Week 5 Journal – Miga Rotary 6P

I missed last week’s class but its obvious the topic was on actuators. The actuator I have chosen is the Miga Rotary 6P. Here is a brief description from sparkfun where the actuator can be purchased, “Description: Nanomuscle is a shape memory alloy based rotary actuator. Rotation up to 60 degrees in either direction. Built-in digital controls and protection, simply apply 3-6V at 350mA and the rotary will turn.”

Rotation is only 60 degrees its more for use with devices that one does not want full rotation. It can be used in a basic moving head that would aim in one direction such as  creating a moving wash effect only on the audience within a venue. It can also be used in very simple LED lighting effects where the LEDs themselves move via DMX control or the beat of the music thru a microphone sensor.

I owned this light a few years ago and it had an actuator very similar to he Miga that would move the LED clusters within the fixture

Here is another interesting, yet simple use of the Rotary 6p.  Through use of the actuator one is able to simulate the movements and actions of a bug.

Here is a link to the actuator

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8805