El Wire is a kind of neon wire very popular at
BurningMan and with custom computer builders. You need a controller which costs upwards of £5 and takes 2 AA batteries. The wire is a bit tricky to strip and solder.
Assembly hints.
http://www.coolight.com/pdfs/Connecting.PDF∞
http://www.surelight.com/content.php?categoryId=437∞
http://www.theglowcompany.co.uk∞
For more European suppliers see
Suppliers,
Google∞ or
eBay∞.
Some suppliers I use are
http://www.coolightwest.com∞ ( good service, selection of invertors and wire and ideas. Connection service)
http://www.elwirecheap.com∞ (connection service and varied supply of connectors. Good instant kits and other eletrcial glow bits and bobs)
http://www.thatscoolwire.com∞ (goods for kits and 4 colour wire. Also the accessories for matching coloured end caps, connecting wires and el wire mounts)
But ultimately satisfying route is to do the whole thing yourself, some pointers below:
1) Decide on what type of elwire you would like and how much, there are many types and depending upon what you choose, this will influence your choice of invertor. You have to select what thickness of wire you would like 1.3mm anglewire, 2.3mm standard, 3.2mm medium, 2.5mm or 5mm high bright wire, 2.3mm tail wire for easy attachment and double core wire. The the colour you would like, you can even get 4 colours on 1 wire although I haven't tried that out yet so don't know what it is like.
2) After you have chosen your type and colour of wire you need to choose an invertor, this is what powers the wire and should be chosen carefully. If you are making a portable design or costume then you will need a battery powered invertor, balance weight and size against the length of wire they can power. Depending upon the effect you want to create you may also have to consider extra features like varying blink rates, strobing, sound sensitive flashing, etc. For really interesting patterns you will need a sequencer which can have the invertor built in. One invertor can power more than one strand of elwire but the total length of the elwire must not exceed the maximum length specified for that invertor
3) Connecting the two, there are plenty of instructions out there on how to solder the wire and invertor (e.g.
http://www.coolneon.com/soldering.html∞ or
http://www.elwirecheap.com/elwirsolin.html∞) but if you are unsure there are suppliers that will provide both with connectors for a small charge. If you have a clear idea of your design and you are not planning on doing much work with elwire in the future this is the easiest way. I definitely advise soldering little connector like
http://www.thatscoolwire.com/store/item.asp?Category=102&SubCategoryID=36&GroupID=&SKU=BYS-TNC∞, this means you can swap out damaged wire or change invertors without having to take the whole thing apart.
It is fun, creative and highly recommended to increase your visibility at night (especially as this year is meant to be V dark on the playa this year).
Enjoy
DougaldDutch
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