Connecting EL wires with uninsulated ferrules

EL (electroluminescent) wires require inverters to light up. Sometimes connecting them to the inverter is tricky because the wires to solder are extremely thin and they break very easily. This instructable tells you how to avoid this problem.

You will need:

- EL wire
- inverter (chose one for the length of the wire you are going to connect)
- wire stripper
- cutter or scissors
- solder iron with fine tip
- shrink tube
- hair drier
- uninsulated ferrules

Step 1: Prepare EL wire

EL wire is made like a coaxial cable, so there is one inner copper conductor covered with a phosphorus paint and one external conductor made of two fine wires. Everything is then covered by an external plastic colored cover. Proceed by stripping approximately 8 mm - 10 mm (0.3") of the external plastic cover. Do it gently, so the two small wires are not damaged.

At this point you will be able to see the inner conductor covered by the phosphorus layer and the outer conductors, the two fine wires.

Using the cutter blade scratch the phosphorus paint out of the inner copper conductor for approximately 4 mm (0.16"). Be careful to remove it completely or welding will result difficult. Be careful not to cut the two fine wires. The EL wire must look approximately like the one in the last picture.

Comments

[kelkitty]

Hello! Thanks so much for this guide, I am really looking forward to using this technique to strengthen my connections. What size ferrules do you use?

[rmarchesi]

For 1.2 mm EL wire I use 1.5 or 1.6 mm diameter. From my experience using a crimping tool gives better results, but they are pretty expensive. If not just use pliers.

[QuackMasterDan]

Thanks for the well-written, concise, and effective guide. Hopefully it will get many new users of EL wire started on their creations. I think it would be neat if you posted some photographs of your best mods that use EL wire, to demonstrate what it can do. For instance, here is a picture of my mountain bike. Also, the use of uninsulated ferrules is rather ill-defined, conductive copper-tape works very well for this purpose, and can be found on eBay, or in the gardening areas of some hardware stores (a rim of copper tape prevents pests from climbing over the rim of a ceramic pot).

[rmarchesi]

Thank you! Uninsulated ferrules are small tin copper tubes used for connecting electric wires. You can find them here www.rapidonline.com/productinfo.aspx . I will post some of my creations as soon as I have one, I'm now concentrating more on 'raw materials' and techniques.

[QuackMasterDan]

Those are actually a really good idea for preparing EL wires, I think I may switch from copper tape to these ferrules. In seeing the name as "bootlace" ferrules, I'm guessing that their original intention was as a shoelace aglet? Nonetheless, thanks for your guide, it's now motivated me to go and use up my stocks of EL wire just sitting at home, I think I can use them in updating our church's youth-group room.

[le-Sid]

Nice job, added to fav ^_^

[frollard]

How did this get by with no comments or votes?!

Great instructable!

I would think soldering the ferrule might cause damage to the outer casing to the el wire - obviously it doesnt.  If it becomes problematic, a person could pre-tin a dot of solder on the ferrule so that adding the connection wire would only take a very brief second and ensure no cold solder joints :)

Great stuff!