Questions Regarding EL Wire & Connectors

General project help for Adafruit customers

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
User avatar
ErmerGherd
 
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2014 5:15 pm

Questions Regarding EL Wire & Connectors

Post by ErmerGherd »

Is there a way to set my EL Wire project up with a 12 V Battery Pack in the following way:

I want all components to have a connector; as opposed to soldering and shrinking the ELW directly to the inverter or anywhere. I realize I will need to solder connectors; but I'm trying to avoid shrink tubing the power cord to the ELW.

I want the battery to connect via JST (or whatever is best).

I also want a 3 meter extension cable to plug into the inverter with JST (or another removeable connector) then other end into a JST on the ELW. Is this doable or a variant?

If you can include a parts list and maybe a few pointers, I'd appreciate it. Pretend I'm super noob. I know how to solder.

Thanks,
Ermer

User avatar
adafruit_support_mike
 
Posts: 67446
Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm

Re: Questions Regarding EL Wire & Connectors

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Most of our EL Wire comes with a 2.5mm JST connector already attached. We also have a 1m cable that will fit between an inverter and the wire:

https://www.adafruit.com/products/616

You can get one of those, cut it in half, and add another 2m of wire in the middle, or string three of them in series.

We also have a 1-to-4 splitter that you can use to connect multiple runs of EL wire to the same inverter:

https://www.adafruit.com/products/402

User avatar
ErmerGherd
 
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2014 5:15 pm

Re: Questions Regarding EL Wire & Connectors

Post by ErmerGherd »

Thanks Mike. I guess I should have specified I need the ELW cut to a specific length.Speaking of which, when you cut the ELW, what do you do to the other trimmed end? Obviously one end will have a connector for power; but the other raw end.... How do you cap that off? Can it be made watertight / proof? I've seen the tutorial for soldering a cut ELW; but in that video, it is soldered to more wire for use. They never mentioned what you do with the cut end.

Can I solder JST connectors to the batteries and battery packs too? The bare wires are generally soldered together and shrink-tubed right? If I wanted them swappable so I could connect either an 8XAA back or a C cell pack... can I do that? If I can, is there a preference for which end to put the male and which end to put the female JST on?

I'm stil not sure what all I need. I am a little confused as I thought the ELW came with raw ends and you soldered the power inverter directly to it.

EL Wire
Batterries
Soldering gun
12 V sound inverter
AA and C Battery packs
Solder and Shrink tubng
1 JST for each battery pack
1 JST for inverter (opposite 'gender' of the battery pack obviously)

How about:

Something to cap off the end of ELW I trim???

No JST for ELW??? It really just plugs directly in to the inverter or the extension cable?

I could have sworn all the videos I watched showed bare wire soldered and shrink-tubed at the ELW / inverter joint; the seemed to have no conectors. Are your ELWs different where most do not come with a connector? Or maybe people heat shrink the JST for waterproffing???

I'm just really worried I'm going to miss a part and have to delay my project even longer and pay shipping twice. Thanks so much for for your help.
Last edited by ErmerGherd on Tue Nov 11, 2014 7:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
ErmerGherd
 
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2014 5:15 pm

Re: Questions Regarding EL Wire & Connectors

Post by ErmerGherd »

adafruit_support_mike wrote:Most of our EL Wire comes with a 2.5mm JST connector already attached. We also have a 1m cable that will fit between an inverter and the wire:

https://www.adafruit.com/products/616
What is the difference in the 616 and the 1131 (JST-PH)?
The PH description says for battery inverters. Are they both the same aside formn the PH being shorter?

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88086
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Questions Regarding EL Wire & Connectors

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The PH series connectors are smaller and do not have the locking tabs. They are not compatible.

User avatar
ErmerGherd
 
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2014 5:15 pm

Re: Questions Regarding EL Wire & Connectors

Post by ErmerGherd »

adafruit_support_bill wrote:The PH series connectors are smaller and do not have the locking tabs. They are not compatible.

Thank you so much. As far as wiring JST to battery packs and inverters. Is that cool? Does the male end go on the battery pack or inverter or does it matter?

If I trim the wire, how do I cap off the bare end without the connector? I've sen the trimming and soldering video for wiring it up.. but it didn't address the other end. What do you do to cap off a trimmed wire?

Tanks Bill

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88086
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Questions Regarding EL Wire & Connectors

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The electrons don't care much. But we wire all ours with the male on the battery side for consistency.

As for the bare ends of the EL wire, you can use a bit of heat-shrink on the end, or dip them in silicone or epoxy.

User avatar
ErmerGherd
 
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2014 5:15 pm

Re: Questions Regarding EL Wire & Connectors

Post by ErmerGherd »

adafruit_support_bill wrote:The electrons don't care much. But we wire all ours with the male on the battery side for consistency.

As for the bare ends of the EL wire, you can use a bit of heat-shrink on the end, or dip them in silicone or epoxy.
Trimming the ends is that easy? I was expecting a little more work. Thanks so much :)

User avatar
rchsaju
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2014 11:09 pm

Re: Questions Regarding EL Wire & Connectors

Post by rchsaju »

Hey, I am planing to make an El wire suit. I am kinda confused about which inverter to pick. I see that all the inverters comes with Steady/blink/off mode. For my project, I just need the Steady and off Mode. Hw can I do it? Help??

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88086
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Questions Regarding EL Wire & Connectors

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

This inverter has no blink mode: https://www.adafruit.com/products/448

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “General Project help”