Anybody know about resistors for el wire inverters

[juggle50]

Hmm.....I just ordered some el wire (glowire) for a translucent stick.  I'm using a 4.8 volt power source and the inverter is rated at 3 volts.  Anyone know what resister I should throw on there? 

Thank you.

[BobA]

It is hard to say what resistor not knowing the amp draw of the inverter.  Since these inverters are uaually low current devices you could probably use and old PS trick of using diodes to drop the voltage.  If you forward bias a diode you will get approp 0.7 for a voltage drop.  If you used 2 1n4004 or equivalent in series you would drop 1.4 V which on a 5V supply would give you 3.6V.  You could also use a regulator chip but that is alot more work.

[juggle50]

Thanks Bob A,

The sight doesn't say how many amps it draws, only that it's rated at 4000 hertz.  I've never used diodes before so I'm not sure how to get those or wire them.  I guess it requires a bit more research on my part.

The lady on the phone said that although it's rated at 3 volts the product says "use no more than 5 volts" on the box.  Do you think I could get away without using a resistor or diode at all?

Also, I'm splitting the circuit so that a pos and negative goes to the inverter and a pos and neg goes to a bunch of leds in paralell using resistors.  Does everything still get 4.8 volts or have I screwed that up by splitting it off to the inverter.  Still getting the hang of this electricity thing.

[BobA]

Using 2 diodes rated at at least 1 amp is the same as making a rough series regulated PS.  If you are unsure of the diode method just get a wall wart that puts out 3.3 V.  These can be obtained at places like radio shack.