LED Colour tubes

[Pheamer]

Hi guys,

 

I'm looking to use some LED colour changing tubes in a new lighting design, but not pixel lines as these are too big. Does anyone have any ideas of a good model, or manufacturers?

 

Any advice appreciatted.

 

Cheers.

[Chris Beesley]

Have you looked into the Chauvet units? They are towards the budget end but are a lot slimmer than the Pixel Lines. Have a peek here

[Ynot]

Have you looked into the Chauvet units? They are towards the budget end but are a lot slimmer than the Pixel Lines. Have a peek here

These look interesting.

At £200 each 1m tube, I couldn't justify the cost of buying enough of these to make a decent displaybut there may be mileage in hiring in.

Anyone know of a hire co that's doing these at all?

[Pheamer]

Have you looked into the Chauvet units? They are towards the budget end but are a lot slimmer than the Pixel Lines. Have a peek here

Yeah, I'd like the tubes to hang with cable and not sure about that barcket thing at the back of them. Any other ideas?

[boac]

The Pulsar Chromastrip could be what you're looking for. Used a bunch of these a while back and they were quite impressive. We didn't hang them from their cable but I'm fairly sure you could, they don't weigh much.

 

Can't remember at the mo where they were hired from but could find out if you want... (think it may have been

RML actually)

[Ekij]

I suspect that Electroluminescent wire is not bright enough for your needs however I thought it worth mentioning just in case.

While most EL wire is of fixed colour, some can change it's colour depending on the frequency of the excitation waveform.

[dbuckley]

Have a look at the Artistic Licence products, might be something there you like...

[musht]

Lagoled if you need narrow:

 

http://www.lagotronics.com/index.htm

 

I suspect that Electroluminescent wire is not bright enough for your needs however I thought it worth mentioning just in case.

While most EL wire is of fixed colour, some can change it's colour depending on the frequency of the excitation waveform.

 

Never heard of colour changing EL, you got a link?

Thanks

[Trundle]

Zoom manurfacturing make a good few ata resonable price-sorry dont know their website but google it. They have a rectangular one that is v good with unlimited colours-saw a demo at my local dealer

[Ekij]

Never heard of colour changing EL, you got a link?

 

The intensity is based on voltage and the color is based on frequency.

El FAQ

Most EL wire is coated in a coloured plastic to enhance the chosen colour so the amount of variance might not be very much. However it's not that expensive, perhaps you could run separate strands in the colours you need (assuming thats a fairly limited number). Or perhaps you could twist strands of Red Green and Blue to make (sort of) whatever colour you wanted?

[Pheamer]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Plenty to be looking at. I'll let you know how I get on.

 

Thanks again.

 

Steve.

[yeapvcs]

try this colorbeam - www.colorbeam.com

[musht]

Never heard of colour changing EL, you got a link?

 

The intensity is based on voltage and the color is based on frequency.

El FAQ

Most EL wire is coated in a coloured plastic to enhance the chosen colour so the amount of variance might not be very much. However it's not that expensive, perhaps you could run separate strands in the colours you need (assuming thats a fairly limited number). Or perhaps you could twist strands of Red Green and Blue to make (sort of) whatever colour you wanted?

 

Not a great FAQ, frequency directly affects brightness and lifespan, wouldn`t really agree that it changes colour. Thought there might have been something new, as Electroluminescent, EL been around 50+ years, is getting re-brand as Light Emmitting Capacitor, LEC, same thing new TLA ;-) EL string isnt impressively bright.

 

Then there`s Light Emmitting Polymers, LEP, just around corner for some years now....

 

Forgot to mention for OP, VersaTube, one of the originals:

 

http://www.elementlabs.com

[Guest lightnix]

PM sent :D

 

When I want to play with EL wire, I usually get it from Coolight.com, they have the best prices and some dinky little drivers, although you could also check out this site for alternatives. Just remember to add VAT to the price when budgeting - it will be charged by the courier.

 

Electroluminescent wire / material is best used as openly visible decoration IMO, it simply doesn't put out enough light to illuminate anything further than a couple of feet away and even then only very dimly. AFAIK the "colour-changing" variety is limited to a blue-to-green type, the colour being dependent on the frequency. Otherwise (as mentioned by others) it's the frequency of the 120V AC supplied by the inverter (driver) that determines the brightness... and the working life.

 

Like LEDs, EL material doesn't burn out, it slowly fades. IIRC the "working life" of EL wire, according to the manufacturer, is defined as the time it takes for the output to fade to one-third of its original brightness. When driven at low frequencies (say, 400-1kHz), a "reasonable" lifetime of a few thousand hours may be possible, but by the time you get to 8kHZ, you can expect as little as a few hundred hours, only a small portion of which will be at maximum brightness. It's also very sensitive to impacts.

 

It's a complete pain to make up, too, featuring fragile, hair-thin wires and solder joins which need to be insulated with adhesive-lined heatshrink. Order at least an extra foot in each colour you use, to allow for broken wires and a "third hand" tool with a magnifying glass from Maplin / RS / Farnell before you start playing with EL wire. It will only end in tears otherwise.

 

The idea of using RGB EL colour mixing is very interesting, but I'm not sure I've seen any dimmable drivers, let alone DMX controlled ones. You'd need to be careful how you did it - EL wire should not be bent to less than 5x it's diameter, or twisted along its length by more than 30°/m (?). I'd look at wrapping it around some acrylic tube and protecting it with an outer tube of the same. I'm also not sure how "pure" the colours would be - "white" EL wire is actually greener than a fluorescent tube

 

The low output, short life, labour intensity and fragility have so far meant that flexible EL material in general has failed to make it bigtime in any area of the lighting industry. Despite this, it shouldn't be written off as dead technology and new developments are being made all the time. I reckon that one day there will be flexible EL sources of suitable intensity for illumination, with LEDs having been the starting point for a whole new branch of the lighting industry, based on solid-state sources.

 

Maybe a bit OT, it's just that we're in the middle of a little EL "R&D demo project" at the moment and it's a subject at the front of my mind right now.

[musht]

Ahh blue-green colour fade, never encountered it before, thanks for the insight.

 

Can get EL in few forms, original was sheet and was used for illuminating plane markings in late 40`s, racers at LeMan also have their car numbers lit by EL. Flexible sheet and strip are around nowadaysfrom variety manufacturers i.e.:

 

http://www.flatlite.com

 

Its very moisture sensitive, all joins and cuts have to be absolutely sealed , mositure ingress kills the phoshor.

 

Was a couple of Anytronics EL drivers on ebay recently, but think they are only switching not dimming.