CoolNeon (Electroluminescent Wire) Projects

Projects:

• Celtic knotwork trenchcoat. ~100 hrs, 80 feet of elwire (40 in each color). includes sewing down by hand with invisible monofilament thread (including 3 soldering sessions over last 5 years to fix after wires short-circuited at frequent fold point). elaborate front, continues along bottom of coat all the way around the back. first pic by somebody with a real camera outside at night, others with bad iphone camera inside.
  
• bike vest round 2. 12 hrs, thread 50+ feet of two different colors of wire through vest. duplicating design by Max Read of her own vest, which took her who knows how many more hours to create. upside: looks much cooler than first prototype. hidden on the shoulders are spots with spare stashes of wire in case later soldering is needed. downside: i thought this design was safe to roll and store for travel, but that was a bad idea - within first month that had made many fold points starting to decay as shown in last closeup picture. needs to be treated with care.
  
• bike vest round 1. 3 hrs, thread 40 feet of wire through existing mesh symmetrically. vest already has retroreflective material so it's bright when hit by car lights, and elwire makes it bright when you're *not* lit by cars/streetlights. need medium diameter to fit through mesh, can't use thick (hellaphat) wire. upside: easy to make, minimal design and threading time. can fit battery+driver in ziplock baggie in existing back middle pocket of vest. should use drive with on-off switch that can toggle through baggie. downside: looks too much like pink butterfly, wire density low enough in front that not bright enough.
  
• bike decoration: wind symmetrically around/through bike frame/basket. find where you left your bike amidst 500 others! 30 min, 40 feet of wire (arguably overkill). no pix :-(
• vest decoration: add to laceup vest. 2 min.

Design questions

• anything with existing lacing/grommets is great for quick elwire additions. ditto for mesh with holes of right size. ditto for struts that you can wrap wire around.
• think about where the battery/driver can be kept.
  • good: existing pockets in garment. double-sided velcro attaching to corner of bike basket.
  • bad: try to lash a pouch to your thigh with electrical tape. heavy driver on top of hat so it's topheavy and/or makes your neck tired.
• waterproofing driver/battery if it will be outdoors.
  • so far I've just used ziplock baggie when could have direct rain contact
  • trenchcoat pocket works fine for shelter without anything else
• who can wear/use it?
  • tailored to you alone, vs lendable to others?
• what do you want to be able to do in it?
  • dance indoors? then tight-fitting but not so warm is fine
  • walk/dance/be outdoors? consider outer layer that can be worn in almost any temperature, either solo or with warm stuff underneath
  • bike? then long coats/skirts not so practical.
• how long to get it on/off
  • a few seconds - taking off coat? fine.
  • 30 min - wiring up bike for the week on the playa? fine.
  • an hour - putting on elaborate costume for one night of use? ok only if you're patient.
  • of course, often inversely proportional to how much time you sunk into making it...
• do you want to make a temporary thing where you can reuse object and/or elwire later, or do you want to attach with permanent methods?
• how do you transport it when you're *not* wearing/using it?
  • main design flaw in knotwork trenchcoat is that scrunching it up to stuff in bike basket / bag led to frequent fold point near chest, eventually shorted out around there multiple times. future idea: build in fold points with normal wire and/or connectors
  • bike vest original idea was to have connectors at fold points, didn't get around to it yet. am trying it out for a while in rough draft mode (may never change).
• although back of coat seems like a great place to show off a cool design, remember that on playa you will almost always be wearing backpack/camelpak that obscures that spot!

Soldering tips

• CoolNeon Ultimate Beginners Guide to Soldering Cool Neon Wire. Jeremy's fantastic instructions are a completist's dream!
• CoolNeon one-pager, designed for easy printing
• NeonString has good step by step instructions with close-up photos at each stage. Doesn't print out so well.
• Skellington instructions. Need to click through to see image details, definitely not for printing
• Tribe thread for tips on the "how the hell do you strip the outer layer without cutting the tiny angelhair wires along the way" problem
• Three cheers for copper foil tape, makes life *way* easier! I got it at Main Electronics Supplies, Main and 30th.
• Anti-tip: it's an utter pain in the ass to learn to solder on the playa, with a loud generator burning through somebody else's fuel while the sun sets, bad music blares, and your makeshift table topples. Avoid if at all possible.