Soldering El Wire
Soldering electroluminescent wire is a little challenging and we therefore decided to provide the following step by step walkthrough. Estimated time for a first connection is 20-45 minutes. For those who wish to purchase a ready made unit please visit our Plug N' Play page. A detailed document on soldering el wire is available in the El Wire Technical info page.
Tools needed for soldering el wire are- 1. Scissors 2. Wire-Stripper 3. Welder 4. Solder 5. small piece of 1/4 inch and 1/8 inch Heat shrink tubing (not pictured) 6. Heat Gun 7. End Cap (not pictured) 8. Wire Holder (recommended) These supplies are available from our Accessories section. |
The first step in preparing your neon wire is to strip off the outer plastic jacket in which the electroluminescent wire is housed. Be careful not to break the two thin wires twirled around the core. We used the 20 gauge hole on the wire-stripper. |
After stripping the el wire seperate the two thin wires from the wire core and twist them together. |
The core of the el wire is coated with electroluminescent materials. Scrape off the coating with a scissor until you see the inner copper core- we used a machine. |
This picture shows the different wires. |
strip the plasting coating off the inverters lead wire. |
Here is What the inverter wire should like like after being stripped. |
Strip off the plastic coatings on the red and black wires. |
Place neon wire and el wire inverter lead wire on holder. IMPORTANT- slide 1/8 inch shrink tubing onto the el wire and 1/4 inch shrink tubing on the el wire inverter lead wire. |
Dab a litlle bit of solder on the neon wire. |
Dab a little bit of solder on the REDel wire inverter lead wire. |
Solder the inverter lead wire and the el wire together. |
slide 1/8 inch shrink tubing over connection. |
Picture of covered connection. |
Wrap Thin wires around the white inverter lead wire. It is very important to make sure that these wires do not tuch the previous ones. |
picture of thin wires wrapped around the white wire from the inverter. |
Solder the thin wire to the white wire from the el wire inverter. |
Use your heat shrink gun to shrink the 1/8 inch heat shrink tubing. |
Slide 1/4 inch heat shrink tubing on top of the entire connection. |
Use your Heat shrink gun to Heat shrink the 1/4 inch heat shrink tubing. |
The unconnected end of the el wire must be finished through a process called termination. To terminate the end of the el wire 1-strip off the end of the wire 2-cut off the thin wires surrounding the core 3- place an end cap on the end 4- Use your heat gun to heat shrink the end cap. |
Attach the unit to the appropraite power source and turn on. The el wire should glow. |
