Where is good place to buy lots of el wire online?

[LegendZero]

Looking for peoples first hand experiences... I am going to be buying about 100 to 150 feet I believe and need a reliable source online if any one has any suggestions to share.

[trilobyte]

Spend a few seconds skimming the boards, and you might find this thread, which has plenty of info and links. There are many, many other threads on the subject though, good luck with your project.

[SnowBlind]

I like Coolneon, they are in Oakland, CA and it's run by Burners.
http://www.coolneon.com

I think Coolight might also be run by Burners.
http://www.coolight.com

If I remember this correctly, those two used to be the only official importers and everybody else was just reselling their stuff. At least that was true when all the wire was made in Israel. I don't know what that's like these days.

[BeachBum]

LegendZero: God, I love the BlackRockDisco/SoulTrain burners' stuff out of Oaktown that SnowBlind mentioned! Ordered a bunch through them!

Problem is that this year is gonna be a bright year, and I'm obviously not talking about all the new sparkleponies/birgins/scalperMuppets/Pay&Play campers who think BM is a cool festival that they want to hit. The difficulty is that it's gonna be a full moon, EL wire ain't gonna stand out, it's not the brightest. It's still really cool to do sequenced designs animated with several steps though! It'll be awesome in 2013!

I changed over to 12V LED rope light run directly from 12Vdc batteries, about 11 LEDs and 0.53W per foot. Much brighter, it'll work great with the full moon. The BlackRockDisco people sell, but don't list this. Just search for "rope" on their site.

Trilobyte pointed you to a good thread also.

Good luck with with project and thank you for being a participant rather than a spectator. What's the project you have in mind?

[percussivepaul]

I found some for cheap cheap on eBay. Search "EL wire 20m" under buy it now only. There are 20m strands for $27. I bought three of those last year (blue, red, pink) and wired up two bikes and a vest and was the prettiest glowy boy on the playa. Last year was DARK so it stood out!

But this year I am doing rope LEDs. I want to flash and blink and have patterns.

[BeachBum]

But this year I am doing rope LEDs. I want to flash and blink and have patterns.

Cool, how are you controlling it? I helped a camp mate do sequenced 12Vdc LED rope lights on an art car last year using an Arduino and a FET shield. BTW, i think the BlackRockDisco peeps may have an EL wire sequencer beefed up to handle 12Vdc LED rope light, but not sure if they went through on this project. A DMX controller, DMX switch box, and 125Vac LED rope light will also work, but it's tough to get the LED rope light fully turned off due to choke bypass leakage. Do you know an easier way to sequence and blink 12Vdc rope light?

[percussivepaul]

I am not sequencing it this year - just going to buy a few and enjoy the built-in patterns. You can buy fully addressed RGB strands quite cheaply that will change colour and do chaser sequences and stuff -- I've seen a link to them in the LED thread. Don't know how they've controlling it but maybe you might get somewhere trying to reverse engineer the controller it comes with. Most of my efforts are going to another LED related project which does not involve ropes. Maybe I'll post about it when I make some progress.

By the way with the EL-wire -- don't be discouraged by this talk of the full moon, I wore my EL-wire vest at indoor parties and it still turned heads. And the moon will only be up for part of the night anyway. This was the stuff I bought: http://www.ebay.com/itm/20m-Flexible-Ne ... 20bc581802

They have only blue, red, and pink at the cheap rate. Other colours more expensive, don't know why. It seems to be the same stuff you can get anywhere, not bad quality or anything as far as I can tell -- worked great.

[junglesmacks]

But this year I am doing rope LEDs. I want to flash and blink and have patterns.

Cool, how are you controlling it? I helped a camp mate do sequenced 12Vdc LED rope lights on an art car last year using an Arduino and a FET shield. BTW, i think the BlackRockDisco peeps may have an EL wire sequencer beefed up to handle 12Vdc LED rope light, but not sure if they went through on this project. A DMX controller, DMX switch box, and 125Vac LED rope light will also work, but it's tough to get the LED rope light fully turned off due to choke bypass leakage. Do you know an easier way to sequence and blink 12Vdc rope light?

I'm on my phone or I would link it, but if you search for the "1200 LED pants" thread here on eplaya, I posted the link to a site in the UK that sells DIY MOSFET based LED control boards that will sequence up to 5A per channel on 8 channels with different patterns for under $30 I believe. I highly recommend.

[BeachBum]

Wow, junglesmacks, that is an impressive project, tons of fun work that you did! I remember walking by you on the playa and giving you the thumbs up. Thanks for documenting it!

I found the site you mentioned, thanks. And, good luck with your project, percussivepaul!