This is a relatively simple instructable that uses advanced EL wire techniques. If you've never worked with EL wire, check out some of the other great EL wire instructables first. You'll need to know how to solder and connect it before doing this project.
Since the whole point of this instructable is using repurposed parts, it won't be exactly step by step. Instead I'll guide you through finding and choosing parts, and testing them. Then you can apply it to your project as necessary.
EL wire is a copper wire covered with a phosphorescent coating. 2 extremely thin copper wires are wrapped loosely around this coated copper wire, and the whole thing is covered in plastic. When AC (and only AC) current at about 90-130 volts is passed through the outside and inside wires, it excites the phosphor, and the wire glows like a neon tube. It's very, very cool stuff.
Generally, you need a driver to convert low voltage DC battery power in high voltage AC power. These inverters are available online, but there are a few problems:
1. They break. Quite often.
2. They aren't expensive, but they aren't cheap either.
3. You can pretty much only get them online.
4. They require batteries.
I wanted to put EL wire all over my bike for Burning Man this year, but I wanted to light it with pedal power. No worrying about charging or hauling batteries, just pure muscle power. I had an old stepper motor lying around and I remembered that they ONLY produce AC current. Usually you have to rectify it to DC to use it. But I needed AC! Could it be possible to hook an old stepper motor up to light EL wire with no driver all? The answer, it turned out, is yes, and not only that, it fades on and off with speed, and can even change color (slightly) as the frequency of the AC signal changes. SCORE!
Here's a video of the final project in action. This is before I got the wheels lighting up too. In the first few seconds of riding, you can see the color shift from Green to Blue, because of the change in frequency as I speed up. Also, I should warn you that this is on my swing bike, which has two pivots, so the video may be confusing if you've never seen a swing bike in the day-time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n2m4cs3lx0
Now, on to the disclaimers:
First, this instructable deals with electricity. Be sure you know what you are doing. I gave myself a few nasty, though not life-threatening, shocks along the way.
Second, sending unregulated power through EL wire could short it or shorten its useful lifetime. It's importand to size the output of your generator at speed to your transformer so you don't damage the EL wire.
Since the whole point of this instructable is using repurposed parts, it won't be exactly step by step. Instead I'll guide you through finding and choosing parts, and testing them. Then you can apply it to your project as necessary.
EL wire is a copper wire covered with a phosphorescent coating. 2 extremely thin copper wires are wrapped loosely around this coated copper wire, and the whole thing is covered in plastic. When AC (and only AC) current at about 90-130 volts is passed through the outside and inside wires, it excites the phosphor, and the wire glows like a neon tube. It's very, very cool stuff.
Generally, you need a driver to convert low voltage DC battery power in high voltage AC power. These inverters are available online, but there are a few problems:
1. They break. Quite often.
2. They aren't expensive, but they aren't cheap either.
3. You can pretty much only get them online.
4. They require batteries.
I wanted to put EL wire all over my bike for Burning Man this year, but I wanted to light it with pedal power. No worrying about charging or hauling batteries, just pure muscle power. I had an old stepper motor lying around and I remembered that they ONLY produce AC current. Usually you have to rectify it to DC to use it. But I needed AC! Could it be possible to hook an old stepper motor up to light EL wire with no driver all? The answer, it turned out, is yes, and not only that, it fades on and off with speed, and can even change color (slightly) as the frequency of the AC signal changes. SCORE!
Here's a video of the final project in action. This is before I got the wheels lighting up too. In the first few seconds of riding, you can see the color shift from Green to Blue, because of the change in frequency as I speed up. Also, I should warn you that this is on my swing bike, which has two pivots, so the video may be confusing if you've never seen a swing bike in the day-time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n2m4cs3lx0
Now, on to the disclaimers:
First, this instructable deals with electricity. Be sure you know what you are doing. I gave myself a few nasty, though not life-threatening, shocks along the way.
Second, sending unregulated power through EL wire could short it or shorten its useful lifetime. It's importand to size the output of your generator at speed to your transformer so you don't damage the EL wire.
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Signing UpStep 1: Parts list
Here's what you will need to make this work:
A bike
EL Wire
A Stepper Motor
An old cell phone charger
A Rheostat (optional but highly recommended)
Tools:
Multimeter
Alligator clips
Electric Drill
In each of the following steps, I'll show you what these parts do, why, and where to find them cheap.
A bike
EL Wire
A Stepper Motor
An old cell phone charger
A Rheostat (optional but highly recommended)
Tools:
Multimeter
Alligator clips
Electric Drill
In each of the following steps, I'll show you what these parts do, why, and where to find them cheap.
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Also, this type of transformer is very lossy at high frequencies. HF transformers (like those in switchers) are usually powdered ferrite material cores that don't have the eddy losses that laminated cores have at high frequencies.
The switch mode power supply that is commonly supplied with cell phones these days is less likely to be square, and like Mr Skrubol said, they don't weigh as much as the traditional wall bug.
That's why he said in his description "Also, I should warn you that this is on my swing bike, which has two pivots, so the video may be confusing if you've never seen a swing bike in the day-time" ;)
Here a video which shows a Swing-Bike at day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktyRiTv9qsI
I am thinking about a setup like in the instructable of vbnicolau
http://www.instructables.com/id/Contactless-dynamo-bike-wheel-lights/
...If you want help explaining how to do this, you can just message me and I'll try and explain it as best as I can. :)
Question: Are there any AMP concerns? I was looking around a local used electronics store, and the stepper motors they have range in amperage. Wasn't sure if there was any concern with over-amping the EL like there is with over-voltage.
I do know that EL wire itself takes next to nothing current-wise. I read something like 50mA per 10' or something, but it wasn't a reliable source, so who knows. But the point is you don't need a very powerful generator, and the amperage drops as the voltage increases in the transformer, so you can't be getting a lot of power in there. Also, this seems right to me, although I'm not sure, that a generator only produces current relative to it's load? The bigger the load, the harder it is to spin, the harder it is to spin, the more amps its producing. So since the EL wire is providing the only load, it is providing the magnetic resistance to the generator, so the output of generator is exactly equal the current drawn by the EL wire and no more. Can anyone back me up on this?
I might not do this with EL wire, but i do have plenty leds im going to use this on once the snow melts
For the overvoltage problem, make an upgrade from the rheostat putting clamping diodes in series on the stepper coils so that they clip the waveform over your desired voltage (1 diode = 0,7V) not the best solution but dirty cheap and works.
http://img716.imageshack.us/i/clipper.png/
http://dar.ju.edu.jo/mansour/lab369/cont/35/default.htm
congrats
Suggestion: When you open this Instructable in the editor, there is a little filmstrip icon that allows you to embed videos. You can use the (old) embed code from YouTube to put the video directly in the first step so that it's easier to view.
Also this totaly look Tron Alike. Great Job