EL Wire and fan in same circuit

[Sohryu76]

how would I do it? This is for a helmet as opposed to a saber, but the concept of wiring should be the same, yes? I'm not much of an electronics expert, but im a whiz at following directions!
Also I assume it is possible to hook up an EL wire directly to the switch/current without the use of a jack for a removable blade, right?

any help is appreciated... thank you in advance!

[Ghostbat]

how would I do it? This is for a helmet as opposed to a saber, but the concept of wiring should be the same, yes? I'm not much of an electronics expert, but im a whiz at following directions!
Also I assume it is possible to hook up an EL wire directly to the switch/current without the use of a jack for a removable blade, right?

any help is appreciated... thank you in advance!

Here's a tutorial on EL wire from the cool neon guys (my choice of suppliers due to their excellent customer service, you can get it cheaper, but not by a lot and not with this much attention to detail and free help) http://www.coolneon.com/soldering.html

Very Basically you run your power into a driver and the driver lights the wire.
to add a fan you would wire it in before the driver, so the battery is feeding both devices.

For example, a 9-volt battery would have to have two positive leads and two negative leads attached. One positive and negative goes to the fan and one positive and negative goes to the driver. you could have one switch feed into both or give each it's own switch (again, before the driver).

For a helmet I would probably get a "pipsqueak" driver which can use 8AA batteries. Just distribute the batteries evenly around the helmet to avoid one heavy spot and you get 12v to run an off the shelf computer fan or two (of course lots of fans will reduce battery life, but there ya are

As always, I am no Engineer, just a mad tinkerer, anyone have a better idea?

[Sohryu76]

actually that is exactly what I needed!
perfecto!
also just reading your post gave me another idea... two power supplied... one for the fans on one side of the helmet... and another for the EL on the other side... (to balance out the weight!)
but I will check the link as well to fine tune my idea...
I'll post pics once i get it up and running... (im still designing the helmet colors and havent touched it since i had it moulded!)

THANKS!