Retired: Visual EL - Jacob-Dixon/MysticWhip GitHub Wiki
The original design of our project called to use EL wire. Unfortunately, the EL driver we used simply did not live up to promised specifications we found in the datasheet. Several issues we ran into during testing were:
- Biggest issue: The el wire is simply too dim to see clearly in normal room light. The light in the room must be darkened to even be able to tell the wire is excited or not.
- Driver output was unstable, the sinusoidal output voltage would drop as el wires were added to the output ports.
- The driver needed time to "warm up", sometimes on the order os 20 seconds before the EL wire was excited enough to be able to view it
- as the driver heated up, the output would become unstable and start to flicker.
These 4 issues caused us to abandon the EL wire altogether and go with an alternative plan.
EL driver prototype board
##Detailed information
For more detailed information about the Visual component of our project, see the corresponding research and prototyping pages.
###EL Research