$14,95 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10469 On http://ch00ftech.com/2012/03/25/el-wire-is-spanish-for-the-wire/ you will find a story

Because I like it, I'm going to do some experiments by making my own inverter. Inverters are widely used for batteries to make 230V - 50 Hrz. in order to feed domestic appliances. Besides a circuit that does this . The trick is to use the reversed to a normal transformer. A transformer works only with alternating current (current that changes in the direction of flow). So I need: 1. an oscilator (square wave generator), 2. a driver and 3. a trafo

EL-Wire en Tape

To drive EL-tape or EL-wireyou need an Inverter. In Dutch calle'd "een omvormer". The specific Electroluminisention appears at AC-voltage above 100 V and only at frequenties above 800 Hrz.

This is the inside of a wearable one

By the way this schematic doesn't do the trick. It is

just an example

This BLUE EL (Electroluminescent) tape heeft een breedte van 14mm en een lengte van 60cm. This tape geven mooi neon licht af dat over de hele oppervakte wordt uitgestraald. My own experiencse (dd. 25-04-2016): This device is not capable to use as a lamp. By the highest power (primair 1,5 KHrz. 24 V 2 Amp.) is became hot but it only stays glowing. And the following color change is not increased. Frequentie : 50 tot 2Khz.

Afmetingen 140mm x 6,000mm x 20mm

Gewicht 10g

EL tape 60 cm - blauw € 7,50€ 6,20 excl. BTW

You are correct, the color shift is affected by the frequency of the alternating current. And it only works for the blue-gree EL wire, because all the other colors use a colored jacket to impart that color. The blue-green stuff has a clear jacket, so you're seeing the actual color of the phosphor.

In the experiment I peformed, I got green at 600 Hz, aqua at 2kHz, and a really groovy deep blue at 6 kHz. (The Lytec data sheet I have states that that the lifetime of the wire is affected by the frequency you use to drive it. There's a

dramatic reduction in lifetime at higher frequencies. But that's another issue.)

You might look at some of the EL driver ICs from companies like micrel, durel, sipex, and so on. These will step up a low voltage to something that will light up an EL panel, but they don't work well for EL wire because the voltage and frequency are both too low. (typically 120Vp-p@400Hz instead of 300Vp-p@2KHz) However, the description of internal operation is interesting: they use a relatively standard switching regulator to produce something like 60V DC, and then an H-bridge to apply that to alternate sides of the panel to get the 120Vp-p. This way they get to control the frequency that the step-up converter uses separately from the EL AC frequency. I have a design (on paper; currently untested) that uses the same principle to generate V/f more appropriate for EL wire, under explicit control of a micro; the idea being able to vary brightness by varying frequency... Doesn't the brightness vary more than the color with frequency? That is, you'll get a different color at 500Hz than at 2KHz, but it will also be a lot dimmer...? I had never done measurements of a commercial inverter before, so I took a look at one of my el cheapo inverters. I think I paid 6 or 7 bucks for it, and it's tiny, and it looks fantastic. So I hooked the scope up to it, and it's putting out 350 vac @ about 3kHz.

Testopstelling:

Trimmebleblock-generator

opto ont-koppeling

schmitt-trigger en inverter

wissel-stroom driver

trafo 6V/24V to 230V

EL Tape 60 cm blauw

blokschema

Q Q

L298N Dual H Bridge Stepper Motor Driver L298N Dual H Bridge Stepper Motor Driver L298N Dual H Bridge Stepper Motor Driver L298N Dual H Bridge Stepper Motor Driver is prima geschikt als driver voor de trafois prima geschikt als driver voor de trafois prima geschikt als driver voor de trafois prima geschikt als driver voor de trafo

Over de currentsence output. Slimme truc om de stroom door de motor te meten. Maat voor de stroom is de spanningsval over een extern te plaatsen weerstand. LET OP ! deze stroom is NIET de stroom door/van de uitgang.

serieweerstand (extern)

jumper los dan ingang op "0" - LEDJE uit jumper in dan ingang op "1" - LEDJE aan. In beide situaties is aansturing via jumper 6 mogelijk!!

