I have seen some pretty cool creations that use muscle wire so I bought some and wanted to make something myself.

Muscle wire or Memory Alloy is a pretty cool Material that can be formed and then set to that shape through a high heat Treatment. Afterwards the wire can be re-shaped, to a point, and then when the wire is reheated it will return to the original form.

Check Out this Video Demonstration by ThinkGeek!

Pretty Awesome!

Instead of using a hand to recoil the wire I will use current controlled from a Microprocessor to cause some fun things to happen. I hope you enjoy this project!

WHERE DO I GET THIS STUFF?

I purchased mine from Janeco Electronics. I found this sight to be reliable over the years and they have a decent selection and price.

There are different diameters and lengths of the Muscle wire so I just purchased 2 meters of  the cheapest wire the Flexinol® 150LT Muscle Wire. When I bought it it was about $10.00 for a wire, and $5.00 for shipping, but orders over $10.00 had free shipping so I bought 2 meters to not waste money on shipping!