EL Custom Shop's EL Wire Review
Date : Monday, 11th
November 2002
Author : Ript
Provided by : EL Custom
Shop
Introduction
EL Wire is EL Wire is El Wire... right? As of lately, wrong. EL Wire has always had its advantages and disadvantages, like any other product. As it goes for anything else, the disadvantages always stand out more. For EL Wire some of the common disadvantages have been the lack of light emitted and perhaps poor manufacturing techniques. Instead of a typical EL Wire review, we'll be taking a look at some of the new ideas and techniques the guys at EL Custom shop have applied to improve the current EL Wire. I hope this lights up your interests as it has mine. :p
The Package
EL Custom Shop was nice enough to send me over two different EL setups. The first a Blue single core cable (I'll explain the cores a bit later) and an Aqua double core and single core test cable as well for comparison. Let's get started here...
 |
First impressions indicate nothing noteworthy or special about it. As a whole the packages seemed solid and (something I can't get enough of), high quality. As you can see the two inverters are different sizes. The one on the left is what you would receive if you decided to purchase this product. The one on the right I assume is a prototype or test inverter as I couldn't find anymore information about it.
 Wiring Layout |
I decided to add this in to show how all this stuff is wired and what goes where. Similar to most any other inverted device such as a CCFL; power to inverter to device. This device also includes a fancy switch, which you'll get a chance to see next.
 Inverter |
 Switch |
 Connectors |
Some things that I did find noteworthy establish the high quality nature of this product. These things are above, the inverter, button, and connectors. All pretty standard items on any complete EL Wire setup. However, quality is the difference between satisfactory and excellence. The inverter is in a nifty looking black box with a connector on top. It's something that's not necessary, but is nice to have when the inverter is mounted to something the EL Wire isn't.
The type switch here is not all too common, though very nice to have. Nothing really needs to be said about it, take a look at the pic.
Having nice connectors such as this product are the type of things I admire. As I recall a commercial for Saturn the car company which basically demonstrates the dent proof doors, then says if they've taken the time to develop small things like dent proof doors, than you can assume they've already taken care of the bigger things. The small things are important too, lower quality products usually overlook that.
New Products and Manufacturing Techniques
This part is on the more technical side of things. Luckily, if you don't know all about how EL Wire works, we got an old review from back in March of 2001 which explains everything you need to know to understand what differences in this specific setup. Click here to figure out what I'm talking about in all of this...
 Double Core EL Cable |
 Double Core (Aqua), Single Core (Aqua), Single Core (Blue), and VH Badge :) |
Double Core Wire - This is perhaps the most important thing the guys at EL Custom Shop have developed. Here's an explanation in their words:
"Each wire contains a 1.3mm center core that produces the light. A complaint about EL wire is the brightness. We have solved this problem by introducing a DOUBLE CORE EL wires in our kits."
Sounds cool (or, what the hell is this gibberish? Explained here), but is it worth spending more on? Well... keep reading. :)
 Soldering Methods |
New EL Wire Soldering Methods - The typical method for this usually tedious operation can be found here. That method is, like I said, tedious but more importantly, it creates very weak and delicate connections. EL Custom shop uses a process that they developed themselves, which utilizes several techniques to prevent breakage. To sum it all up they strip the EL Wire with a thermal stripping device (prevents nicks in the wire, which often lead to breaks), then they put the two connections into special tubes and seal it all up with an epoxy. Regardless of understanding all this (I don't), the connections made in the setup are very solid; the portion under the heat shrink doesn't flex or bend at all, which probably helps in keeping it all together. :)
 COOL! |
Alright, everything aside, it does look pretty cool!
 Single Vs. Double Core |
 Single Blue Vs. Single Aqua Vs. Double Aqua |
Just as a side note, capturing the amount of light something emits with a camera is somewhat difficult. While the picture on the right is brighter that the picture on the left, it's not fair to compare them. The picture on the left was taken under a darker setting to get better definition of the cable. The one on the right better compairs the brightness of each.
The double core is definitely brighter, however not by a whole lot. One thing did occur to me that technically the double core really isn't brighter, it just emits a greater amount of light. I'm not an expert on this, but if you have a light bulb at a certain voltage, and you increase that, the bulb gets brighter. By adding another light bulb the brightness isn't increased, just the amount of light. If I'm wrong let me know, makes sense to me.
Conclusion
EL Custom shop definitely has a solid product here. I really like the fact that they are coming up with new ways to do things and are further developing a great item like EL Wire. But the real question is, is it worth it? Well, whether you're going with double or single core, getting it from EL Custom shop is a given, I don't know if any other manufacturer can match their quality. As for the choice of single or double core, it depends. I highly recommend both, however if you're planning to make designs and shapes with your EL Wire as a display, you may want to keep in mind that since the double core is almost twice as thick as the single core, I found that it wasn't as flexible. So it really all depends on how much money you're willing to spend, how important this is, and the application may also be a factor in deciding for you as well.
I'd sincerely like to thank EL Custom Shop for providing us with the EL Wire setups... you can pick their stuff up through FrozenCPU.com by clicking here!