Simple E.L. Wire animation for idiots?

[uncle sticky]

I'm looking into a simple animated sign, using probably 3 or 4 stick figures outlined by E.L. wire. Think a stick figure walking, that simple. So i need the outlines to blink on then off in succession to create the movement, simple 1,2,3,4 repeat. I have no programming knowledge, very little electronics experience. I can do very sloppy soldering, although I'd like to avoid it. Off the shelf is fine, any help is appreciated.

[trilobyte]

I've seen controllers that handle that pretty easily at a few different places. I want to say they give you a 5 step sequence, though some may do more (or less), and you have a knob or setting to adjust the timing. Creating and soldering your design is the hard part, I think. Here's an instructable that walks through the process.

[Traveller in Time]

Just blinking might do the trick, our eyes want to recognize something

There are cheap for sale with on blink off.

[some seeing eye]

If you do a search for "channel el wire controller" or "channel el wire driver" you might find what you are seeking. Many suppliers provide pre-connectorized EL wire, so you just need matching connectors on the controller/driver. You can trim it to length, carefully separate the conductors and reseal against the elements. Connectors are usually inexpensive Molex. In major burning cities there is a lot of expertise, small businesses who do EL projects and maker spaces with burners+electronics to help. You will be an expert in a short time!

[danibel]

Call Cool Neon in Oakland. They might be able to throw what you want to together pretty easily, though it may not be cheap.

[Captain Goddammit]

In major burning cities

Kinda cracked me up reading that. This isn't the first time SF was a major burning city!

[maladroit]

I designed a simple EL wire controller that can be custom-programmed without any computer (use built-in buttons to create sequences). The kit is for sale, though I'm not sure I'll make many because EL wire seems to be on the way out. Not going to post the link here but PM if you want to see it.

[BBadger]

Get an Arduino and one of Sparkfun's El Escudo Dos EL wire controller shields with whatever else is needed to make it run (power, etc.).

The shield controls some nice opto-isolated, zero-crossing triacs that allow you to cut power to your EL wire programmatically. EL wire uses high-voltage alternating current (AC) to light up, and to switch it on or off properly from a signal source, triacs are used instead of something like a transistor or relay. The triacs are zero-crossing, meaning that they will cut power only when the alternating voltage (a sine wave that goes between negative and positive voltage) is at zero-volts. This prevents the high voltage from damaging the switch. The triacs on this board are also opto-isolated, so its high voltage and signal noise won't interfere with your delicate microcontroller's outputs.

So in effect, you should get a board like this. You can control up to 8x channels.

How do you make animations with a microcontroller? You just need to transition between on/off states for the signals controlling those triacs in a sequence that looks like animation. Each frame will have a slight delay to remain on.

You'll need to learn how to program basic stuff on the Arduino or something similar that mates with that shield. They're inexpensive and easy to work on, but you'll need to learn the basics of programming C++ to make things go.

[maladroit]

I discovered that with the right sensitive-gate triac, an opto-isolator is not required. I have the EL inverter output sharing a ground with the uC supply on my circuit. Everyone assumes that high voltage == must be isolated, but that's mostly so nobody gets hurt. I removed the isolators and reduced the BOM by quite a bit. I also added buttons for each channel and a way to create and store sequences in EEPROM so that there is no need to learn programming. However, again, EL wire seems to be on the way out. So maybe I'll rework it to control strings of fairy lights instead.

[uncle sticky]

double.gif

[uncle sticky]

front kick.gif

[BBadger]

While people are using EL wire less, I wouldn't abandon it entirely as there really isn't a cheap alternative to EL wire that is still a glowing "wire". I personally don't like it because of its faults and I like LEDs, but short of using Laser wire or something, it still has a pretty good effect if done right.

uncle sticky: buy some EL wire and create the shapes you want above using a single strand for each frame. Then connect each strand of the frame and connect it to your Escudo or whatever you use for switching the EL wire.

Then just code up something simple on the Arduino and you'll be done. Since there are 8x of those ports on that Escudo you could even code up two animations like you have above, or make a longer 8-frame animation.