Neon LED Light Glow EL Wire String - Anybody use it?

These are not really LED's, they're EL wire.  You can cut it, but it takes a fine hand.  Here's a site that you should visit: The Full "How To" Manual For EL (Electroluminescent) Wire.  I bought some of this, but found it was electrically very noisy and killed my TMCC, it was going to go on the Phantom locomotive.  Here's another interesting site:  The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To Soldering Cool Neon EL Wire

EL runs in the 100V (AC) range.  Switching/sequencing 3 or 4 such voltages (albeit trivially small currents) may be a hassle unless your have a pre-built controller that does such.  I'm somewhat skeptical winding 3-4 EL wires will create the bubbling/rising oil visual effect from a bubble-tube but I await your video!  Another approach might be to use so-called "side-glow" optical fiber and light it at one end using LEDs.  You can also "make" side-glow fiber from regular el-cheapo plastic acrylic fiber by sanding the surface so it glows along the length of the fiber.  Obviously it's easier to design/build a circuit that switches/sequences low-voltage, low-current DC to drive multiple LEDs.  I don't know the readily available diameter options for EL wire, but acrylic fiber (pennies per foot) come in 0.25mm, 0.5mm, 0.75mm, 1.0mm, etc. diameter.

Hi Stan-

Well, I was planning on using some type of pre-built controller, I believe I have seen them for two strands, will do some research to see what else is available. Not too worried about the exact effect, just looking for some "toy train class" animation. I need to research the controllers on the Miller Engineering EL signs, some of those appear to have more that 2 output channels. If I had to design my own I would probably consider a current-shunt arrangement, just feed the strands from a CC source, possibly just a series capacitor, and short-circuit the "off" strands.

The "side glow" fiber is a good idea too. I suspect it would be a good deal brighter than the EL stuff. 

Guess I need to start a new junk box labelled Oil Derrick ideas. Keep the good ideas coming!

Actually, the side glow fiber is not nearly as bright as the EL wire.  The EL wire is neat, just a bit trickier to work with.

PLCProf posted:

Guess I need to start a new junk box labelled Oil Derrick ideas. Keep the good ideas coming!

Considering the diameter of a bubbling tube, I wonder if a vertical stack of a couple dozen (or so) LEDs would make for a suitable toy-like animation.  The circuit would be the simple 3-output sequencing controller used to drive the theater-marquee string of LEDs which makes it look like directional motion.   IIRC the bubbling oil derrick tubes are sort-of amber-colored, so amber-colored LEDs might work.  Discrete LEDs would be brighter than either side-glow fiber or EL.

Just to be clear, if you have 21 LEDs vertically stacked 1 (bottom),2,3,...20,21 (top), you use a 3-output LED driver sequencing A,B,C,A,B,C,A,B,C....  Output A drives LEDs 1,4,7,10..., Output B drives LEDs 2,5,8,11..., output C drives LEDs 3,6,9,12...  the effect is like the moving marque looking like the bubbles rising from bottom to top.  Yes, a bunch of wiring but might be quite the attention grabber (has show-off potential!).

Like you said Stan, "a bunch of wiring".

Not afraid of the wiring, just trying to visualize a neat mechanical arrangement.

Just thinking out loud, if those LED strips were available in a narrower width that would be a good start.

I'll present a radical idea...

You can do a simple PCB layout with SMT LED's, and make it a long narrow board.  The bonus would be, if you were adding a simple controller of some kind, MUCH quicker to assemble.  You could probably make the board on the order of 1/4" wide, maybe .3" at the most. 

I get prototype quantities of PCB's made for $36 shipped, that gets me around 15-18 sq/in of PCB.  The last order I did got me 24 1.3" x .4" boards for my $36.  The layout package I use is DipTrace, there is a free version that's more than sufficient for what you're doing.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I'll present a radical idea...

You can do a simple PCB layout with SMT LED's, and make it a long narrow board.  The bonus would be, if you were adding a simple controller of some kind, MUCH quicker to assemble.  You could probably make the board on the order of 1/4" wide, maybe .3" at the most. 

I get prototype quantities of PCB's made for $36 shipped, that gets me around 15-18 sq/in of PCB.  The last order I did got me 24 1.3" x .4" boards for my $36.  The layout package I use is DipTrace, there is a free version that's more than sufficient for what you're doing.

Based on your experience with LEDs in model railroad applications, how would you circuit the LEDs? My layout has 3 accessory voltages, 12 VAC, 14 VDC and 16 VAC, I can use any one. 4 LEDs in series with a CL2?

I note that the SMD cab lights in my LC+ RS-3 are in parallel; has the stigma about parallel operation disappeared?

I wire LEDs in series or parallel, depending on the situation.  If they're identical LED's, parallel operation typically works fine.  However, if you're power is higher voltage, you have to waste a lot of the available power into current limiting components that produce much more heat with parallel LEDs.

In addition, It depends on what you want them to do as far as animation.  You had mentioned some ripple effects, this will probably dictate a specific wiring scheme.

Obviously the use of the DCM / methylene chloride tubes is/was an arbitrary proxy to animate an oil derrick.  A string of animated bulbs (or LEDs for that matter) was not practical at the time.  So if the objective is to use modern technology to create an animated "toy-like" effect to show carbon emissions extracted from mother Earth, then why not LEDs instead of messy liquids, glass-tubes that break, etc.  As for the circuit then, I'd think the "trick" would be to have it powered by whatever drives the lamp/bulb which warms the DCM tubes.  Less than $1 in parts, it would convert AC-to-DC, and sequence say 3 outputs (each driving multiple SMD LEDs) with 100mA or so of drive current.  Much less power than the bubbling tube, much more reliable, never need replacement, no worries about "shaking the crystals", etc.

Here's a very simple example of what I was talking about.  I just whacked a 9 LED string with alternating LED's in three sets.  Each set is in series to minimize the total power dissipation.  The schematic and PCB layout is below, and the minimum order is $30 + $6 shipping, and you get 100 of the tiny little boards for that.  I added a 6-pin connector (I know, I only needed 4 pins, but that connector is in my library).  This is on the order of what I'm talking about.  Obviously, you could add more LED's and alternate colors, this is just an example of how easy it would be to have this done on a PCB.  Another bonus is you can have a bunch of them.

In order to maximize your dollars, you can also make one PCB with several different designs, just call it one PCB.  When you get them, you cut them apart yourself on a bandsaw.

I fired up the order screen and computed what boards would cost.

Well, I just ordered up some SMD LEDs and a bunch of the EL string with 3 controllers. We have a junk store not too far away that is run by a guy who still thinks it is 1968, so I am sure that over by the Lava Lamps and Peggy Lipton posters he will have some old fiber optic gadgets that might be a source of interesting effects. 

I will keep you updated. Got to keep those carbon emissions flowing!