Oh! And to figure out the mechanism it was really helpful to go to youtube and look up "robot tentacle" and "tentacle mechanism" "tentacle puppet" etc. There are some tutorials that are really good. I had to adapt them to the materials at hand, but overall it's the same idea and can be done with a lot of different materials. I'll hunt down some specific videos when I get back from picking up my kids.

it looks amazing! i'm well impressed with your mechanism, I've a half built mechanism with bike brake cables myself, so i'll have to get on with it and actually finish a project... watch this space...

This thread is amazing, Wonderful ideas. I love the movement and the eyes.
I have been thinking of trying to do a similar model. I happen to have a flex shaft from a dremel tool that I was considering using, It has a shaft that I can slide forward and back and rotate within the tube. There are also threaded couplings at each end that I may be able to adapt.

Has anyone used nitinol wire or Flexinol wire to manipulate wings etc? It is the wire that changes length with electrical current. I don't know how fast it reacts but it could be promising,

Has anyone used nitinol wire or Flexinol wire to manipulate wings etc? It is the wire that changes length with electrical current. I don't know how fast it reacts but it could be promising,

Never heard of this before... you have my attention!   Found this on the subject. http://robotics.hobbizine.com/flexinol.html Looks like maybe it could be useful. There is a diagram at the bottom of the article that looks like something you could put in a mouth to operate it although it may not react fast enough for syncing a mouth but other movements may be fine. There are also links to other articles on the subject at the bottom of the page.

In the article they also mention the use of piano/spring wire as a spring. They mention you don't have to coil it to get a spring. A simple bend in a price can create the spring you need. I had never thought of this and so wanted to pass the idea on.

I was thinking it could be fun to make the wings of anything flutter. Dragon, butterfly, bat.
My first thought was way to elaborate, they usually are, I wanted to take one of those Furby toys or an animated parrot and modify it to be a puppet. I think it would be neat to have either sound activated or proximity activated wings. So if there was a loud noise or something startling the puppet would be scared and react, Like I said I always start of too elaborate.

Has anyone used nitinol wire or Flexinol wire to manipulate wings etc? It is the wire that changes length with electrical current. I don't know how fast it reacts but it could be promising,

I've heard it called muscle wire, it sounds fascinating but I've never worked with it.

Phew. It's been a while, but I've gotten a lot done on him here and there. He's still far from complete. I'm going to go back and retrofit him with a fourth cable, plus the cosmetics are really rough. I had to rush and make him halfway presentable because a friend just took him to Steamcon for the weekend.





From the top. I don't have a good side view, I literally snapped these just before he was whisked away. Hopefully there will be some good pictures from the event!

Looks good!

He turned out really cool. When you get him back, you'll have to get some video of him in action. Did you end up using  Flexinol wire?