Make your logo light up with this simple Converse sneaker mod. All you need is EL panel and an inverter tucked into the tongue of your shoe to get the stars in your Chuck Taylors glowing. Two styles! Watch the video on YouTube (please subscribe!) or Vimeo, and catch the complete tutorial on the Adafruit Learning System.

EL wire pinwheel by Scott Janousek:

The EL Pinwheel was a CUBICAL90 digital art project at Artisan’s Asylum by Scott Janousek. The project was inspired by Ecco Pierce who does metal sculpture and EL. The EL Pinwheel was created in the span of a few hours, in intervals, over the span of a week.

EL wire starter pack – Aqua 2.5 meter (8.2 ft)

NEW PRODUCTS – EL Wire Coin Cell and 1xAAA Mini Inverter – Really tiny portable inverters for EL wire. These power off of a single CR2032 coin battery or a single AAA battery (not included!), and can drive up to 50cm / 20 inches of our high-brightness EL wire or 10cm x 1cm long piece of EL tape for 3 hours (or longer if the EL wire is less than 50cm long).

The 1xAAA Mini Inverter has a switch on the side for selecting steady/blink/off modes and comes with a 2.5mm pitch female JST connector.

The Coin Cell Mini Inverter has a button for selecting steady/blink/off modes and comes with a 2.5mm pitch female JST connector.

Like all inverters we’ve used, the 2000 Hz oscillation is slightly audible. To connect a piece EL wire to this, you’ll want a male connector wire if it isn’t already attached.

Soldering to EL wire is a little tricky but luckily we wrote a detailed step-by-step tutorial!

Technical Details for EL Wire 1xAAA Mini Inverter

• Size: 26.52mm / 1″ x 50.47mm / 1.98″ x 14.5mm / 0.57″
• Cable Length: 82.55mm / 3.25″
• Weight: 14.84g

Technical Details for EL Wire Coin Cell Mini Inverter

• Size: 23.8mm / 0.9″ x 45.52mm / 1.79″ x 10.21mm / 1.4″
• Cable Length: 75mm / 2.9″
• Weight: 10g

In stock and shipping now!

Bill Porter tweets “A sneak peek of what we wore at our wedding for @adafruit’s #WearableWednesday”

Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

EL wire ties & bras by ElectricStyles on Etsy via Geekologie

Mika @ Kobakant writes:

EL panel and inverters are interesting material, but rather hard to control since it involves inverters with AC current. There are some nice tutorials on how to control AC side with triac or EL sequencer at sparkfun, buildr.. so on. But I always had a bit of problem when I want to fade them slowly, or when I use many EL panels on at the same time. (inverter that connects to EL sequencer has limitation on the size and number of EL panels it can light up at the same time)

Alpha Lyrae collection by designer Vega Zaihi Wang & UFO Media Lab via Cool Hunting

Paul Martis writes in:

I wanted to share my Valentine’s Day project with you. I called it a Valentine Love Light and it’s a gift I made for my wife incorporating an animated LED message along with a light bulb which has the filament replaced with an EL-wire heart. By the way, your tutorials for EL wire are really helpful – the use of copper tape makes working with it so much easier!

What’s your favorite thing about game day? We made Super Bowl Glowing Helmets with EL Panel – video on YouTube (please subscribe!) and Vimeo. Emblazon your team’s logo in electroluminescent panel! Learn to use a vinyl cutter to create slick glowing graphics for these glowing Super Bowl helmets or any project you dream up.

NEW PRODUCTS! Flowing USB Cables. Spice up your Lighting (iPhone 5, iPad 4 & Mini, etc) USB charging/data transfers with this elegant flowing-effect EL cable. The cable has a thin cord of EL in the center, and a micro-inverter in the USB plug. The cable works perfectly fine as a classic 2.5-foot long USB cable, and can be used for data transfer and/or charging. As the current draw through the cable increases, the speed of the flowing effect speeds up. This makes it surprisingly handy as a way to roughly gauge the current draw of the USB client. The EL inverter draws 70mA at all times, so keep this in mind – it will drain a battery-powered USB pack pretty fast!

Flowing Effect MicroUSB Data+Charging Cable – Black w/Aqua EL
Flowing Effect MicroUSB Data+Charging Cable – White w/Aqua EL
Flowing Effect iOS Dock Data+Charging Cable – White w/Aqua EL
Flowing Effect iOS Dock Data+Charging Cable – Black w/Aqua EL
Flowing Effect iOS Lightning Cable – White w/Aqua EL
Flowing Effect iOS Lightning Cable – Black w/Aqua EL

Check out these EL wire signs! They’re easy and fun to make, so James and I whipped some up for his band’s music video shoot. Learn to make your own signs in the tutorial on the Adafruit Learning System, and watch Anamanaguchi’s new video for 「MEOW」below.

