Electroluminescent (EL Wire)

Dano

I came into possession of several lengths of EL wire along with inverters. I own several Basic Stamps (Prop-1, BS2). Can a basic stamp be used to control the El Wire (fade, sequence, etc..)? How would I hook it up? What would my programming options be?

El Wire technical information here: http://www.vibelights.com/elwirefaq.html

Thanks

metron9

This is cool, I really have never seen this stuff. I will have to order some to play with.

I did some googeling and came up with this link. The datasheet for the inverter chip as well

http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?AD=1&ArticleID=6400

http://www.google.com/search?q=sp4425&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US[noparse]:o[/noparse]fficial

I looked for the inverter chip on findchips, Future has no stock and americaii shows up in the search but on their web site it dosent come up.

Perhaps someone else knows if a replacement inverter chip that would work in the circuit linked in the first link.


Looks like you can simply turn on and off the inverter , by changing the external caps or variable resistors via other switches controlled by the stamp you could change the frequency output as well and that changes color and brightness.

I see you also have to control the voltage as well as the frequency to get effects of different natures but looks like the stamp could do it with other components to control what ever you need it to do.

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Think outside the BOX!

metron9

I could not even find the part on the mfg web site so I dont know what the deal is with these chips



http://www.sipex.com/

Followed up ZWN makes one as well but 2500 min qty REEL , and no price you have to call

http://www.futureestore.com/eStore/SearchResult.aspx?PartNumber=ZSP4425LCU/TR&SearchType=ByID&CategoryName=9999999991&ManufacturerName=ZWN


Ahh got it,

Goto DIGIKEY.com search INVERTER scroll down to OPTOELECTRONICS click on Inverters, you will see EL inverters , they are expensive in 1 QTY

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Think outside the BOX!

Post Edited (metron9) : 9/6/2006 1:13:31 AM GMT

Tracy Allen

Our local supplier here in N.Ca is

www.coolneon.com/

You'll notice that they are a Presence at the Burning Man.

They offer quite a few inverters to drive different lengths of fiber, as well as a lot of advice and even classes. Sometimes they have great specials, and last year around this time I got 12 strands each with a small inverter, powered by a 2032 coin cell, for about $1.50 each. I controlled these with a Stamp for a halloween thing, only in an ON-OFF mode by breaking the battery circuit. They can make great patterns if you pulse the light and spin them.

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Tracy Allen
www.emesystems.com

Kenny Gardner

When buying wire and inverters, stay away from the stuff on eBay.

The wire has a half life of about 3 months and the inverters are just plain Smile (they'll burn up on you). One of them will gladly accept your money and not ship the product (they have a Web Site as well).

As Tracy suggested:

Cool Neon

shopping.netsuite.com/coolneonstore

and

CooLight

www.coolight.com/

Kenny

Zoot

I actually *just* hit the forums looking for info on running El Wire inverters from Stamp I/O.

I found the article below which describes running strands of El Wire from a Stamp by running the Pin outputs through optoisolators and then triacs to switch inverter power in and out.

www.instructables.com/id/EPVDAAZV3MEP2873ZT/?ALLSTEPS

He includes some BS2 code, a PCB layout, etc.

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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. -- HST