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How are you using EL Wire? Got Pics?

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DaOld Man:


--- Quote from: mcseforsale on March 06, 2012, 01:41:34 pm ---Thanks man.  I'm grooving on the power strip.  What did you use it for? (I know...read the damn blog.. :angry: .)

Thanks,
AJ


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I used a cheap power strip and added a 12 vdc relay to turn it off and on. The relay was fed from the computer power supply.
I then plugged that strip and the computer into another more expensive surge protect strip.
Turn on the pc, the 12 volts (yellow and black wires on one of the ide plugs) turns on the relay. Relay turns on the cheap power strip. Anything plugged into the cheap strip turns on.
Shut computer down, 12 volts goes off, relay goes off, cheap power strip goes off.
It works flawlessly. But it is quite a bit more work than using one of those "smart power strips".


DaOld Man:


--- Quote from: wp34 on March 06, 2012, 04:55:01 pm ---
--- Quote from: BadMouth on March 06, 2012, 10:32:36 am ---I was considering it for my next cab, but haven't actually experimented with it yet.  (was waiting for wp34 to try it on his tron legacy cab  :P )


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LOL - I'm hesitating due to the buzzing you mentioned and the fact that EL wire and EL sheets supposedly don't last.  I've haven't given up totally yet.

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Just my 2 cents worth:
My son has been using The Rage for about 5 years now. Of course when he first got it it probably stayed on all day and maybe all night. He was in college then.
Since then he has gotten married and now has a small daughter, so he probably doesnt have time to play it very often now.
I was at his house for Christmas and we fired up The Rage.
The marquee surprised me that it still looks very bright and clear.
I had heard stories about the el wire decreasing in brightness over time, but I couldnt see much difference in it.
But I always had it in my mind that if it did fade out to the point of no longer being good looking, I can easily take the marquee apart, pull the wire out and thread some new el wire in its place.


drventure:

I used EL Wire in my Buffet project, for some cabinet lighting and in some fake "Nixie tubes" that I have yet to figure out what I'm going to do with<g>

The wire can be tricky to get connected, but once you get the hang of it, it's not bad.

Also, be aware that the color of the wire you might see online is usually not even close to the actual color. Mine showed orange online, but is actually pretty green in real life.

I actually hooked mine up to opto-isolator circuits and hooked that up to a LEDWiz, so the el segments can be controlled by the LEDWiz, exactly as if they were LED's. You can get pretty nifty effects that way.

I did have one segment burn out, but, it was in a clear tube filled with liquid soap (it's supposed to look like "bio goo"), so It's entirely possible I either shorted it out, or the soap soaked through the plastic coating on the wire.

But other than that, no issues with it.

And it does look great!

wp34:

Thanks for the feedback drventure and DaOld Man.   :cheers:

The way I would like to use this technology would require me to disassemble my CP if any of the lights went bad.  Hence my hesitation.  It is good to hear your positive stories.

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