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Joining EL Wire is really useful for many reasons
Maybe you want to extend the EL Wire around a large space or you’re cutting the wire down to size and don’t want to waste the offcuts.
So You may find yourself trying to join the EL Wire up to some thin extender wire.
Or more often people find themselves attaching it to EL Connectors.
Then the wire is ready to glow- just plug it into a driver/inverter or a splitter coming out of an EL Driver
Inside EL Wire looks like this:
The important thing to note is the ‘Very Fine Copper Wire’ spiraling around the ‘Phosphor Coating’ which is painted onto the ‘Copper Core’
The ‘Copper Core’ and the ’Very Fine Copper Wire’ are the two electrical points of contact
(EL Wire and EL Tape get powered by AC current, unlike DC current this means there is no +ve or -ve electrodes)
What i’m trying to say is that you have to attach one of the power cables to the copper core and the other to the ‘Very Fine Copper Wire’- its AC current so it doesn’t matter which goes with which
This ‘Very Fine Copper Wire’ is actually two wires spiraling around each other and are called ‘Corona Wires’
It is impossible to solder directly onto these Corona Wires but there is a trick to doing it that makes it fairly easy if you follow these steps:
1) Expose the wires as in the picture above using wire-strippers
2) Wrap some copper tape round the PVC sleeve
3) Lay the Corona Wires onto the copper tape, or even sandwiching them inside the copper tape as you wrap it round the PVC sleeve
4) Then solder one of the power cables directly onto the copper tape
5) The Other power cable can simply be soldered directly onto the copper core once you have scraped the phosphor off it to make a good connection
We sell packs of five power wires attached to EL Connectors so that once attached to the EL Wire it will just clip into a driver
These EL Connectors and the Copper Tape are available in the ACCESSORIES part of our store
There is a video here that explains how to do it:
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26. Apr, 2011 at 8:05 pm
Thanks for this review and for your site on the whole. I’ve just shared it.
02. Aug, 2011 at 8:54 pm
two things ?
can the EL product be dimmed? &
can the tapes and panels be cut to shapes?
03. Aug, 2011 at 1:41 pm
hi
the inverter pushes the voltage up from say 3v (for the 2 X AA battery inverter) up to the 100v that makes the wire glow
i dont know any off the shelf kits but if you get a voltage controller in there it will dim it
the tapes and panels can be cut and have holes cut in them
but its only really possible to cut into 3 sides – the side along the top should be kept uncut to help it hold charge
its obvious when you look at the back of el panel or el tape and you see the strip – ill try to post a pic of it on here in the next few days
05. Aug, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Hi,
I have quite long offcuts of EL wire that are going to waste as I can’t solder the connectors on myself. I have tried and failed! I purchased the wire from a US site and it’s only 0.9mm thick. I was wondering if it would be possible, if I paid you for parts and labour, to send them to you and have you attach some connectors for me?
Katy
05. Aug, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Hi Katy
yes – i tend to charge £5 for each connection i solder if thats ok with you – also i cant promise anything cos ive never worked with wire this thin but id love to have a look and check it out
ta
Dave