Electroluminescent Wire + Arduino

Using Arduino Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

Hey guys,

First time posting, sorry if this is in the 'wrong forum' I believe it is.....

I have an Arduino MEGA 1280, I also have about 4-5 meters of Electroluminescent wire I wish to power (ideally I would like to be able to dim and brighten it with the board) however, I would just settle to be able to turn it on and off....

I have a 9 volt inverter for the EL wire, I also have a collection of resistors at my disposal along with some 2N7000 MOSEFT transistors.......

Tutorials or examples for what I wish to do is scarce and I was wondering could anyone here help me... The closest thing I've come accross is this however I don't understand what the transistors are doing. Arduino EL Wire control circuit | A simple circuit to switch… | Flickr

Any help would be appreciated + many thanks in advance !

2

The text says "triac", this is used to switch the el-wire on and off.
It cannot dim the wire.

3

Yes, I've seen the Triac, however what I want to know is, can i use the 2N7000 MOSEFT, or is it a component i will need to source myself?

4

You could just use a low input current relay to switch between on and off - you do get a click sound depending on the relay but its really easy.

John

5

Could you just elaborate on that slightly please?... I have a 2N7000 MOSFET at my disposal? would I be able to use that ?

Many thanks !

6

I would just use a reed relay such as: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SY4036

Some would say that it is necessary to put a diode over the coil but I never have and its been fine for me.

I have actually used that exact relay to run EL wire.

John

7

Seems like nobody's gotten around to telling you this but...

thatguy147:
I have a 2N7000 MOSFET at my disposal? would I be able to use that ?

No.

A single MOSFET only works for DC, you need a triac for AC - and EL wire is high-voltage low-current AC. You can also use a relay, or any sort of mechanical switch, as they don't know or care about AC/DC. You can make a rudimentary triac by connecting two MOSFETs in an anti-series configuration, but that's really suboptimal for many reasons (plus your MOSFET probably isn't rated to 300v)

8

Couldnt you use the MOSFET before the inverter converts the 9v to how ever much?

I know nothing about triacs, but if theres a 9v input to power them thats gonna be DC, isnt it?

John

9

You could, however, that means you can't use the inverter for any other EL wire... and it's an N-channel MOSFET, so you'd need ~12v or something like that to turn it on, necessitating another transistor of some sort.