Working with Flexinol/Muscle Wire

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi everybody!

Could really use some help here. I'm working with Muscle Wire and I'm looking for ways to have it work using an Arduino Uno. I'm a little clueless right now as to how I would go about wiring it to the Uno (using a breadboard) and then programming it to pull under a certain condition. I'm looking for a lot of help just how to tackle everything about this and put it into application with the Uno.

The specs of my Muscle Wire are:

  • 0.006" Diameter

  • 1.27 ohm/inch Linear Resistance

  • 400 mA current

Thanks again for any possible help! It'll be greatly appreciated!

2

400 ma is WAY too much for a breadboard.

Look for Arduino mosfet schematics and forum postings. You also must consider the time to contract and the time to cool and relax.

Paul

3

The wiring would be similar to using a high-power LED or multi-watt incandescent light bulb.
Transistors, mosfets, uln2003 driver chips, etc... (in fact, a constant current HP LED driver might be an good choice - you need something to limit the current when the supply voltage/flexinol wire length don't match up exactly with the ~400mA number. Just like an LED)