Electroluminescent panel (el tape) supplies

kavic5150

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Hey fellow photon afficionados. Does anyone know where to find el tape supplies? I want to make custom lengths and I need connector pins and something called aclar tape. Apparently the ends have to be sealed so the internals dont oxidize.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt_3o-_TXGg

The company that posted this video wanted $55 for only a few feet of el tape and an inverter. They said they wouldnt sell these supplies to me unless I've made a big order with them before. I've seen el tape kits elsewhere that have several feet of el tape and an inverter for under $20. I've done alot of searching and cant seem to find aclar tape anywhere. Any help would be appreciated, and go easy on me, I'm a noob when it comes to this stuff.
 

kavic5150

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Ha! I found what I was looking for. Looks like allelectronics.com has those pesky press to fit connector pins. Thankfully I will not have to scour digikey or mouser. Heres a few links in case anyone has an El tape project in mind:

http://world-electroluminescent.com/ribbon/ribbon2.html

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/EL-15G/1/2-GREEN-EL-LIGHT-STRIP/1.html

And heres a small el panel/tape driver. I guess you could also use this for el wire?

http://www.micrel.com/page.do?page=/product-info/products/mic4834.jsp

I'll post pics of my project in this thread when its finished.
 

kavic5150

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Just got a few toys in the mail yesterday. Heres a few pics of two 5 foot segments of 1/4 inch el tape from jab-tech.com. I was surprised to see these have no marginal lamination, they are lit almost to the edge.

Single output driver specs are 9v DC input with an AC output of 95v @ 1000hz. They are potted and somewhat bulky so I'm going to look for a chip based driver to get the lowest profile/footprint possible. I'm also looking to push these things to their maximum brightness so maybe an output of 160v @ 2000hz.:confused: It was interesing to note that the el tape had a slightly audible hum and the driver was even quieter.


 

redhook

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Jul 18, 2012
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Hey i am trying to create my own EL tape also for a project. I tried looking up the links but no luck, could you give me more info on your process and supplies ?!
 

Anders Hoveland

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I have also been looking to get an electroluminescent panel, or EL tape, and a plug in power supply. Looking for blue colored. Not sure where to get them. I found a few sites but they seem to be very expensive. Anyone know where to get them?

I want to get electroluminescent because its blue light is much softer (much wider frequency bandwidth of emission) than LED. I want to see if I can combine it together with an incandescent lamp to get an overall cool white light that looks like natural sunlight and is not harsh.
 

Findmarc

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May 21, 2014
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Re: Electroluminescent panel (el tape) supplies (good source for tapes)

Hey fellow photon afficionados. Does anyone know where to find el tape supplies? I want to make custom lengths and I need connector pins and something called aclar tape. Apparently the ends have to be sealed so the internals dont oxidize.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt_3o-_TXGg

The company that posted this video wanted $55 for only a few feet of el tape and an inverter. They said they wouldnt sell these supplies to me unless I've made a big order with them before. I've seen el tape kits elsewhere that have several feet of el tape and an inverter for under $20. I've done alot of searching and cant seem to find aclar tape anywhere. Any help would be appreciated, and go easy on me, I'm a noob when it comes to this stuff.
--------

Great info, thanks.

I found a good source for the EL tapes here www.etsy.com/shop/lightkraft and here www.el-w.com They seem to have the best prices in the US !
 

FRITZHID

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Jun 20, 2011
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I have also been looking to get an electroluminescent panel, or EL tape, and a plug in power supply. Looking for blue colored. Not sure where to get them. I found a few sites but they seem to be very expensive. Anyone know where to get them?

I want to get electroluminescent because its blue light is much softer (much wider frequency bandwidth of emission) than LED. I want to see if I can combine it together with an incandescent lamp to get an overall cool white light that looks like natural sunlight and is not harsh.

I think you'll find that combining EL with other sources won't have your desired effect. EL is very dim in comparison to most other light sources.
 

Ken_McE

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Jun 16, 2003
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I want to see if I can combine it together with an incandescent lamp to get an overall cool white light that looks like natural sunlight and is not harsh.

Gonna' need a giant EL panel to keep up with that incan. bulb. How about a small cool white fluorescent bulb running together with an incan?
 

kavic5150

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Jan 12, 2012
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Would you believe I finally found those pesky crimp connectors after all this time? I guess I was using the wrong search terms back then.

http://www.ellumiglow.com/electrolu...tors/electric-optics-crimp-connectors-10-pack

These things are like the wheres waldo of electronics parts.

As for sealing the ends, apparently its not that big of an issue if you plan to use these things indoors. I bought specialty moisture resistant tape from Digikey, but now I strongly suspect that any non-porous tape would do. Clear packing tape would probably suffice.

The site I posted looks legit. I'll research them a bit before ordering of course, and post here in a few days if its successfully delivered.
 

kavic5150

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Jan 12, 2012
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Ended up paying $11 including shipping for only 30 of those crimp connectors, so 15 connections if I dont mess any of them up. Theres really not much to these things, they are very similar to the crimp pins found inside JST type battery connectors. Now that I think about it I could trim the folding parts of some JST pins so they are sharp and just use those to make electrical connections.
 
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