David Hu used our aqua EL panel along with some laser-cut acrylic to make this heart-shaped light for biking. He writes:

I bike almost everyday in New York City. Because of work and school, I am often on the road late at night so road safety is a big concern. But even with LED headlights and taillights (as required by law), drivers seldom seem to pay much attention to those who travel on two wheels.

The Heart Bike Jacket is designed to bring a level of human-ness to my bike gear. By mimicking the shape of a real human heart, I hope to remind drivers behind me that I’m not just a nuisance on the road; I’m also a living human being, subject to the hazards of the road and much less protected than the driver.

Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

Gaia Orain writes:

Mostly hand-sewn with the intervention of hot glue. Composed of feathers, pretty things of delight and a recuperated electroluminescent wires from the class tutorial and other student projects.

Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

Level Headed – EL Wire Decorated Headphones via HaD. yardleydobon writes -

I modified the inverter from a T-qualizer shirt to respond to the audio signal from my mp3 player instead of sound and used the inverter to drive electroluminescent wire attached to my headphones. The inverter lights up different colors of EL wire depending on the loudness of the music I’m listening to. The headphone decoration looks like a signal level meter.

Richard Clarkson made this lovely night light/speaker/hanging cloud and writes:

On one hand ‘Cloud’ is an Arduino controlled, motion triggered lightning & thunder performance. On the other it is a music activated visualizer & suspended speaker unit. The cloud is made by felting hypoallergenic fiberfill to a sponge casing which forms the frame of the cloud and holds the speakers and componentry. The felting tool used is a custom made felting tool made from the left over sponge and 4 felting needles. To control the functions of the cloud there are three tactile switches scattered around the base. The concept references real clouds which constantly change shape through the switches requiring constant exploration to find the right switch to turn the right feature on or off.

Richard used a Wave Shield, PIR motion sensor, yellow LEDs, white EL wire, and a few tactile on/off switches for this project. He even made his own yellow audio cable to look more like lightening connected to the bottom of the cloud.

Commercially available EL wire hoodies by electricMVMT, via Geekologie

Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

Check out this great write up from ch00ftech industries showing a take-two on creating light-up Kanye West glasses with EL Wire, improving the overall brightness and creating a sequencer:

The main difference with my new design is how the EL wire is controlled.  Before, I had the entire box controlled with an analog circuit.  I like to make things analog whenever possible, and given how simple a graphic equalizer is, it wasn’t much of a challenge.  This presented a problem this time around though.

The new glasses will be set up on a display for a silent auction, and keeping in line with the “silent” aspect, there won’t be any loud music to show them off.  This makes them a lot less desirable as a simple description card really can’t convey how cool they are.

This meant that I had to incorporate some kind of “demo” mode which eventually turned into making a full-on digital sequencer that can either react to music or play back pre-recorded patterns.

Read more.

Updated Tutorial: EL Wire @ Adafruit Learning System

EL Wire, also known as Electroluminescent wire, is a stiff wire core coated with phosphor and then covered with a protective PVC sheath. When an AC signal is applied to it, it glows a cool neon color.  Find out how to solder, power, and work with EL Wire in your next project.

Learn More

EL wire can bring a TRON costume to life, illuminate the edges of your fairy wings, or even jazz up your bicycle. Here are some of my favorite Halloween getups using EL wire. If you’re interested but don’t know where to start, try our EL tutorial on the Adafruit Learning System and even take a class with me on October 16th in NYC at The Madagascar Institute!

Michael Jackson EL Wire Jacket

TRON bag

EL wire shoes

Run your own EL workshop with our class guide!

No-sew luna fairy wings

EL wire shutter shades

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Each day this month (Monday-Friday) we’re going to have a special “Electronic Halloween” post here on Adafruit. It will be a hack, mod, project or something we’ve found that combines all the best things about electronics and Halloween.

Don’t miss our FIRST EVER Google+ Live Hangout On Air Costume Contest! It will be on Saturday, October 27th! Stay tuned for more info about that– for now be sure to join the Adafruit Google+ page!

View all our Electronic Halloween posts here! From now until 10/31/2012 use the code HALLOWEEN2012 on check out to get 10% off anything in our “EL Wire/Tape/Panel” category.

