Lighting a tech project with Electroluminescent material can look super professional, but it's easy to damage it or shock yourself. Learn how to safely add EL to any tech project in this episode of Systm!
Light without heat? It's called Electroluminesce when a material generates light directly from electrical current. It's found everywhere from aircraft control panels to Indiglo watches. It's a great way to light up your tech project, from backlighting LCD panels to prettying up a case mod.
If you're not careful, however, you could damage the material, or, worse, give yourself a really really nasty shock.
In this episode of Systm, Dr. Kiki and David Calkins give you all the info you need to safely add EL to any project.
Wondering where to buy EL material? It's easy to purchase online from sites like Electro Luminescence Inc. but it's not super cheap. Think around $60 for an A4 sized sheet and toss in another $10 - $30 for a power inverter.
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Posted by destroyed on 11/11/2008 at 11:49:08 am in Systm
Great Episode, Love the show
What was the name of the Translucent paper that they printed Davids photo on?
Any idea where i can get electroluminescent sheets in New Zealand?
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Posted by Reliant on 09/28/2008 at 05:07:31 pm in Systm
Kiki is a great addition to Systm. And yes with all due respect to Patrick, she is better looking. Okay, idea for EL. How about lighting up a clock? I think Analog would look great, but maybe a way to do it with an LED clock?
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Posted by snoman777 on 09/28/2008 at 02:53:35 pm in Systm
On the show they never memtioned how to insulate the sheets. Anyone have any ideas. Thanks Guys.
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Posted by shanmac on 09/28/2008 at 10:22:29 am in Systm
Loved seeing Dr. Kiki in this episode. She has such a great presence in front of the camera. And she knows her tech stuff too. Great show guys. Thanks.
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Posted by thecubic on 09/25/2008 at 04:44:37 pm in Systm
I was listening to the intro and heard (of course out of context):
"I keep trying to get the clap from her and I just don't"
I WTF'ed.
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Posted by Sembazuru on 09/24/2008 at 07:00:28 am in Systm
"Another great episode guys! a shame EL sheeting is so expensive (especially UK suppliers) and I was hoping for a little more creativity in the ideas but it was still good to see, well not very well - for those episodes where you need to film short pieces in the dark wouldn't a basic DV camcorder with night vision capabilities see the stuff the studio cameras can't?
I believe so, the DC to AC inverters I've used/seen all make a high pitch whining sound but not all are that loud.
The EL backlighting of my (really good) Metrix MTX3282 multimeter & Philips ProntoNeo remote both make a notable noise when lit.
But you can cut down the noise by housing the inverter in another box like I did with the one for the EL wire in a custom mp3 dock:
*link*
I wonder if potting the inverter board+components would eliminate or amplify the sound?"
The noise you are hearing is from the transformer in the inverter circuit. There is a little play between the individual transformer windings, between the bobbin the windings are on and the core, etc. As the AC goes through the windings changing magnetic fields are created (think electromagnets). These magnetic fields interact with the flowing electrons by (among other things) trying to cause motion. So the whine you (and I) hear is all the movement in the transformer, but as mentioned before not everyone can pick it up. (I hope David's wife can't hear it or that really nifty looking picture will drive her batty from the noise.) Potting at least the transformer would help dampen the noise (both by the potting compound physically holding the bobbin and the core fixed, and by sound dampening as many potting compounds cure to a rubbery consistency). The better fix would be to design a different inverter circuit using solid state. See below.
"Try these at your own risk, I know nothing about electronics.
*link*
joshua.raleigh.nc.us/LM555-inverter/LM555-inverter.pdf
*link*
*link*
*link*
www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/on_semiconductor/MC33441-D.PDF"
I've glanced through these circuits. Line 3 and line 5 are the same. Other than that, if you truly know nothing about electronics I bow to your google-fu. :-)
As I mentioned above, any transformer based circuit (lines 2 & 3 (and thus also 5)) will ring. How much it rings is based on a combination of driving frequency and how tightly together the transformer is constructed. Most (all?) general purpose transformers that you would buy at Radio Shack or the like don't need to be designed with super tight physical tolerances or are potted for most uses, so they to keep costs down they aren't.
But, take a look at lines 1, 4, & 6. These are solid stated designs with some inductors. While inductors and transformers are very similar in principal, their construction is so radically different in the right way to make a silent EL driver. I haven't tried any of these designs, but the only problem that I can spot right away is a slightly higher parts cost than a dirt-cheap transformer.
When watching this episode, every time the inverter was on I was thinking that I could do much better with solid state switching. Fortunately for me, other people have done that work for me. :-)
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Posted by Kronos6948 on 09/23/2008 at 04:53:35 pm in Systm
Dr Kiki!!!! YAY!!!!! Welcome back! Please stay!
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Posted by computoman on 09/23/2008 at 03:51:59 pm in Systm
Try these at your own risk, I know nothing about electronics.
*link*
joshua.raleigh.nc.us/LM555-inverter/LM555-inverter.pdf
*link*
*link*
*link*
www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/on_semiconductor/MC33441-D.PDF
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Posted by haku on 09/23/2008 at 02:10:04 pm in Systm
"
EL wire/sheeting brightness & lifetime are linked, like the famous Bladerunner quote "The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long". Also, as was pointed out in the episode, the smaller the EL sheet (or shorter the EL wire) the brighter it will be.
It won't suddenly switch off but gradually fade over time, this page & this page have some info on how long EL lasts.
An easy way of dimming EL is to reduce the voltage going into the inverter, over-volting an inverter will most likely burn out it's components though, like my friend found out by plugging a 12v DC input rated inverter into a car battery charger instead of a car battery which worked for a short time and then died.
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Posted by haku on 09/23/2008 at 01:55:24 pm in Systm
"
I've found it's always tricky trying to take pictures/video in low light, a farily neat feature of some DV camcorders is the ability to have longer shutter times, not so useful for motion but for taking a still of a low lighting project with a tripod it works pretty well, I did a test with my DV camcorder in night vision mode (mainly it slides the IR filter away from the CCD):
*link*
I think the camera is only capable of about 1 LUX whereas I've seen some high quality bullet cameras that can see colour in much lower light, the last picture had gamma+contrast applied to it which helps represent what you can see with your own eyes.
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