25 V inputmax for regulator

The square wave oscillator zie : http://www.talkingelectronics.com/html/SquareWaveOsc.html

Opto-isolator and outputdriver

680 Ohm

10 KOhm

The reason for using a optocoupler is that I use 2 different Powersupply's. My original idea was to use a Arduino Uno as programmable block generator. And also I wanted to do all the measurings automatic with a ther Arduino and collecting all the data with PROCESSING in my PC. Together with my PC-scoop it will give problems with GND. And also: "It is always a good approach NOT to make ground-loops"!

Feed from Motor-driver module

from output generator

Test and measurement results The structure of all my efforts is to realize a power supply to drive the EL-tape as well as possible. The elements that are essential for this is the lightintensity and the most efficient transformer. This gave me exceptional results.

LDR with resistance meter. LDR under black ducktape on the EL-tape.

Trafo

stroommeting met oscilloscoop d.m.v. serie weerstand in primaire wikkeling (laagspanningswikkeling) van de trafo.

Connection scoop on driver for the primairy (low voltage-) trafoinductor

A scoop-image blue = voltage yellow = current en in red the power consumption (= U x I ) This is not correct because -U x -I is not +power

tape omwikkeld 12 189 643 167 313 2061 909

tape omwikkeld 12 209 753 168 274 2178 868

tape omwikkeld 12 222 814 168 254 2238 840

tape omwikkeld 12 244 901 169 231 2307 788

tape omwikkeld 12 266 1.003 169 209 2373 743

tape omwikkeld 12 286 1.110 170 190 2430 708

tape omwikkeld 12 305 1.199 170 177 2469 675

tape omwikkeld 12 325 1.293 169 165 2505 642

tape omwikkeld 12 350 1.406 169 153 2541 605

tape omwikkeld 12 370 1.505 168 144 2568 578

tape omwikkeld 12 400 1.652 167 133 2601 542

tape omwikkeld 12 443 1.843 165 122 2634 495

tape omwikkeld 12 483 2.000 163 114 2658 459

tape omwikkeld 12 533 2.208 161 105 2685 420

tape omwikkeld 12 572 2.360 160 100 2700 393

tape omwikkeld 12 631 2.568 158 93 2721 359

tape omwikkeld 12 732 2.906 154 85 2745 313

tape omwikkeld 12 888 3.612 140 78 2766 260

tape omwikkeld 12 821 4.700 109 97 2709 275

tape omwikkeld 12 824 4.643 109 97 2709 274

tape omwikkeld 12 680 5.733 87 135 2595 318

tape omwikkeld 12 592 6.030 75 183 2451 345

trafo spanning-primair (V)

stroom-primair (mA)

frequentie (HRZ)

spanning- secondair (V)

weerstand lichtsterkte

(kOhm) lichtsterkte

t.b.v. grafiek rendement

Berekend

EL-tape

Arduino as a frequency meter Powered from

Powersupply #1

Powered from

Powersupply #2

meetresultaten aan trafo (plat)

trafo = platte type (op 08 Volt)

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

500

865

1230

1596

1961

2326

2691

3057

3422

3787

4152

4518

4883

5248

5613

5979

6344

frequentie

lic

hts

terk

te

0

200

400

600

800

1000

rendem

ent

lichtsterkte (08V) rendement(08V) stroom(08V)

trafo = platte type (op 10 Volt)

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

500

865

1230

1596

1961

2326

2691

3057

3422

3787

4152

4518

4883

5248

5613

5979

6344

f r e que nt i e

lich

tste

rkte

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

rendem

ent

lichtsterkte (10V) stroom(10V) rendement(10V)

meetresultaten aan trafo (P2418)

trafo = P2418 (op 12 Volt)

