Hi there,
I am new to this forum and am hoping some one can help me out. I am trying to build a circuit with my son that will activate a flexinol cable every 5/10 sec. If you have not heard of Flexinol have a look at their website (I don't want to post the address in case it is against forum rules). It is a shape memory alloy, basically you put a current through and it physically shrinks, once current is removed it goes back to it's original form.
My son found an old cheap dinosaur of his that he, off the top of his head, decided he wanted to bring to life with electronics. I really want to encourage this stuff, so we did some research and he found this memory wire, it would work perfectly, we can attach it on the inside of the neck of the dinosaur (it is sort of hollow) and apply a current and away it would go.
Before I get this thing though we want to create a circuit that will have this thing turn on (flex) for a few seconds and then off (relax) for a few seconds. I know a 555 timer would do this, but my son wants to run it off batteries, and it is my understanding that 555 timers are constantly 'on' draining the power. I remember using a capacitor and a couple of transistors as a timer once, but can not find any circuits online. I can build these things but am lost when it comes to designing anything. Is that the best way to go? the circuit ideally would be small form factor as there is not a great deal of room, and as I said running off batteries.
The flexinol technical specs say that their 0.002" dia cable (just randomly chose that size) has a resistance of 12.7Ohms per inch, we would use about an inch to make life easier.
Can anyone help design something simple? Or point me in the right direction please.
Many thanks in advance guys.
I am new to this forum and am hoping some one can help me out. I am trying to build a circuit with my son that will activate a flexinol cable every 5/10 sec. If you have not heard of Flexinol have a look at their website (I don't want to post the address in case it is against forum rules). It is a shape memory alloy, basically you put a current through and it physically shrinks, once current is removed it goes back to it's original form.
My son found an old cheap dinosaur of his that he, off the top of his head, decided he wanted to bring to life with electronics. I really want to encourage this stuff, so we did some research and he found this memory wire, it would work perfectly, we can attach it on the inside of the neck of the dinosaur (it is sort of hollow) and apply a current and away it would go.
Before I get this thing though we want to create a circuit that will have this thing turn on (flex) for a few seconds and then off (relax) for a few seconds. I know a 555 timer would do this, but my son wants to run it off batteries, and it is my understanding that 555 timers are constantly 'on' draining the power. I remember using a capacitor and a couple of transistors as a timer once, but can not find any circuits online. I can build these things but am lost when it comes to designing anything. Is that the best way to go? the circuit ideally would be small form factor as there is not a great deal of room, and as I said running off batteries.
The flexinol technical specs say that their 0.002" dia cable (just randomly chose that size) has a resistance of 12.7Ohms per inch, we would use about an inch to make life easier.
Can anyone help design something simple? Or point me in the right direction please.
Many thanks in advance guys.