Levitating Globe Tear-apart and Fix

First off, I am not an electronic engineer - barely know the difference between a potentiometer and a variable capacitor. My levitating globe only worked sporadically and finally it quit working at all so I had nothing to lose and chose to tear it apart because I just wanted to see how it worked. My fix was simple: I snipped off the two potentiometers inside and it started levitating again. Why, don't know. Maybe they were just way out of wack but I did try adjusting them for a long time before I decided to cut them out.
Here are closeup photos if you are interested: https://www.instructables.com/id/Magn...
Please note this is not a great fix: my globe still works sporadically but at least it works now, it did not work at all before. I do not suggest this as a fix for your broken levitator.
Update: mine works almost every time now, the intersection of the x and y fields is always off a little, but I can usually feel it and with a little patience it centers itself. Didn't do that when I had the potentiometers installed.
Update Sep 2017: it still works great without the pots. Strange. Leave it on all the time now and it has only fallen down once in many months time when the power went off.