Using el wire in crystal chamber

[Mike1114]

I have a question all.

I want to use some el wire in my crystal chamber but the el wire only runs on ac power.

I bought one of the $4.00 controllers that power the el wire, has a button you can make it static on, strobe and strobe fast. I bypassed the switch so it came on when D.C. Power was applied to one side, but the actual board is too large to fit inside my hilt. I tried shaving it down with a dremel and must have hit something important as the wire no longer lights up.

That got me thinking, can I just remove the thing on the board that converts to ac power and just wire that up? I don't need the board.

I have some pics of the board let me try to post.

[Avidgrant]

Interesting idea...... more info and pics please....

[Mike1114]

155761557715579

[Jenny]

I find it a fascinating idea, but I don't begin to have the knowledge to offer advice. I know that it is possible, because Parks used to have a saber with EL wire wrapped around the emitter. Will watch with interest.

[Mike1114]

I have yet to de solder the thing off the board yet. Haven't done much de solder work, I need some of the material that soaks it up. Was hoping someone else went down this road before me and could provide some insight in using the el wire

[Tom Tilmon]

I put EL Wire on my Kylo saber. My inverter, I disassembled down to the bare components to save space. I also drove it with its own battery. When I re-do one of my other Kylos (complete overhaul) of my original installation, I plan on putting running EL wire in it. There is a tactile switch in the EL inverter that controls running mode. I'm going to extend those leads to a tactile switch that will be accessible on the saber hilt.

What you're proposing should work, so long as you don't damage the Inverter circuitry and protect it from shorts somehow. I circle filed the plastic body.

Tom

[Mike1114]

Do you think I could just tap into the pins soldered to the board and leave it soldered to the board, but shave most of the board away? (actually thinking of using a small portion of shaved board to mount to something so it doesn't rattle around in hilt)

If you look in my one pic of the green side of the board you can see at the top of the board where the two copper lines go to, are the two pins for AC Out, but I am unsure where DC + and - need to go to, to power the el wire. There are three more pins to the inverter, two on the left, one in the middle. Im weary of just starting to touch different combos to see if it lights up or not.

[Tom Tilmon]

These EL inverters are cheap. I think you need to dissect which part of the inverter you need. I know the coils are the main part that help convert DC to AC. With that being said; however, I don't know how much function/effect that particular board has on your EL wire. I would experiment by connecting the core wire to a pin that looks like supply, and the wrap wire with return.

The inner core wire carries the charge out, the outerwrap wire creates the EM that excites the luminescent coating on the core wire. I think if you can figure out what the critical components of the particular inverter you have are, then you may be able to crap can some or most of that board. Didn't you say the EL wouldn't ignite after you shaved the board? If so, can you connect it anywhere on the inverter core to get it to work again? Its like a science experiment run amok.

I merely took the plastic case off of mine, the inverter with board actually fit into my hilt. I encased the inverter in battery shrink to prevent shorts. It takes up no space. Maybe even try to order a couple different types of inverters, including static. On my inverter, which was static, I killed the battery packs and all. I'm powering mine with a 18500 pack that I made, it supplies approx. 3 volts to the inverter, which is what the intended battery pack supplied. The rest of the static inverter was very tiny. So, I re-engineered my inverter to meet my space needs. I'd order a few different ones and mess around with different ways to re-engineer them to meet your needs.

https://youtu.be/GvoT9s2HleY

Good luck! I look forward to seeing what you'll do with this in the Crystal Chamber, you might give me some more ideas!!!!!!

Tom

[Mike1114]

So I tried many combos last night and the wire would kinda light up some but nothing solid. I may have damaged the board/components more than I thought with the dremel.

I'm just going to order a couple more controllers and experiment this weekend. I'll post back results.

Really I only wanted to use just a little bit of el wire, I wanted to make two posts in the crystal chamber and the el wire glowing between them like electricity is flowing between the poles.

Trying to come up with some more ideas now to incorporate more since I'm doing all the experimentation.

[Whosle]

As cool as the EL wire looks on that Kylo ren saber, It seems like a lot of work.

It would seem easier to me to just pipe a bunch of fiber optics from the main LED down to the chamber. Then rough up the outside of the fiber optic where you want it.

That or some florescent colored Translucent PLA plastic with a UV LED would give the same effect....

That said EL wire is pretty neat stuff. I understand why people like tinkering with it. My local robot shop has some and I was tempted to buy some.

[Tom Tilmon]

I was merely experimenting and playing around with it. It was a stupid amount of work for a gimmick. But, it helped me hone some additional skillsets I didn't have before. For instance, now I can solder EL wire, and know how to join it, power it, etc. That may come in handy some day. I have a cool gimmick at night. It really wasn't that complex, except for fitting all that stuff in the hilt, including the recharge port and additional battery. I probably could have just powered it off the saber battery, but with the side emitters, the Kylo Saber LED's already draw a lot of juice. The EL wire, not so much. I charge that battery about once a month, and the EL wire goes, and goes, and goes. I don't know how many MaH it eats up, but its got to be pretty low.

This winter, I intend on deconstructing one of my Kylo sabers, and completely changing out how I did it. I'm changing boards to SC2, going to a quad cree on main emitter, and tri-crees on side emitters. I want it to have flash on clash, including in side emitters. I also want to blend colors with Deep Red and Red on Main Blades/Side Emitters. I'll try a 26650 battery to run it, and then see if I have room to squeeze in the Chasing EL Inverter and the Chasing EL Inverter switch, and possibly an independent battery to run all of that. Oh, and a custom chassis with maybe even a Crystal Chamber reveal.

I'm not doing that because my saber doesn't work well, I'm doing all this to learn more stuff on my own sabers. When I'm confident enough in the quality/durability of my own builds, then perhaps I can expand out to do commissions/custom builds/sales. Right now I have a Graflex 2.0 going together with a NBIV. That will all be new to me, because I've only wired NEC boards prior to this.

Good luck, I like the idea of trying EL in the crystal chamber.

Tom

[Whosle]

I should have read better. A seperate battery for the EL wire is a novel idea. All lightsaber effects are gimmicks, the more the merrier.

I never considered the Hilt sitting on the shelf (or hanging from belt) with a nice glowing EL wire that lasts and lasts.

Does anyone know if it is possible to use PWM or a 555 timer to create a slow growing pulse/glow?

[Mike1114]

So i was able to desolder the inverter from the circuit board. I tried different combos but cannot get the el wire to light up. It lights up a little when power is applied but only for a short second. Now to wait on the el wire controllers in the mail so I can dissect them and experiment more.

[Tom Tilmon]

I killed my battery driving my EL wire somehow. I've got my own work to do to fix that, and my main switch fell off another saber, I have to partially dismantle it to fix that. My charger fried my board on my MHS Hilt, and I have to send that off for repair. At least my new Graflex is killing it. Mike, I am messing around with chasing EL Inverters, and trying to slim them down to fit in the hilt. I ordered 2 of them in case I screw one up. That being said; I have ordered 2 of anything I want to dismantle. Some of the inverters are really cheap, particularly the static inverters that just power the wire.

Tom