Any experience with EL wire?

[Zubie]

I was going over the BSG lightship posts in the CE3K mothership thread over in the general modeling area and there was this statement about it

This would be something ideal for all-clear molding. You'd still have a ton of LEDs, of course.

The technicalities of an actual lightship model aside, the thought occurred to me that what you needed there is clearly a neon tube substitute and it would seem Electroluminescent wire (here on out just EL wire) would seen to fit the bill nicely. I've seen it used on clothing a lot (fan costuming at cons mainly) and they do sell the stuff for auto detailing.

The question I have, because I search the area for discussion about this and couldn't find it, has anybody used it for modeling. I figure if it's good for clothes, it should have reasonably low power requirements and a relatively low heat signature. No?

It would seem to be a better lighting alternative for any area that needs a length of light rather than point sources.

[aussie cylon]

You can get it on ebay for about $4. Runs on 3 volts, (2 x AA batteries), and no heat emitting from it. Different colours too. I bought a few and was thinking of using it for some UFO models, but have yet to do it. Really cool stuff....

[naoto]

If I'm not mistaken, EL wire and EL sheet run off high-frequency AC power (IIRC around 1000 Hz) -- so you'll need an inverter (starter kits often include an battery box w/ inverter built in). One thing that could possibly be annoying to some folks is the "hiss" or "buzz" from the inverter.

[aussie cylon]

The ones I got from ebay emit absolutely no noise whatsoever.

[swhite228]

El - Light Sheet Has a few issues you need to understand and factor in a model build, and as most things there are goo and bad to consider:

The good:
It is thin, flexible, and ca be cut to length of shape. It runs cool so you don't really need to worry about it melting your models.

The bad:
It can be cut and shaped!!! Unless you seal all cuts you will allow air and moisture into the phosphor which will cause it to stop glowing, or develop dark spots.

It will fade if exposed to sun or uv light to the point where the lifespan could drop by 1000+ hours.

It requires an inverter which will generate heat...for the record large masses of leds also generate heat, but the biggest heat source of leds or el is the control devices used (resistors, or inverter. Is it enough to damage a model in most cases no but you don't want to put several of the devices in a small area.
Even if you use dc power the inverter drives el products with 60 to 200v ac power at differing hertz which can do some damage if you shock yourself.

EL can't be dimmed or pwmed to control the brightness.

EL doesn't give off a lot of light! In a dark room it seems bright but in daylight it gets washed out by the window light in the room to the point where you can see the area lit if you look closely.
and the last "Bad" thing about EL is:
Iit has a short lifespan (3000hr +/-) vs. led which averages 50,000+ hours It's life span is the length of time it takes the wire to loose half it's brightness which is the way we measure led life as well

[naoto]

I do remember back in the 1990s when I'd first picked up an EL sheet starter kit at the hobby shop (was found in the model railroad section) -- I'd been hearing a fair amount of hype about it, so I thought I'd give this thing a try -- with images of brightly glowing warp nacelles, and glowing engine section on the Millennium Falcon in my head. Got home and wired up everything as per instructions and got ready to get my socks knocked off! ... and it was "that's IT?!?" ( sound cue ) -- sort of a ghostly glow -(perhaps a bit brighter than glow-in-the-dark paint), worked OK in darkened room, but hardly noticeable in daylight. It was sort of like "as seen on TV" type of goods when you actually see them... On the upside, the glow was pretty even in brightness and lacking "hot spots"

On the other hand, the impression I got with EL Wire was much more positive. Ended up getting one of those starter kits at Radio Shack to play around with. Certainly better experience than with EL sheet -- fairly bright even in daylight. On the other hand, for most purposes I'd want to to be using a diffuser anyway -- which made it not much different than using LEDs (instead of point "hot-spots" it's now a line). ... and that previously-mentioned "hiss" or "buzz"

[seam-filler]

Be aware that colours are not equally bright. Blue is brightest followed by green. Red is the least bright with purple a close second.