cut them and re-attached them to have everything inside a circle.

Ring LEDs

Below is a version of the enclosure using a laser cut 5mm PMMA/Acrylic:

PMMA Enclosure

I have put the wireless charging board into the bottom part of the PCB and added an on-off switch to turn off the light:

MagLev Bottom Side

Placing the moon on the base takes a bit of practice and should be done quickly; otherwise, the coils get very hot and could overheat. The video below demonstrates the process:

The magnetic field can pull the magnet away with up to about 500 g. Of course, no sensitive devices should be placed in the magnetic field.

A cool use case is to levitate small things or a cactus on the magnet :-):

MagLev Cactus

Desk Lamp

I have built a version of the moon lamp with a LED bump inside. I used a 40W (10 or 20W would do it as well) LED light bulb with a cable and a switch:

LED Light Bulb

LED Lamp

The LED bulb then gets placed inside the moon and it can hang up. I used a 'warm white' LED here:

Another option is to use a charged version: This includes an IR sender and a microcontroller board with 4 LEDs (white, red, green, blue). The picture below shows it with a 4″ moon version:

The board with the battery is glued into a 3D-printed socket:

3-D-Printed Socket

With this, I have a color cycling moon!

Red Moon

Purple Moon

White Moon

Looking for another use case? At the university, our institute's Chief Assistant designed his own nameplate:

Nameplate

Kind of boring, right? The next step in the evolution is to have something laser cut like this:

Laser-cut Plywood Nameplate

Having a MagLev available makes things a bit more exiting:

MagLev Plywood Nameplate

I like the Acrylic one too:

Acrylic MagLev Nameplate

But maybe you like the version with the moon too:

MagLev Moon Nameplate

It is a really cool thing to make such a MagLev device. All that it needs are some pre-built parts that you later put together.

Happy Mooning!