Anyone know how they are made?

Hey guys. Does anyone know how this EL light works? They have this new stuff that if very thin and they are putting it on shirts so they light up now. I was wondering how they power it? I seen them selling some race letters which were cool. Does anyone know how they get power to each letter? Does anyone know where to buy that thin material?
pretty much i would like to know how they are cut into the numbers/logos. How do the companies do it? I see them selling the sheets but can you cut them? What if i only make a small logo, what do you do with the rest?
Here is the sheet's i am talking about.
http://www.chinatopsupplier.com/d-p13638661-El_Wire/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV_43W5st4M

You might consider looking at their website:
http://www.elchina.net/index1.asp
there is an english version.

El Wire is wicked! I have been using it for about 4 years to decorate a car at christmas. I also made a bunch of stickman halloween costumes last year for a group of people.

Here are some purses I have used it on:





They are powered by a battery pack inverter, that can be switched on and off. You can buy the wire at lots of places online. There are kits which have a pre determined length of wire attached to the battery pack or you can buy bulk wire and solder the connectors to the wire, then hook it up to the inverter that is to be used. The length of wire determines which inverter/power source you need. It is fun stuff!

ab

abbeytoo said:

El Wire is wicked! I have been using it for about 4 years to decorate a car at christmas. I also made a bunch of stickman halloween costumes last year for a group of people.

Here are some purses I have used it on:

They are powered by a battery pack inverter, that can be switched on and off. You can buy the wire at lots of places online. There are kits which have a pre determined length of wire attached to the battery pack or you can buy bulk wire and solder the connectors to the wire, then hook it up to the inverter that is to be used. The length of wire determines which inverter/power source you need. It is fun stuff!

ab

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Yeah but what I think the OP was referring to is something new, a really thin flat EL wire type product. I too have used EL wire, it is really cool stuff!

this stuff http://www.elec2go.com.au/category7_1.htm ?

abbeytoo said:

this stuff http://www.elec2go.com.au/category7_1.htm ?

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Yes, that's the stuff i am talking about. That is some rediculously high pricing though. You can get them for like 20 bucks a sheet on ebay. Can you cut all this stuff? People use them for logos and things what do they do with the excess material? I have so many questions about this stuff. I am in the Off-Road industry and it can be used for things like.
Switches so drivers know what is what when driving at night.
Racing numbers would be a big one.
Company sponsor logos on the side of trucks.
And so much more.

I would like to learn how they make the logos. I am guessing they use something like a vinyl cutter and put it to cut the thickness of the EL sheets?

abbeytoo said:

El Wire is wicked! I have been using it for about 4 years to decorate a car at christmas. I also made a bunch of stickman halloween costumes last year for a group of people.

Here are some purses I have used it on:

They are powered by a battery pack inverter, that can be switched on and off. You can buy the wire at lots of places online. There are kits which have a pre determined length of wire attached to the battery pack or you can buy bulk wire and solder the connectors to the wire, then hook it up to the inverter that is to be used. The length of wire determines which inverter/power source you need. It is fun stuff!

ab

Click to expand...

I am also interested in this stuff. How do you get the EL wire to stay the shape you make it? Does it bend or what? Do you glue it to the guitar or what?

The wire is very bendy. I sewed it to the purses. the power pack is in an inside pocket of the purse. It can either flash, stay on, or be off.

You can use a glue gun to keep it in place also. It was too messy for this project. I didn't want globs of glue anywhere.

For the car, I used a 3M double sided, outdoor tape and the glue gun. These pics were taken in the middle of a storm that brought the wind from hell. (thus the windy blur of the pics) I believe the winds were the highest ever here. It had been blowing for at least 2 hours, and the wire remained relatively straight. It was perfectly lined up with the lines on the car, to begin with.

I think the el sheets are used as a backlight. THe logo woul be cut from whatever goes ontop of the el sheet. I think. You cant just randomly cut the sheet or the circuit would fail. There are probably certain spots you can cut, like rope light, but I doubt the logo is cut from the sheet.

Hey guys. Does anyone know how this EL light works?

All EL products are basically the same:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescent


I was wondering how they power it?

You have a battery pack that runs an inverter. Sometimes the inverters whine like a mosquito.


I seen them selling some race letters which were cool. Does anyone know how they get power to each letter?

Just a little two conducter wire.


Does anyone know where to buy that thin material?

Google for "electroluminescence panel". Or eBay.


pretty much i would like to know how they are cut into the numbers/logos. How do the companies do it?

If they design it from scratch they can route the internal conductors any way they want. If you want to do it at home your best bet is just to mask over the part you want dark.


I see them selling the sheets but can you cut them?

You can cut it with a scissors, it's like a plastic sheet. If you cut the wrong spot though, you'll kill it. Unplug it before you cut.


What if i only make a small logo, what do you do with the rest?

Just mask it out.

I just finished watching a rather long but interesting video over at cnet on DIY Electroluminescence. The video can be found here.

They run through all the basics including how to wire up the to the sheets, the basics of cutting the sheets and how to mask out logos etc.

The supplier they used to get the parts was E-Luminates.

You can find more info and technical spec's for the sheet here.

From the specs it looks like an A4 sized sheet uses around 250mA, not including losses in the inverter. Also given is CD outpurt per m squared. This works out to around 19CD for an A4 sheet for the top spec stuff.

It looks like its pretty flexible with how it can be powered. The applied AC voltage depends on the surface area to be powered, but anything between 50V to 250V for an A4 sized sheet (uncut) should work as long as its between 50Hz to 3,000Hz.

Its even stated that its been tested for 1,000V AC for 60seconds :huh:

I wonder just how bright it would be strobing the sheet at this kind of voltage.. and how long it would last.

Anyway, watching this video has made me keen enough to consider ordering a sheet just to play around with and possibly incorporate into other projects.

Anyone else got some first had experience to share?