Last weekend I taught an EL wire class at The Madagascar Institute in Brooklyn, NY. In true Adafruit fashion, I’ve created a guide to running your own EL class or workshop at your local hackerspace, makerspace, school, or club! Head over to the Adafruit Learning System to find out my tips and tricks for instruction as well as a full list of supplemental materials you should pick up for your students. Madagascar Institute has a great model for classes – the instructor and the venue split the class fee equally, and they use Eventbrite for class signups. Classes can be a perfect way to raise rent for your space while finding new members! I’ll be teaching another EL wire class on Sunday, August 26th.

You might have caught my class on the Adafruit Show-and-Tell!

NEW PRODUCTS – EL Flowing Effect Wire with Inverter – Blue, Green or Pink – 2.0 meter (6.5 ft). If you want to make your EL project a little more dynamic, you can swap in this nifty ‘flowing effect’ EL wire for the every-day stuff. Instead of a single core, this wire is actually a bundle of three thin EL wires. Inside the inverter is a little timer that will cycle through the strands to make it look like its moving. There’s a wheel to adjust the speed and a button to select the mode. The three modes are ‘all on’, ‘all off’ and ‘flow effect’.

This pack comes with 2 meters of EL flow wire attached to a 2xAA inverter, use any AA batteries (alkalines are better and brighter but it works fine with NiMH rechargeables). There’s a belt clip on the inverter so you can attach it to something.

This EL type isn’t meant to be cut and re-soldered because of the triple-core so keep in mind that you can cut it short but we don’t suggest trying to splice or re-solder to the wire. Runs for about 5 hours off of two AA batteries.

Please note! EL tape, EL wire and EL panel are made with different processes – the color and brightness will not be consistent between the different types of EL products. The EL flow wire will not match the regular EL wire, EL tap or EL panel exactly, they all will be slightly different colors.

• 2 meter long EL cord, 3mm thick
• Flow effect can go as slow as 30 Hz

In stock and flowing.

TRON Prom Dress on Flickr - I love those round cutouts!

Learn to make your own TRON bag over on the Adafruit Learning System. Don’t forget– I’m teaching an EL class this Saturday night at Madagascar Institute in Brooklyn, and some seats are still available!

I’ll be teaching a workshop on EL wire and tape at The Madagascar Institute on August 4:

Learn to use EL wire to make light-up clothing and accessories in this hands-on workshop with Becky Stern, director of wearable electronics at Adafruit Industries. Bring a bag, stiff hat, jacket, pair of shoes, or other item to adorn with EL wire. Each student will receive an EL starter pack from Adafruit plus extra goodies. Tools, sewing supplies and adhesives will be available for use. No prior experience necessary, and you will walk out of the class with a working EL project.

Just in time for Burning Man, this class can jump start your outfit! Leave class ready for the Playa.

First Becky will demonstrate common techniques for working with EL wire, tape, and panel. Then you will design a project that adds EL wire to the item at hand– anything from a bicycle to a pair of sunglasses. It’s important to remember to bring an item to mod/illuminate. Bring multiple things if you’re not sure what will work best.

The rest of the class time will be used to start construction on your project. If it requires soldering or other special treatment, we’ll try to get all those bits done during class so it’s easy to finish at home.

At 9:30 we can all attend Adafruit’s weekly project show-and-tell via Google+ and show off our projects.

You have two options in EL materials: wire or tape. EL wire is like a spaghetti noodle of light, and EL tape is a long flat band that is illuminated on one side.

The EL wire is better for doing lots of edging or fine lines, the tape can really only be in straight lines and is better for less flexible applications. Please note your kit and color selection upon checkout- one kit per person.

$35 materials fee + $80 class fee ($40 for members)

Dress for the weather. The shop is as cold as is it outside or as hot. Bring bug spray, beverages, and prepare to get dirty.

EL Wire (and Tape) with Becky Stern
Saturday August 4th
7-9:45pm
The Madagascar Institute
217 Butler Street Brooklyn NY

Colonel Abrams asks:

I have a question. I have a cuttable El Sheet panel which has 4 connector pins, 1 for each side.

If I have cut out my shapes and used up these pins but still have some leftover el sheet. How do i use the remainder el sheet without any connector pins?

Do I solder onto the el panel tabs or is this too risky? What methods are available if I want to use these bits of the El Sheet which don’t have connector pins?

Would you suggest wire glue? I haven’t seen anyone answer this question yet, so thought I would ask!
Thank You

This is a great question as I am sure this is not a unique problem!

