EL Custom Shop's EL wire and lightstrip

Author
Aron Schatz
Posted
May 13, 2002
Views
34233
EL wire and lightstrip is one of the coolest things I've seen. The light that they let off is simply amazing.

Page All: Viewing All Pages

Page 1
<B>Introduction:</B>

<center><img src="/images/articles/may02/elwire/aselabs.jpg">
Such a nice logo</center>

After seeing numerous reviews of the <a href="http://www.elcustomshop.com/">EL Custom Shop</a> flatwire and EL wire, I knew I had to get some. I quickly contacted Mike over there and he is very friendly and curtious. He informed me that they are making new brochures and asked if I could see anything missing or improve anything in it, I help out with like one thing Smile. Enough of this, you want to see it in action yes?

<B>Packaging:</B>

I really have to compliment EL Custom Shop on the packing job. They even were nice enough to put the site's logo on the sticker, a very nice touch (So nice that I'm keeping the stickers). When I ripped open the packaging, I was really anxious to see it working.

<center><img src="/images/articles/may02/elwire/both.jpg">
Great packaging</center>

The kit that I have will be somewhat different than if you bought it. I received a flatlight wire, a regular EL wire, a heavy duty inverter, and a spliter. All the wires and splitters are made by using lock and release plugs. This is a really easy what to attach the wire. EL Custom Shop has really paid attention to detail when designing this. The end of the wires are booted and heatshrinked to perfection.

<B>Testing:</B>

I'll let the pics speak for themselves. I also dunked the wire in water and sure enough it still worked fine. Both of the products are bright enough to light up a room pretty much. They'll do fine in a computer. This is much better than a cold cathode, because you can string this wire anywhere you want!

What I firt did was cut the wire. This pic shows what actually lights up in the tube:

<center><img src="/images/articles/may02/elwire/nolightandlight.jpg">
See the cut end, the white phosphor</center>

The white phosphor interior creates a bright light when charge is ran through it. The EL flatwire works the same way, but I didn't want to cut it because I haven't decided what todo with it yet. I'm thinking of making a cool lighted belt.

<center><img src="/images/articles/may02/elwire/elandflat.jpg">
Both are bright</center>

Both are very bright and offer a great viewing distance. Here is the true color of the EL flatwire:

<center><img src="/images/articles/may02/elwire/trueflat.jpg">
Very green</center>

This next pic shows the true color of the EL wire, the wire on the left is turned off.

<center><img src="/images/articles/may02/elwire/nolightlight2.jpg">
True color blue</center>
Page 2
<B>Testing continued:</B>

Okay, I wanted to test out the water proof aspect of the wire and the flexibility.

<center><img src="/images/articles/may02/elwire/wrappedhand.jpg">
Very flexible</center>

Look at that! The wire is very flexible, more so that I thought it would be.

<center><img src="/images/articles/may02/elwire/elglass.jpg">
There is water in that glass</center>

I filled a glass full of water and put the EL wire into it. Looks okay to me. Here is one more shot the the flatwire alone:

<center><img src="/images/articles/may02/elwire/flatwire.jpg">
Very flat</center>

<B>Conclusion:</B>

The EL Custom Shop's products are the coolest I've seen. They have really taken the time to make it very easy to install the wire. While the wire was on, the inverter let out a slight hum, you could here it close up, but not in the case itself. I really like this stuff. The included manual gives alot of information regarding their products and locations were to use them. On the back of the manual is instructions for how to reconnect two strips of EL. All in all, I give it a %94 for being so cool. I'd like to thank <a href="http://www.elcustomshop.com/">EL Custom Shop</a> for providing two samples of their product!

<h2>Overall Score: 94% EDITOR'S CHOICE!</h2>

Title

Medium Image View Large