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- Power up the circuit. The LED will not turn on (or only light up shortly). This is normal, the magnets will only be powered up when the levitating magnet is placed on top.
- When not calibrated correctly, the circuit will draw a lot of power and the electromagnets and the transistors will get very hot quickly. Do not let it powered up in that state for a long time.
- Remove both jumpers on the magnet PCB. This will disable both the X and the Y electromagnets, X being the 2 electromagnets for the horizontal and Y the 2 in vertical direction.
- Take a multimeter, switch it to DC ampere mode and connect to the 2 pins of one of the headers where the jumpers have been. This will enable one of the two directions and display the current on the multimeter. Make sure your multimeter can handle 3 A.
- Cover the device with something to prevent the levitating magnet from crashing into it. Really, do it! It will happen!
- Hold the levitating magnet over the center of the device. The right orientation is the one when it is repelled by the permanent magnets. The magnet will try to escape sideways. The circuit should now turn on, the LED should light up.
- Try to get the magnet over the exact center of the device. At the same time, check the current and use a small screwdriver to turn one of the blue potentiometers to get the current as close as possible to 0. This is best done with two persons. The current can flow in both directions, pay attention to the sign of the displayed current. If turning the potentiometer does not change the current, you probably have the wrong one, try the other one.
- When you have finished this, remove the multimeter from the pins and connect them it to the other pin headers. Now perform the same procedure again, this time using the other potentiometers.
- Now remove the multimeter and put the jumpers in again. Now you should be able to levitate the magnet over the center. If it does not work, repeat the calibration.
- For fine tuning the calibration, you can replace one (only one!) of the jumpers with the multimeter and again try to get the current to 0 while the magnet is levitating. Repeat with the other jumper/potentiometer.
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