I had an idea for an Arduino project that would interface with EL Wire to create a smooth programmable display. I don't have any parts yet, have no experience with the Arduino, or EL Wire. Before I buy parts, I want to see if it's physically possible to do what I want.
I'm doing my planing based on my experience from a embedding programming class I took in college. It it, one of our projects was to build a calculator. The display screen was made up of four 7-segment displays. After wiring up the 4x4 input keypad, we only had enough pins left to light one display at a time, and we'd switch between them at a fast enough interval that the human eye couldn't detect the off state (basically we multiplexed the displays and took advantage of the eye's persistence of vision).
My initial question is, will the persistence of vision effect work with EL Wire? Can the voltage from the inverter be switched fast enough to fool the eye into thinking multiple lengths of EL Wire are lit, without any noticeable dimming or flickering? Anyone know of any projects that have done this?
I appreciate the help.