Russ Hensel's EL Wire Project

Looking for Collaborators

Summary

This is a collaborative project where I will supply the electronics technology and someone else will provide the artistic sensibilities. I am still looking for collaborators. The technology will be open source, with the exception that the artist's may keep the algorithm behind their specific artwork as private as they want. The artist can keep all the electronics, I will ask to be reimbursed for my direct cost of what ever they want to keep. You can reach me through my page at open circuits russ_hensel

Status

• We are now two. Still looking for more collaborators, if anyone is interested.
• Have started on computer code.
• Have wire and one power supply on hand. Triacs are now here. Work with wire.
• First hardware tests real soon.
• Soldering of wire works OK even without coper foil.
• Project is at last underway. ( Feb 09 ) MC should light the wire next week.

Collaborator Criteria

• Need to be GD ( geographically desirable ) collaboration will require some contact, somewhere in the range from Boston to Providence should work.

• Taking the project to Burning Man is a plus.

• I will have to limit the number of collaborators to a workable number, others can partake via this page ( see open source above ).

• Collaborators will need to have at least some time available to actively work on the project. And have access to the equipment ( sewing machine? ) so they can do their part.

Plan

Version 0

Control 8 segments of EL wire in an on-off mode. Any segment can be off or on independent of any other. Display can be divided into at least 100 time periods during which any combination of wires can be on or off. The length of each time period can be independently set. Microprocess will be one ( or more ) of the many PIC microcontrollers. Will use a serial boot loader for programming ease. Programming will be done in BoostC. Once we have this ability will try to find interesting ways to use it, perhaps strobe effects, or animation.

Version Later

Switch from on-off to intensity control, the is control how dim or bright the wire is. Design printed circuit boards for project, turn EL driver routines into a reusable library. Will document procedures for more artistic types to do their own programming.

Comments Anyone?

We are interested in any comments, ideas, suggestions. We may even do them. If you do not like our ideas, suggest something better.

Links

• EL Wire

• What's "EL Wire"? ElectroLuminescent Wire - you could even say it glows. More info: [1].