Once I have identified a hot spot, whether it is a nail under the floor or a beam or some source of magnetism, I will try to start over it and see if I can maneuver away from it. Or I will start somewhere a little away from it if the attraction to the hot spot is too strong to maneuver away from and see how long I can avoid the model being drawn into the hot spot.
Identifying a hot spot isn't all that difficult. First of all the device works too well to be true but keeps going in the same direction. Granted that can be difficult since some of the devices can only go in one direction. Next use the magnetometer. In my latest informal experiment the magnetometer read over 10 uT higher on the Z axis over the hot spot. It is difficult to simply scan a whole area for a hot spot but it is possible with patience also.
A device with permanent magnets that are used to swing against a weight in the water tank in an aluminum pan should be able to go in any direction. I needed to identify which side of the device rotates with more mass. If the center of rotation is shorter on one side that is usually the side with the greater mass and where the most centrifugal force will be as it swings side to side like a pendulum.
So below is a 4 minute video of two trials. In the first 2 minutes of the video the model can be seen to drift without being maneuvered right into the hot spot from a standstill to a speed of 4 inches per minute approximately. This of course is a false positive result.
In the second 2 minutes of the video the water tank is in the exact same location with the hot spot in the same place as well. The model is starting from a standstill and then maneuvered in a pendulum motion and can be seen to not move into the hot spot. This shows that the maneuvering model has achieved a bit of thrust. Of course there are other factors that would remain to be ruled out for example slip stick effect.
Originally I tried to start in the hot spot and maneuver out of it but the model didn't have enough power to do so, hence I settled for simply staying away from the hot spot. The hot spot is in the north east part of the water tank or the lower left part of the screen. The model consists of a servo that controls the rotation of the stacks of neodymium magnets. It is actually an IR remote control toy robot with the magnets taped to some craft sticks to its top. When the north end of the stacks of magnets points east the aluminum pan rotates counterclockwise and vise a versa. The weight at the other end of the 10 inch aluminum pan is clay that is a blue color.
Please observe:
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