Short answer to your question is yes (well probably yes, I don’t have any on hand so this is hypothetical. Please chime in on the topic if they have/have not had success)….but looks like it will be a bit tricky. If you look at the cross-section of your el sheet, you are going to have to remove a small amount of material in order to expose conductive ITO layer. You should be able to do this by carefully scraping through the rear protective film, rear electrode, and phosphor dielectric or by going through the cover protective film on the front. Once you have exposed a small amount of ITO layer, I would recommend using a drop of wire glue to connect your electrode. Make sure you you have completely cleaned and isolated the ITO + wire glue bond from the phosphor and rear electrode as it will produce an electrical short. For the rear electrode, you should just be able to carefully remove the protective film and attach your wire with a drop of wire glue.

Let us know how it goes. It is always fun to experiment and see just what you can do!

I hope this has helped and as I asked before, if anyone has, or wants to give it a try, let us know how it goes!

Don’t forget, everyone is invited to ask a question!

Click here!

“Ask an Educator” questions are answered by Adam Kemp, a high school teacher who has been teaching courses in Energy Systems, Systems Engineering, Robotics and Prototyping since 2005.

@spacerog writes:

Sunday afternoon project completed, Shmoo Tron bag. Thanks @adafruit – Now, how do I get this past TSA?

Check out our TRON bag tutorial and pick up an EL wire starter pack!

TRON Bag @ The Adafruit Learning System:

The first step is to plan out your design. We did this on some graph paper. EL wire is stiff and holds its shape but can’t be bent many times or it will break (like any stiff wire). For that reason, you’ll want to try to try and keep the wires on large flat surfaces or going around edges that don’t flex.

The folks at EZ-EL have another cool costume idea and show you how to make this EL wire Michael Jackson jacket. I think it would look awesome attached to one of our sound-activated inverters!

Add a little audio-reactivity to your EL projects! Video on YouTube and Vimeo.

EL Wire 6V Sound Activated Pocket Inverter. A small, portable inverter for EL wire with an audio input! This inverter has a little microphone and will light the connected EL according to the surrounding audio volume. Makes for an easy reactive project.

This inverter requires 6V input (it works great with our 4xAA battery holder) and it can drive 2-3 meters (7 to 10 feet) of our high-brightness EL wire OR 1 meter (3 feet) of EL tape OR a 10cmx10cm piece of EL panel continuously for about 21 hours (off of 4xAAs).

There is a switch for selecting steady/sound/off modes – steady is always on. Comes with a single 2.5mm pitch female JST connectors, standard for all the EL wire and tape we carry. Theres also two power wires, youll need to connect these to a 6VDC power source.

You can plug any of our EL wire/tape into this inverter directly. To connect a raw piece EL wire to this, youll want a male connector wire

The EL inverter requires a load to stabilize itself. Do not run the inverter without at least 2 ft of EL wire attached! Otherwise the inverter can spike and damage itself

Like all inverters weve used, the 2000 Hz oscillation is slightly audible. To reduce the squeaking, we suggest opening up the case padding it with thick foam tape/weatherstripping. Squirting some hot glue around the capacitors may also help. We managed to get it silent this way.

Check out our EL TRON bag tutorial for ideas, as well as the EL wire couch video!

Soldering to raw EL wire is a little tricky but luckily we wrote a detailed step-by-step tutorial! The tutorial also covers a lot of information about EL and how it works.

In stock and shipping now.

Very glowy wheelchair! On Instructables:

I always found that those safety lights for bicyclists on the market were never good enough when riding in the dark. That got me thinking about people who use wheelchairs and how unsafe the night could be when they want to go out. So here’s what I came up with:

I decked out this ordinary wheelchair with EL wire on the spokes and LED lights underneath the seat. The LED light is incredibly bright, so I put that underneath the seat and it gives the whole wheelchair a luminescent glow that looks really cool at night. You’d definitely be hard to miss with a ride like this at night.

We now have EL wire starter packs in all these colors!

Blue! http://www.adafruit.com/products/583 Aqua! http://www.adafruit.com/products/545 Green! http://www.adafruit.com/products/584 Orange! http://www.adafruit.com/products/586 Pink! http://www.adafruit.com/products/588 Red! http://www.adafruit.com/products/587 White! http://www.adafruit.com/products/546 Yellow! http://www.adafruit.com/products/585

All come with 2.5 meters (8.2 ft) of our high brightness, long life EL wire, a handy 2xAA pocket inverter and a pack of extras like heat shrink, copper tape and foam padding – stuff you’ll want to use if you decide to mod the EL wire.

