LED replacement idea: EL-wire

[Strategy]

OK, this is frivolous, but potentially a neat idea: use electro-luminescent wire in place of LED as the "on" light indication in a pedal.

Links about el-wire: http://www.glowire.com/
                             http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescent_wire

This product is phosphorescent filament, usually driven by two AA batteries. I had some a while ago that I bought from a Burning Man nut here in Portland who made stuff out of it for people's Burning Man installations, and sold it bulk as well. I made a sign that said STRATEGY that I would affix to the back of my laptop or synths for live shows. It eventually died when battery acid leaked in the driver box. Not a huge deal, only cost me about $25 for a little bit of wire and materials to affix it onto a backdrop. Jameco sells an el-wire kit with a 2-AA driver box.

But here's an idea: work it into a 3pdt or other bypass such that it takes the place of the LED! You could completely "wrap" an enclosure in this stuff so that when you stomp, the whole pedal lights up. You could also make a border around the edge of a pedal enclosure, or create a curly shaped design, or whatever.

The trick would be not frying the wire with 9V of juice. How to proceed? A specialized driver might be needed?

I suppose this falls under "pimp your enclosure " frivolity - somewhere in the same genre as customing out your pickup to be a low-rider, custom rims, or getting your hip hop MPC sampler gold plated with rhinestones, etc. etc.

But if anyone on the forum is into this sort of thing or as a novel element to enclosure design, try it out?

- Strategy

[jacobyjd]

Regulate that 9v!

[nbabmf]

I think it would be cool to run around the bottom of an enclosure where the bottom meets the rest of the case.

[frequencycentral]

I think it would be cool to run around the bottom of an enclosure where the bottom meets the rest of the case.

Like this?

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=66840.0

[jacobyjd]

I think it would be cool to run around the bottom of an enclosure where the bottom meets the rest of the case.

Like this?

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=66840.0

Haha, the plexi ring was my first thought too.

My second thought was to wrap the entire enclosure in it, then use that epoxy resin or whatever that Cloudscapes uses to smooth it all out. How awesome would that be? Good luck opening it up! :-P

[JKowalski]

I bet you will have some pretty frustrating noise issues using that... 90-120VAC at high frequencies, 400-4000Hz? Not to mention the driver box is said to emit an audible acoustic noise itself!

Especially if you try and wrap the entire enclosure in that stuff. That's going to make it way worse

It would be neat looking, but I don't think it would be worth it. It would be like mounting a flourescent light rack on your pedalboard!

[jacobyjd]

I bet you will have some pretty frustrating noise issues using that... 90-120VAC at high frequencies, 400-4000Hz? Not to mention the driver box is said to emit an audible acoustic noise itself!

Especially if you try and wrap the entire enclosure in that stuff. That's going to make it way worse

It would be neat looking, but I don't think it would be worth it. It would be like mounting a flourescent light rack on your pedalboard!

I was mainly thinking it would be good for experimental musicmakers 

...in reality, I was blissfully ignoring the glaring possibility of noise issues :-P

[Strategy]

Well, noise issues are NOT worth it no matter how decorative. Thanks for the enthusiastic responses though, I'll find more purposes for electro luminescent wire yet, even if it's just jam room decor in the end.

- Strategy