EL wires noise

[Renegadrian]

My band bought some EL wires to decor our uniform. They are good but they do whine like hell!!! Not much noise from my bass but guitars are a no-no! You guys know wheter i can make them (almost) noise-free!? Pics may follow.

ps that's the ones we have

[antonis]

Maybe a Faraday cage for every member of your band with led strings placed outside the grounded grid should solve your problem..

P.S.
Sorry Adriano but it seems to be more of image maker than electronic problem... 

[GibsonGM]

Maybe a Faraday cage for every member of your band with led strings placed outside the grounded grid should solve your problem..

Bypass each band member with a 100nF cap to ground... 

[antonis]

Bypass each band member with a 100nF cap to ground... 

Strictly ceramic, of course.. 

But what about the case of an arbitrary member's impedance lower than 100k, say...??
(stage lights, crash performance and uniforms result in sweat creaks effectively placed in parallel with body resistance..)

[antonis]

On topic now.. 

Adriano, are you taliking about LED stings or strips..??

Are they fed from battery, ungrounded 12V PS or right from mains..??
(I refuse to believe the last case..) 

[Plexi]

Did your band/rehalsal place have a correct ground conection on amps...right?

[EBK]

I'm betting it's a PWM LED driver, oscillating in the audio band, causing most of the problems.  Probably just filtered out on the bass.

[deadastronaut]

i put these strips in my kitchen, they are noisey as hell.  (with the dimmer/colour chooser)

you just cant have them on and a radio at the same time at all.....bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

[Renegadrian]

thx for the replies guys they're actually EL wires. Yeah they do whine. Don't think it's something gear related, my gutiar player tried to turn it on and you can hear a whine if you put it close to your ears...
I guess there's something inside that is out of control and I'm not the first complaining about that...

[GibsonGM]

Yes..."PWM" = pulse width modulation.  It is switching rapidly, and maybe you are hearing this...

[deadastronaut]

yup, i had a few of those EL wire things too, look great, but very noisey.

e.g. high pitched whine........

[Fancy Lime]

Well, I'm afraid electroluminescent wires are by principle not the best choice to have in an environment full of electroacoustic transducers (pick-ups). EL wires are powered with a low kilohertz range AC supply, typically around 100V or so. That radiates a hell of an electromagnetic field oscillating in the audio range. The only way  see to get it sort of usable in a music stage environment is to overclock the power supply and get the oscillation well out of the audio range. But I am not sure if the wires would still work. It would also then likely mess with wireless gear instead (depending on the frequency) and might still cause issues with interference and aliasing. Plus I for one would not want to mess with a 100V AC supply unless I absolutely had to.

In summary: I would abandon the idea to use these EL wires on stage, if I were you. Instead you can use frayed optical waveguides fed by bright LEDs for a similar effect. You'd probably have to DIY those but you can make the with a DC supply (therefore noiseless when done right) and to your own liking. Or strips with lots of SMD LEDs sewn onto the uniforms. Regulated by envelope followers so that each band member lights up when they play. Or externally controlled by a light-show person. Or linked via a Raspberry Pi to the internet and displaying the Google search statistics for "cat pictures", updated with every kick of the bass drum. I can totally see that looking very awesome.

Hope that helps despite the setback,
Andy

[Renegadrian]

Yes despite they look cool I guess it's not the best idea on stage...they will be thrown away eventually I guess...

[PRR]

> electroluminescent wires

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescent_wire

Specifically says guitar pickups.

Looks cool on the Corvette.

[duck_arse]

[it_crowd]

[/it_crowd]

[Renegadrian]

I have seen some easy schematics forma DIY powering the el. Just a trasformer a transistor not much else. Would they whine the same!? Can you get a higher frequency to avoid the problemi!?

[PRR]

Read the Wikipedia essay. Lower frequency would mean larger transformer. Higher frequency makes the thing run hot. While you could maybe play around a few KHz, it looks like it really wants to be High Audio Band.