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Help needed

P

paddy001

n00b
Joined
Dec 15, 2005
Messages
16
ive got hold of some el foil (great stuff) to use as a bklight for a logo in my next laptop mod. but heres my dilema.

This foil needs 120-160v AC to work current draw around 600-900mW. Now the place im gettin the foil can supply a driver to run the foil off 4-6V which is perfect however its dimensions are 9,5 x 26 x 21 mm

i need summat smaller to fit in the laptop. so does anyone here know how to make a really really small driver with the capabilities described above as i have no idea where to start.

Any ideas, links to places welcome
Thanks in advance
 
How big of an area can the inverter take up? The one you have listed is about 1inch square, which isn't terribly large.

What is your electronics knowledge? Could 'easily' build a surface mount boost converter to provide the specified voltage. However keeping this tiny could still be difficult.

Do you have any more power characteristics? Namely the operating frequency.

Edit: Read up on EL strips, seems they can run off 60Hz AC. I was thinking you could just jumper 120VAC out of the powersupply, but you said this is a laptop. :(

However for an inverter would want to increase this frequency a lot to minimize space. Is there a maximum frequency these will run at?
 
hi adrenaline, thanks for your help so far. Ive just emailed the guy about the foil/strip to find out the max operating frequency hes usually pretty good so i should have an answer fairly quickly.

My electronics experiance is ok. I can build pretty much anything as long as ive got the circuit diagram to work too. However i have no idea how to even start a circuit for this kind of application. havent really done much work with AC currents.

Space wise my limitation is more shape wise. I have a many fairly large areas of space i could place the inverter however the areas are very shallow. I was thinkin possibly separating the components onto different pcb so i could place them in different areas so it all fits, however i can sort this out myself.

All i really need is a circuit diagram /schematic thingy (spelling never my strong point) showing how to create an inverter. specs

4-6v DC input
120-160v AC output
600-900mA current draw
as small as possible
operating frequency to be listed asap

Any ideas welcome

Thanks in advance
Paddy
 
I think the liklihood is that any of the small commercial devices available will already be as small as possible, however you could always try to remove the components and rearrange them as you mentioned. I personally think this is your best bet, because:

1) You will have a known working circuit
2) The parts used are almost gauranteed not to be found locally; esp the inductors.
3) The purchase of individual parts will probably cost more than a prefabricated unit

Given the frequency of operation, you might find that it is sensitive to part relocations, or that the emi produced effects other circuitry. It may take some experimentation.

I'd just order one of these drivers and ply around with it.
 
I remember ages ago, people were stuffing EL backlights into TI-8x calculators - and miniature EL inverters existed that were small enough to cram inside the calculator. I'd google around, search the ticalc.org forums, etc... you might hit a part number or two.

Another thought, do you know if the EL film you have can run on DC? I could put together a thin MAX1771-based circuit that can put out a watt or so at 100-200 volts. This will be more expensive than an off the shelf inverter, but it's a last resort.
 
Yeah, I saw a couple of those but I wasn't sure if they would be powerful enough for the OP's application. Looks like several shops carry this driver, but the initial results were all overseas companies. I'm sure if you kept Googling you'd eventually find a US distributer.
 
cheers for all ur help so far guys and btw adrenaline it draws 900mA not sure about watts.
 
paddy001 said:
cheers for all ur help so far guys and btw adrenaline it draws 900mA not sure about watts.
Click to expand...
900mA at 100 volts or so is... 100 watts!

That's about a kitchen table top worth of EL film.
 
ok if im honest i know jack about AC bar what we learnt in physics. Im fine with anythin DC. I have never worked with el foil / wire the closest ive got is puttin a preassembled cold cathode tube in my pc case with the supplied inverter.

Basically to reoutline the mod im looking to use some kind of lighting in the back of my laptop screen to backlight a frosted plexi logo.

much like this





I figured el foil would be the best option as its thin and im v v limited on space especially thickness wise.

So does anyone think this would be possible, or is there an alternative method of lighting that ive completely overlooked??

Secondly do anyone has any ideas where to connect the power ie screen, usb battery terminal etc?

I really need some help as this is the main aspect of the laptop mod and the whole project is pretty much at a loss without it.

Any ideas welcome
All info i have on the el foil is listed above especially in the small pic.

Thanks in advance

Paddy001
 
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