My new Flexinol finally arrived.  I wired up a new test using the thinner music wire I purchased and the results were…unsuccessful, but encouraging.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqKqs0836uM

You can see in the video that the Flexinol works as anticipated and does cause some movement in the paper.  However, either the wire is still too stiff or the Flexinol simply doesn’t contract enough to create the range of motion I’m looking for.  Currently I’m researching ways of amplifying that range of motion, possibly through some sort of actuator/pulley system.  This site has some interesting options.

On the non-electronic front, the felt panel has been created and will be printed tomorrow.