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

500

865

1230

1596

1961

2326

2691

3057

3422

3787

4152

4518

4883

5248

5613

5979

6344

frequentie

lich

tste

rkte

0

500

1000

1500

2000

rendem

ent

lichtsterkte rendement stroom

trafo = P2418 (op 24 Volt)

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

500 865 1230 1596 1961 2326 2691 3057 3422 3787 4152 4518 4883 5248 5613 5979 6344

frequentie

lich

tste

rkte

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

rendem

ent

lichtsterkte rendement stroom spanning EL-tape

trafo = met tape (op 12 Volt)

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

487

852

1217

1583

1948

2313

2678

3044

3409

3774

4139

4505

4870

5235

5600

5966

frequentie

lich

tste

rkte

0

200

400

600

800

1000

rendem

ent

lichtsterkte rendement stroom spanning EL-tape

trafo = met tape (op 08 Volt)

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

500

865

1230

1596

1961

2326

2691

3057

3422

3787

4152

4518

4883

5248

5613

5979

frequentie

lich

tste

rkte

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

rendem

ent

lichtsterkte rendement stroom spanning EL-tape

stroom

spanning

Bemerkingen:

meetresultaten aan trafo (tapeomwikkeld)

trafo = kleintje (op 08 Volt)

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

500 865 1230 1596 1961 2326 2691 3057 3422 3787 4152 4518 4883 5248 5613 5979 6344

frequentie

lich

tste

rkte

0

200

400

600

800

1000

rendem

ent

lichtsterkte rendement stroom spanning EL-tape

meetresultaten aan trafo (kleintje)

meetresultaten aan trafo (blokje)

trafo = blokje (op 12 Volt)

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

500 865 1230 1596 1961 2326 2691 3057 3422 3787 4152 4518 4883 5248 5613 5979 6344

frequentie

lic

hts

terk

te

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

ren

de

me

nt

lichtsterkte rendement stroom spanning EL-tape

t raf o = kleint je

-500

500

1500

2500

3500

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

spa nni ng

0

200

400

600

800

1000

licht st erkt e rendement st room spanning EL-t ape

And the Winner is:

Welke trafo presteert het beste d.w.z. welke trafo geeft de hoogste lichtopbrengst per watt

tape omwikkeld 12 572 2.360 160 100 2700 393

blokje 12 643 2.213 174 98 2706 351

P2418 12 284 1.906 98 2706 794

tape omwikkeld 12 824 4.643 109 97 2709 274

tape omwikkeld 12 821 4.700 109 97 2709 275

kleintje 18 640 1.582 191 95 2715 236

blokje 12 680 2.327 172 94 2718 333

tape omwikkeld 12 631 2.568 158 93 2721 359

kleintje 19 670 1.584 197 92 2724 214

blokje 12 744 2.530 169 89 2733 306

P2418 12 316 1.441 89 2733 721

kleintje 20 702 1.584 205 88 2736 195

blokje 12 1036 4.587 120 85 2745 221

blokje 12 799 2.690 167 85 2745 286

tape omwikkeld 12 732 2.906 154 85 2745 313

blokje 12 893 2.967 163 80 2760 258

P2418 12 370 1.744 80 2760 622

tape omwikkeld 12 888 3.612 140 78 2766 260

P2418 12 384 1.513 78 2766 600

blokje 12 1088 3.868 143 74 2778 213

P2418 12 415 1.585 74 2778 558

P2418 12 412 1.643 74 2778 562

trafo = P2418 (frequentie op 1.012 Hrz)

-500

500

1500

2500

3500

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

spanning

lich

tste

rkte

0

500

1000

1500

2000

rendem

ent

lichtsterkte rendement stroom spanning EL-tape

On http://aboutstevenverhoef.org/projecten/Making%20High%20Voltage/grafiek%20frequentie%20en%20lichtsterkte.xls you will find the excel sheet with all the measurements-tables.

If you want to have more information about me go to: aboutstevenverhoef.org