Max’s TRON shoes (Adafruit EL wire and more!). Nice work Matt!

Instructables user CTY1995 writes:

This project will automatically turn on an EL panel with a mercury tilt switch. By extending your arm or raising it slightly, the mercury will complete the circuit, resulting in the EL panel to light up brightly whether solid or blinking. Give this project a try, and you’ll be amazed.

Electroluminescent (EL) Panel Starter Pack – 10cm x 10cm Red, Blue, White and Aqua

We spent a long time find the best panels with the brightest and most even colors – AND would work great with our pocket inverter. They’re in stock and we think you’re going to do some amazing things with them! These are the packs, so it has ALL you need to get started!

Get glowing in seconds with our Electroluminescent (EL) Panel Starter Pack! This pack contains everything you need for your first EL panel project, even the batteries!

Includes:

• 10cm x 10cm (approx 4″x4″) square panel
• Portable 4xAAA inverter powerful enough to drive a single panel
• 4 x AAA alkaline batteries to power the inverter and panel for 10 hours

Electroluminescent (EL) Panel Starter Pack – 10cm x 10cm Red
Electroluminescent (EL) Panel Starter Pack – 10cm x 10cm Blue
Electroluminescent (EL) Panel Starter Pack – 10cm x 10cm White
Electroluminescent (EL) Panel Starter Pack – 10cm x 10cm Aqua

On ch00ftech via Hackaday:

So, this is a project that was nearly a month in the making.  I set out to make a sound-reactive EL panel but found that driving EL in such a way is actually kind of difficult.  If you’ve been following the blog, I’ve been working on this project in one way or another since my transformers article, and it’s actually the reason I wrote that article.

Again, a disclaimer. There are over 8,000 words in this post that document all of my design decisions on this project.  It is not a how-to guide, but if you have some background in EE, I hope that you gain something from it.

EL materials (wire, tape, panels) are an odd bunch.  No matter where you look, EL panels seem to be always be made very cheaply and with very little documentation.  There doesn’t seem to be any “pro” version of the stuff.

So my goal with this project was to try to exert more sophisticated control over EL materials.  So far, everyone can seem to make EL blink fairly easily, but if I know my electronics, fancy gadgets don’t have blinking lights, they have pulsing lights that fade in and out gradually. This is usually because blinking a light is much simpler than dimming one.

So I want to make a dimming EL panel driver.  And what the hell, let’s make it react to sound too.

Add a little audio-reactivity to your EL projects! Video on YouTube and Vimeo.

EL Wire 6V Sound Activated Pocket Inverter. A small, portable inverter for EL wire with an audio input! This inverter has a little microphone and will light the connected EL according to the surrounding audio volume. Makes for an easy reactive project.

This inverter requires 6V input (it works great with our 4xAA battery holder) and it can drive 2-3 meters (7 to 10 feet) of our high-brightness EL wire OR 1 meter (3 feet) of EL tape OR a 10cmx10cm piece of EL panel continuously for about 21 hours (off of 4xAAs).

There is a switch for selecting steady/sound/off modes – steady is always on. Comes with a single 2.5mm pitch female JST connectors, standard for all the EL wire and tape we carry. Theres also two power wires, youll need to connect these to a 6VDC power source.

You can plug any of our EL wire/tape into this inverter directly. To connect a raw piece EL wire to this, youll want a male connector wire

The EL inverter requires a load to stabilize itself. Do not run the inverter without at least 2 ft of EL wire attached! Otherwise the inverter can spike and damage itself

Like all inverters weve used, the 2000 Hz oscillation is slightly audible. To reduce the squeaking, we suggest opening up the case padding it with thick foam tape/weatherstripping. Squirting some hot glue around the capacitors may also help. We managed to get it silent this way.

Check out our EL TRON bag tutorial for ideas, as well as the EL wire couch video!

Soldering to raw EL wire is a little tricky but luckily we wrote a detailed step-by-step tutorial! The tutorial also covers a lot of information about EL and how it works.

In stock and shipping now.

sean-h on Instructables made this impressive Sam Flynn costume from Tron Legacy using all sorts of EL goodies, and documented the build quite nicely.

Electroluminescent (EL) Tape/Strip Starter Packs! – 100cm – White, Green, Blue, Aqua and Red. Get glowing in seconds with our Electroluminescent (EL) Tape Starter Pack! This pack contains everything you need for your first EL tape project, even the batteries.

