[sdiy] EL wire = opto compressor?

[Amos]

Idea re: inverter noise:

keep the EL inverter (invertor? I can never decide) with the PSU for the
widget you are building... run a long length of EL wire around the widget as
sound-reactive decoration... run the nether end inside the chassis far away
from the invertor and do your optocompressing there, in a lower-EMF zone.
Plus you get neat blinky lights!  Always good.

-Amos

On 1/31/06, jays at aracnet.com <jays at aracnet.com> wrote:
>
> Inverter noise!
>
> I've done work with EL wire. The inverters tend to be very noisy. I'd be
> worried about them bleading though into the audio domain. Also the sensor
> would need to be slow enough or you'd have to add a filter to get rid of the
> AC from EL wire.
>
> There are two ways to control he bightness of the EL wire one is voltage
> level and the other is modulation frequency. Voltages range from about 60V
> to 120V AC at a rate of ~200 hz to ~8 kHz. You can find the spec for EL wire
> out there and it will give you all the details.
>
> Jay S.
>
>
> Dave Magnuson wrote:
>
> > Hi list,
> >
> > I have a broken Playstation 2 controller here (Pelican Afterglow) that
> has a
> > good sized piece of EL wire in it.  I disassembled the controller and
> found
> > that the high voltage driver is on a tiny seperate circuit
> board.    Just
> > for fun, I connected this driver up to the output of an LFO... and it
> lights
> > up quite nicely.    I can get a nice variation in brightness when
> varying
> > the input voltage from 0v to 12v
> >
> > So...  any reason not to try to make an opto compressor out of this
> thing?
> > I'm not expecting an LA3A, just a fun grungy mono compressor.   Anyone
> done
> > something like this?
> >
> > I've never really messed with compression circuits before, but this is
> what
> > I'm thinking:   input signal splits into 2 paths... audio and CV.
> >
> > CV source is full wave rectified and amplified to 0-12v range which
> drives
> > the EL wire.  I could then add a lag circuit for attack / release.
> >
> > EL wire is mounted to a photoresistor in a light-proof box.
> Photoresistor
> > is part of the feedback loop of an opamp amplifier, providing unity gain
> > with no light and some attenuation with the EL wire fully lit.
> >
> > Is this how you would typically accomplish this?   I realize that this
> is an
> > overly simplified description, but I just wanted to see if I'm on the
> right
> > path.  Also... anything special to look for when buying a photoresistor?
> > There's a little 5 pack available at Radioshack that I was going to buy
> to
> > experiment with (to get an idea of resistance ranges when applying
> different
> > voltages to the EL wire's driver)
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Dave Magnuson
>
>
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