Here’s some tips for getting the most out of your el wire:
1) Use Decent Batteries – alkaline ones like duracell are the best – but you can get these same type of batteries much cheaper (eg Maplins sell a box of 100 of them for £15)
Rechargable batteries have a lower voltage (1.2v) compared to standard batteries (1.5v)
So if you are using 8 of them in the 8XAA battery box you will be putting in 9v instead of the 12v the inverter needs
As the battery drains you will find the EL Wire becomes less bright and you may even notice it becomes patchy – this is a sign to put fresh batteries in
2) Switch Inverter Off After Use – if you unplug the wires from the inverter it will still carry on draining the batteries
3) Adding More Wire – you can ‘daisy chain’ many splitters together and have many wires coming off a single inverter. You will soon find that adding by adding extra EL wire it begins to get dimmer.
The more powerful inverters will drive the EL wire brighter (eg the 8xAA inverter runs 15m of EL wire brighter than the 2xAA inverter drives 1m of wire)
4) Any Glue Is Fine – for fixing wire to a costume. A Hot-glue gun is the best. Remember if it is being permanently fixed to clothing which is being worn out that there is some chance the wire will suffer some extreme environments so take care to observe point 5)
5) Protect The Connection Point – The inch of tubing where the power wire joins to the glowing EL Wire is BY FAR the most fragile and vulnerable point.
Lightpainters are advised to tape up and reinforce this part (as well as the wires as they come out of the inverter) before they star swinging the wire around. And if you’re using it on a costume be sure to keep this part away from elbows or anywhere it will suffer stress.
6) If The Wire Fails – It is likely to be at the place mentioned in 5) Don’t worry if the wire is firmly glued somewhere as you can just cut the connector off and re-attach it.
Instructions how to do this are on the website – unfortunately it requires wirestrippers, a soldering iron and some copper tape – but it is fairly easy. Sometimes though it is the fault of the very far end of the EL wire, perhaps the end cap has fallen off and something has shorted thewires at that end so give it a quick rub and see if it sparks into life ( you yourself might get a tingle of an electro shock off this - dont worry though, EL Wire is VERY low current so there is no danger of a painful shock
Hi any questions you have about EL Wire will be answered here but heres a bit of info about it :
EL Wire is very bright glowing wire that comes in all colours and can be between 1.3mm and 8mm thick
the standard sizes are 1.3mm 'angel hair', 2.3mm, 3.2mm, 5mm and sometimes 8mm
It needs batteries or some way to power it (mains or USB) and then a driver/inverter to make it glow
EL Wire has a copper wire in its core - this is then painted with 'Electro-Luminescent' paint
This EL paint is very similar to glow-in-the-dark paint except EL paint glows when it is exposed to an electric field
Surrounding this copper wire that has EL paint around it are two VERY thin wires
These thin wires attach to the positive coming from the driver/inverter and the central copper wire will be wired up to the negative
(because it is an Alternating Current coming from the inverter it doesnt actually make a difference if its wired to the positive or negative)
The copper core, EL Paint and thin electrtical wires are held inside a clear protective plastic tube which can then be coated with coloured tubing to change the colour of the glow
EL wire design is a very similar same setup as coaxial cable and i always think its weird that the copper wire and the thin electrical wires don't ever meet or touch and no circuit is made between them - in fact if it does then the wire will fail at this point
So the glow isn't made by a current running through and making a curcuit lighting up the wire (like in an LED) but because the copper wire and the thin electrical wires are holding a charge like a capacitor
This is why EL Wire is so energy efficient and it is only the efficiency of the inverter that will cause any power drain - so remember to use decent inverters!
The Electro-Luminescent paint likes a voltage of around 100V to glow (and a frequency of 500 - 1000Htz)
most power inputs are 3v (2 X AA batteries) or 12V so the driver has to 'invert' the voltage up to 100V
The EL Paint glows a light blue colour and any other colour has to be made by putting different coloured plastic tubing round it.
Red is the hardest colour to make from the blue so turns out to be a lot less bright than the blue
Well i hope that helps with finding out how all this works - please leave any comments or questions
INVERTERS:
12v (5-15metres):
6cm X 4cm X 3cm
Sound Activated:
6cm X 5cm X 3cm
Power Pack:
63mm X 58mm X 30mm