Includes:

• 1 meter long x 1 cm wide EL tape strip
• Portable 4xAAA inverter powerful enough to drive a full meter of strip
• 4 x AAA alkaline batteries to power the inverter and tape for 10 hours

Electroluminescent (EL) Tape/Strip Starter Packs! – 100cm – White Electroluminescent (EL) Tape/Strip Starter Packs! – 100cm – Green Electroluminescent (EL) Tape/Strip Starter Packs! – 100cm – Blue Electroluminescent (EL) Tape/Strip Starter Packs! – 100cm – Aqua Electroluminescent (EL) Tape/Strip Starter Packs! – 100cm – Red

Add a little audio-reactivity to your EL projects! Video on YouTube and Vimeo.

EL Wire 6V Sound Activated Pocket Inverter. A small, portable inverter for EL wire with an audio input! This inverter has a little microphone and will light the connected EL according to the surrounding audio volume. Makes for an easy reactive project.

This inverter requires 6V input (it works great with our 4xAA battery holder) and it can drive 2-3 meters (7 to 10 feet) of our high-brightness EL wire OR 1 meter (3 feet) of EL tape OR a 10cmx10cm piece of EL panel continuously for about 21 hours (off of 4xAAs).

There is a switch for selecting steady/sound/off modes – steady is always on. Comes with a single 2.5mm pitch female JST connectors, standard for all the EL wire and tape we carry. Theres also two power wires, youll need to connect these to a 6VDC power source.

You can plug any of our EL wire/tape into this inverter directly. To connect a raw piece EL wire to this, youll want a male connector wire

The EL inverter requires a load to stabilize itself. Do not run the inverter without at least 2 ft of EL wire attached! Otherwise the inverter can spike and damage itself

Like all inverters weve used, the 2000 Hz oscillation is slightly audible. To reduce the squeaking, we suggest opening up the case padding it with thick foam tape/weatherstripping. Squirting some hot glue around the capacitors may also help. We managed to get it silent this way.

Check out our EL TRON bag tutorial for ideas, as well as the EL wire couch video!

Soldering to raw EL wire is a little tricky but luckily we wrote a detailed step-by-step tutorial! The tutorial also covers a lot of information about EL and how it works.

In stock and shipping now.

This inverter requires 6V input (it works great with our 4xAA battery holder) and it can drive 2-3 meters (7 to 10 feet) of our high-brightness EL wire OR 1 meter (3 feet) of EL tape OR a 10cmx10cm piece of EL panel continuously for about 21 hours (off of 4xAA’s).

There is a switch for selecting steady/sound/off modes – steady is ‘always on’. Comes with a single 2.5mm pitch female JST connectors, standard for all the EL wire and tape we carry. There’s also two power wires, you’ll need to connect these to a 6VDC power source.

You can plug any of our EL wire/tape into this inverter directly. To connect a ‘raw’ piece EL wire to this, you’ll want a male connector wire

The EL inverter requires a ‘load’ to stabilize itself. Do not run the inverter without at least 2 ft of EL wire attached! Otherwise the inverter can spike and damage itself

Like all inverters we’ve used, the 2000 Hz oscillation is slightly audible. To reduce the squeaking, we suggest opening up the case padding it with thick foam tape/weatherstripping. Squirting some hot glue around the capacitors may also help. We managed to get it silent this way.

Check out our EL TRON bag tutorial for ideas!

Soldering to raw EL wire is a little tricky but luckily we wrote a detailed step-by-step tutorial! The tutorial also covers a lot of information about EL and how it works.

In stock and shipping now. VIDEO COMING SOON !

Jessica from Parallax made her own TRON bag using the Adafruit EL wire starter pack! Awesome! She writes:

This weekend, I road-tripped from Sacramento to LA. And like any good maker, I tried to think of a project to work on during the 6+ hour drive…enter the abandoned EL wire. I figured instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, I’d instead geek-ify my purse. By lovingly adapting the TRON bag project by Ladyada & Becky Stern, I created the YATB (Yet Another TRON Bag).

In all honesty, it was the perfect car project. Plus, I fell in love with EL wire. Seriously, this stuff is the best. Super easy to work with and has the power to transform everyday items into geeky goodness, just like YATB.

So are you planning a long car trip and need something to pass the time? I would highly suggest making your own YATB! All you need is some clear thread, a needle, EL wire and some patience as you stitch, and stitch, and stitch, and stitch…

It’s easy to add EL wire to furniture! Welted EL wire is great for applying with a stapler while standard EL wire makes great upholstery piping. Learn both techniques, as well as soldering to make easy-connect sections (if your couch is a sectional). Video on YouTube and Vimeo.

