When [Carl] Says Jump, the PCBs say “How high?

We noticed that [Carl Bugeja] likes flexible PCBs. His latest feat is making PCB-based springs that combine with magnets to create little jumping devices. We don't know what practical use these might have, but they're undeniably new and you can see them - er - jumping all over the place, in the video below.

[Carl] has done a lot of experimenting with spring construction and design. You can see several of the iterations in the video, not all of which worked well. A PCB coil in the base becomes magnetized when current flows and this repels or attracts the magnets to the other end of the spring. What can you do with a PCB spring? We are not sure. Maybe this is how your next microbot could climb the stairs?

Adding stiffeners produced springs that were too stiff for the electromagnet to attract. We wondered if a different coil design at the base might be more efficient. Besides, you might not need to use a flat PCB coil in this position if you really wanted to optimize jump behavior.

Usually when we check in with [Carl], he makes PCB-based motors. Or sometimes it makes PCB heaters for reflow soldering. We've seen hopping robots before, of course. we will say that the magnets seem less intense than with compressed air.