18v hilt

[Cyambin]

I believe it was informalmyx who made an EL hilt that runs on two 9v batteries and is twice as bright, and I have searched the threads for a clue and found nothing. So here's my query: How did you do it? I asked my physics teacher how it could be done but he said the EL would have to be specially designed to run on 18v...

[informalmyx]

no its easy if i didnt have all of the stuff wrapped up in heatshrink i would show ya i belive the all ya gotta do is wire up it batteris in parrel i think any way Master strydur sells a easy One 9V into 18V peice(bad typing today)http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/sa...p?idproduct=55 i just bsaically did this ( my father is a electrical engineer) and just salavge the second panel from an old alarm clock

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[xwingband]

I believe it's in series not parallel but I may be wrong. Series = +'s connect to -'s and Parallel = all +'s to +'s and the same for -'s. Series adds the voltages and parallel makes a stronger one. I.E. Series of 2 9V's = 18V and Parallel would give you more amperage I believe but still 9V's. Strydur is just doing the wiring for you in the adapter.

I had to mess around with this when I needed 12V for my Red plasma (neon) blade. I couldn't fit any normal size batteries in my hilt with all the electronics. I had to resort to using 4 3V lithium camera batteries after trying 2 12V's in parallel and 2 6V's in series.

[GeluKhanGharr]

tell your teacher that's bull .... from a certain point of view
If we talk about nominal power, he's right to a point, but what we do here is pushing it to the max. But we are talking about the inverter here, not the wire itself. All wire is powered at above 100 volts(110 to 140) - that's one of the things the inverter does. The other 2 are changing direct curent into alternative one and putting out a high cycle frequency. More juice to the inverter means higher amperage on the output - more power. The result is a brighter wire - definetly not twice as bright, but brighter than supplied from 9 volts. However, this comes with a price - the life of the wire is shortened by a lot - maybe down to 20-30%. I built several 18volt hilts. I used a 12 volt inverter running at 3.5 KHz. This inverter was designed to run from a car battery, so the extra voltage supplied from 2 9 volt batteries was balanced by the lower current. From all the experiments I and other's have done, I've learned this:
your brightest wire will come from one of Tim's 4KHz inverters supplied from 12 volts. Remember, the most important factor is not voltage, but frequency. I've had 3 volt high frequency inverters brighten up the wire better than 9 volt lower frequency ones. I've had 3 volt inverters brighten up the wire better than a wall outlet for that matter which puts out 110 volts, 15 ampers but only a cycle of 50 -60 Hertz. BTW, do not play with the power from your wall outlet - IT WILL KILL YOU if you don't know what you're doing. I have not tried the 8KHz inverters yet, but according to Tim and the manufacturer's specs, the "sweet spot" is at 4KHz. Beyond 4KHz it will shorthen the life of the wire even more, but the light output will not increase.

Someone please correct me if I got any of this wrong.


xwingband is absolutely correct about calculating voltage vs. current. Serializing adds the voltages, paralleling (is this even a word?) adds the curent.
Born of Sith, seduced by the light side.

[Cyambin]

Thank ye sir

[Cyambin]

But what's the diff between 8AAA and 8AA? Is it just that on'es less convenient or...?

[WeirdoTransvestite]

AAA's are a smaller type of battery than AA's The voltage per battery is the same.

[xwingband]

The size difference is mainly felt in amperage or the current. The same amount of AA and AAA will give you different run times. AA obviously being longer. Otherwise the light up is no different.

[Cyambin]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by WeirdoTransvestite

AAA's are a smaller type of battery than AA's The voltage per battery is the same.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

lol I knew that...

[Lord_Jyensba_Lalne]

So 18V is a bad choice compared to 12V? So would it be better to just use 9V?

I am 1/3 High School student and 2/3 SITH LORD.