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question about battery powering el wire

T

tekcajder

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 18, 2001
Messages
253
hey, i'm trying to figure out a few details about wiring some el wire to a battery pack of some kind. i've never tried this ... so it doesn't come as common sense (so i'm sorry for the retarded questions)

anyhow, i've a 5 foot length of el cable with a 12 volt inverter, i was wonder what you guys thought would be the best way to connect it with a battery. i was thinking 2 small 9 volt batteries in line with several resistors to reduce the current to 12v.

someone told me i should use AA batteries instead, but @ 1.5v ... wouldn't i need 8 to power the el cable? i'm trying to make this as unobtrusive as possible.

again though, i've never done anything like this and my knowledge about wiring is pretty limited, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

cheers - tek
 
Try here... They have the battery packs already for you... I didnt look long enough to see if they sold the battery pack seperately, but they do sell it with EL wire in the options and it is only like 3 dollars... Happy hunting... :)

Link To EL Wire Store...
 
hey, thats a great site! i like what they have, but if i can, i'd like to use what i have at the moment and the only battery pack they sell is 3 volt. the only reason i'd go against picking something up from them is that the el inverter on my wire is sound sensitive ... and its something i need for my project.
 
Putting resistors in there is just going to waste power, and 9V batteries don't have much to spare. I say try it with one 9V battery and see what happens.
 
I'm doing this for my sons costume this halloween. I have two green el wires with two inverters that I am running from a battery pack. The best way to do this is with 8 AA batteries. It sounds like a lot, but Radio Shack has a battery holder that holds all eight in a small, tight package. It has a 9 volt battery type connector on the top that you can get from them as well, then just connect positive to positive and negative to negative. No resistors, no calculations and the 8 batteries run both lines forever.
 
i'm in the same boat, i'm making a costume ... though i think i'm going to shelf my 12 volt wire and buy some 3 volt from the site micky21 listed ... just seems like a better idea, the costume isnt big and there aren't any places to hide the 8 double As
 
kuyaglen said:
You know, that isn't entirely untrue.
:eek:
Click to expand...

Pervert...or should I say eeeewwww.

Must be extremely skimpy that you can't hide a 1 inch square by 5 inch long block. My sons is a cyber warrior meets road warrior type construction, complete with shoulder/chest pads, knee pads and fingerless gloves. Im thinking of making a small pack for his back with two tubes coming out and connected to the guns on his hips...the el wire will light up the tubes. It's that or just run them in tubes up his arms and down his sides, like he's powered up or something. I'll decide this weekend when I play with the tubes and the el wire.
 
My *insert deity* we really are geeks. :D EL wire in your kid's costumes? I never thought of that but it would be a great idea. Another option are the battery packs that Tyco and other Wal-Mart-esque RC car makers have. They usually have at least one or two brands that are 9.6V and are small enough to hide pretty easily. Of course you'd have to charge them somehow but it would be something that you could reuse in the future.
 
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