SMAs :Flexinor test
I use a trained flexinor and cut a thin paper into a tongue shape. I sew flexinor on the paper and attach copper tape at each end. I test it with a 9V battery. The motion was very interesting but it was really hard to make an intended motion.
Because the motion of flexinol reminded me of the trunk of elephants, I made an elephant, using the flexinol.
First, I sewed to make the flexinol fixed above a paper trunk. 
Then I let the flexinol go through the crimp beads and soldered the beads on the copper tape. 
Then I added outer layers and made it an elephant head. 
However, it didn’t curve exactly as I expected. The shape of the flexinol and stitches might need to be improved.
I tried to use the pressure sensor I made before together with the SMAs. The idea is the persons is dying meanwhile his soul gets up.
The ohm I calculated for this 6.75 inch wire is 9.8 so I used a 10 ohm resistor.
For this assignment, I made an alligator-bear-puppy monster thing yawn. I wanted the creature’s mouth to be closed all the time, and sometimes it opens, so it looks like its yawning. I will have to rethink the way things are placed and assembled. Right now, it looks more like the creature is closing its opened mouth. I was also expecting the mouth to close completely, but it didn’t. Additionally, I think I will need to be more careful about which resistors I use in the future. The resistor I used was too small and ended up getting burnt out.
I started with building the circuit first to make sure it was worked and then created a story from there. I decided to use paper as the material for the nitinol. It was extremely difficult soldering the crimp bead to the copper tape because the nitinol would contract as it was heated by the solder and didn’t stay in place while I was soldering. Finally I got it to work, I could use a button to make the current go through the wire to open the little gap. I decided to draw a character with one of their teeth being removed (except it gets removed from the bottom, but should be from the top. Also I didn’t have a 12-13 resistor so I ended up trying a 10 resistor and a 47 resistor. The 47 didn’t allow for the nitinol to contract. The 10 resistor allowed the nitinol to contract, but it almost burned.
For this week’s homework, I experimented with SMA to create an unhappy cat taking a shower.
I began by drawing the cutouts of the shower and the cat and made a box to facilitate the up and down movement. For the handmade sensor I made a rotating sensor with some paper, copper tape and screw nails. The sensor did not work out as well in the code, so I ended up not using it to activate the wire.
Then I started experimenting with making the wire move. I had a lot of difficulties controlling with Arduino because my battery wasn’t working well. I tried using analogWrite up to 50000 in value to make it move.
After switching batteries it was operating better.
Use trained or untrained flexinol to add motion to paper or fabric. The theme for this assignment is open || closed.
Guidelines:
You must be able to turn it on with a handmade sensor (it can be one you have already created).
You can use Arduino or a 9 Volt (or LiPo) battery to activate your wire. (If you use only a battery, be sure to calculate the resistor needed)