For this couch I used:

• High Brightness Aqua Electroluminescent (EL) Wire – 2.5 meters
• Sewable Electroluminscent (EL) Wire Welted Piping- Aqua 5 meters
• In-line wire 1-to-4 splitter
• In-line power wire connector (female)
• In-line power wire connector (male)
• 12V EL wire/tape inverter
• 12V 5A switching power supply
• Female DC Power adapter
• copper tape (found in one of our starter packs)

While I don’t recommend sewing the welted EL wire by hand, it would make great pillow piping on a sewing machine project, and staples like a dream.

If you liked this tutorial, also check out our EL wire TRON-inspired bag project.

Using precise sequencing of EL wire to actually advance the narrative in a b-boy routine — this video will make you smile!

Now, to be honest I’m not sure if this is sequenced externally or if each dancer can control their own suit, but either way it works.

EL stuff by dr-popeye — if you’re into wearable tech, you should definitely check out his site and videos. His research page is just non-stop awesome.

bonus: XPERIA smart phone ad.

[via reddit]

From the mail bag!

My last project was made a lot easier by some of Adafruits well selected products. The El wire extender and splitter made this a snap. Thanks for help making this possible.

Nice tutorial, too!

Nicole Allard shows you how to make this metal and EL wire sculpture on Instructables.

Wow, this is like an electronic version of Alex Grey!

MAKE’s massive EL wire project sampler…

As Advanced Materials Month enters its final week, we’re gathering together some of the coolest projects from the dusty archives of MAKE. Next up, projects using electro-luminescent wire! Above, check out this bicycle with pedal-powered EL wire!

Read and see more!

Be sure to check out our EL wire, tape and panel section!

NEW PRODUCT – Sewable EL wire welted piping starter pack – Aqua – 5 meters (PACK VERSION!) A little bundle to get you started! This project pack contains:

• 5 meters (over 16 ft) of welted EL wire piping in Aqua. 5 meters is the maximum amount for the pocket driver – it is cut and soldered so it’s ready to go!
• Pocket EL inverter runs on 2 AA Alkaline or rechargeable batteries (not included)
• 2 inches of heat shink, both 1/8″ and 1/4″ for protecting the EL wire after soldering if you end up wanting to change the wire up
• 2 inches of copper tape, used when soldering EL wire
• 2 inches of foam tape, we use this to pad the inside of the inverter to quiet it down

We used EL wire to make our awesome TRON bag

Soldering to EL wire is a little tricky but luckily we wrote a detailed step-by-step tutorial! You’ll need wire strippers, a soldering iron & solder, copper tape and heat shrink. A third-hand tool is really useful as well.

In stock and shipping now.

NEW PRODUCT – Sewable Electroluminscent (EL) Wire Welted Piping – Aqua – 5 meters. EL Wire, also known as Electroluminescent wire is a stiff wire core coated with phosphor and then covered with a protective PVC sheath. When an AC signal is applied to it, it glows an aqua (blue green) color. It looks a little like thin neon. Very bendable, it keeps its shape and you can curl it around your finger. Its an easy way to add some glow to a project, not as bright as LEDs but uses a lot less power!

This particular model is standard 2.3mm thickness EL wire, with a clear coat, pre-cut and soldered to a standard quick-connect EL wire. The really unique thing is that instead of just being a wire, its a welted piping, ideal for sewing or gluing! No more whip-stiching with clear thread, you can now sew this EL directly to fabric with ease. The welting makes it easy to add into seams for a very clean look.

This is not our high-brightness EL (it wasn’t available in piping form), so it is dimmer than the non-welted kind we carry. However, the nice trade off is that you can drive twice as much ‘standard’ EL with an inverter, so you can connect 5 meters of this stuff to our 2xAA pocket inverter (or you can connect 2.5 meters to the inverter and then it lasts twice as long on the batteries).

Often used for costuming, decoration, accent lighting, safety vests, bicycle/motorcycle/car/boat/home decoration, signs, etc! This wire is not designed explicitly for outdoor use so it will fade if continuously exposed to UV.

To use, the wire must be connected to an inverter that provides an AC supply of approximately 100V at 2000 Hz. An inverter is not included! This wire is 500 cm long which is the maximum that can be driven by our handy 2xAA portable pocket inverter The full length draws 200mA from the 2xAA batteries (so 2000mAh batteries will last ~10 hours if on ‘constant’ mode)

We used EL wire to make our awesome TRON bag so check it out for ideas.

