Levitating Water Droplets

I saw several websites where they built a similar project, even some of them offered it to sell. At first I wanted to buy one, but the price exceeded my imagination so I decided to build one.

I have researched a bit and most of them has been built with potentiometer to control the frequencies for the light and valve but I wanted build a wireless version, controlled by mobile phone.

I've choose an ESP32 because it has Bluetooth feature and PWM output for the peripherals. To control the LED strip, solenoid valve and water pump I had to use MOSFETs for the higher voltage and current. All these 3 components run on 12V and require close to 1-2A to operate so the power supply must be well selected too.

The main ingredients:

-​ESP32 wroom

-​IRFZ44N mosfets

-BC 549 Transistors

-​12v Water Pump

-​12v Solenoid Valve

-12v LED Strip

-Acrylic sheets

The first step is to build the body of the water fall. For this I used an acrylic sheets.

Then fix the water pump to the bottom, the LED strip to the middle and the solenoid valve to the top.

Build the PCB with the listed components, then put everything together and wire them up.

Write the code for the ESP32 to use the Bluetooth and to control 3 PWM outputs for the water pump, LED strip and solenoid valve.

Create the mobile app with MIT app inventor.

Tweak them together and enjoy the levitating water droplets :)

You can see it on my youtube channel how it works and you can find some useful thoughts on my website.

https://www.youtube.com/@L.E.D.s

http://laszlokovacs.bovebben.hu

Have fun.