This is a pre-cut, pre-soldered, 500 cm long piece of EL You can plug this right into an inverter and get glowing in seconds, and if you want to do something a little more complex, cut and resolder it as desired. Soldering to EL wire is a little tricky but luckily we wrote a detailed step-by-step tutorial! To cut and re-solder EL, you’ll need wire strippers, a soldering iron & solder, copper tape and heat shrink. A third-hand tool is really useful as well.

Please note! EL tape, EL wire and EL panel are made with different processes – the color and brightness will not be consistent between the different types of EL products. The EL tape will not match the EL wire or EL panel exactly, they all will be slightly different colors.

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCTS! Electroluminescent (EL) Tape/Strip Starter Packs! – 100cm – White, Green, Blue, Aqua and Red. Get glowing in seconds with our Electroluminescent (EL) Tape Starter Pack! This pack contains everything you need for your first EL tape project, even the batteries.

Includes:

• 1 meter long x 1 cm wide EL tape strip
• Portable 4xAAA inverter powerful enough to drive a full meter of strip
• 4 x AAA alkaline batteries to power the inverter and tape for 10 hours

Electroluminescent (EL) Tape/Strip Starter Packs! – 100cm – White
Electroluminescent (EL) Tape/Strip Starter Packs! – 100cm – Green
Electroluminescent (EL) Tape/Strip Starter Packs! – 100cm – Blue
Electroluminescent (EL) Tape/Strip Starter Packs! – 100cm – Aqua
Electroluminescent (EL) Tape/Strip Starter Packs! – 100cm – Red

Dustin writes in -

Two weeks ago I installed some of the white EL tape on my son’s stroller.  Now he’s got his own supersweet blinky. The pre-installed double-sided tape worked flawlessly and I’ve settled on rubber bands to hold the battery pack in place. Thanks!

We spent a long time find the best panels with the brightest and most even colors – AND would work great with our pocket inverter. They’re in stock and we think you’re going to do some amazing things with them! These are the packs, so it has ALL you need to get started!

Get glowing in seconds with our Electroluminescent (EL) Panel Starter Pack! This pack contains everything you need for your first EL panel project, even the batteries!

Includes:

• 10cm x 10cm (approx 4″x4″) square panel
• Portable 4xAAA inverter powerful enough to drive a single panel
• 4 x AAA alkaline batteries to power the inverter and panel for 10 hours

Electroluminescent (EL) Panel Starter Pack – 10cm x 10cm Red
Electroluminescent (EL) Panel Starter Pack – 10cm x 10cm Blue
Electroluminescent (EL) Panel Starter Pack – 10cm x 10cm White
Electroluminescent (EL) Panel Starter Pack – 10cm x 10cm Aqua

We spent a long time find the best panels with the brightest and most even colors – AND would work great with our pocket inverter. They’re in stock and we think you’re going to do some amazing things with them!

EL panel is the big sister to EL wire – it has the same glow effect but with a flat shape instead of a round shape. This is a big sheet of flexible plastic coated with EL material so its like one big glowing square. It emits an even glow over the entire shape. The glowing part of the panel is 10 cm x 10 cm (approx: 4″ x 4″). There’s a plastic coating is about 10.4cm x 10.4cm. Its covered in what seems to be PVC, the tape is thus weather-proof – but note that the connectors are NOT waterproof, just a bit of heat shrink. This isn’t something we would suggest leaving outdoors for extended periods.

You can attach it by sewing through the clear plastic edging, or gluing the back to a flat surface. It is flexible but will crease and damage if folded. You can cut the panel up as long as the shape you cut out is continuous and has the JST cable attached.

Like all EL products, an inverter is REQUIRED to operate the panel Because EL tape has more surface area than wire, it requires a more powerful inverter. We suggest you use our 4xAAA inverter which is strong enough to power a single panel at once – plug it in and turn it on! For more permanent installations, the 12V EL inverter can also power a single panel and run off 8xAA batteries or a wall adapter.

Electroluminescent (EL) Panel – 10cm x 10cm Red
Electroluminescent (EL) Panel – 10cm x 10cm White
Electroluminescent (EL) Panel – 10cm x 10cm Blue 
Electroluminescent (EL) Panel – 10cm x 10cm Aqua

All in stock and shipping now.

EL-Tape Mesh Top. Ben writes -

Hey there. Just thought I’d send you my take on what to do with some El-Tape I bought from you. I figure this blends quite well with the top, it flexes just right and has that sort of semi industrial feel to it. Wondering what kind of sensors to link it to now. Thanks for providing me with the inspiration!