For all of you who've had experience with el wire:
I have a 9v battery inverter, and an 8aa-12v inverter and when I switch my wire
from one inverter to the other, the color of the wire actually changes.
My 9v makes it look blue, and my 12v makes it look very green-ish.
What would be causing this?
It's because there's much more power to it compared to the length. I don't know much about the wire, but it may be damaging/quickening the life of the wire.
I plan on using four 9volt packs and two AA packs for my C.L.U. costume I am making. Two for the bottom part of the costume, (I will need about 14 feet of wire per leg, the 9-volt rated for 12-17 feet,) as well as similar amounts for the torso part of the costume, then a AA pack (rated for 3-5 feet) for the disc, both sides, both inner and outer rings, and another AA pack for the helmet. I will house the 9volt packs, both of them, in a launch baton mounted on my right hip, sadly it won't be removeable. The two 9volt packs for the torso will be in the mount for the disc, the AA pack for the disc is rather easy to hide in it, (I'm making a 10" one compared to the deluxe 9" one you can buy,) and the AA pack for the helmet will be in the side/protruding chin part on the right. I may even get a voice distorter and put it in the left chin thing to balance it out. Don't know how much they cost though, or how good they really are. I've researched all of my other materials rather extensively though. I just know that certain packs can handle X-amount of wire, and I'm balancing it the best I can so it's all uniform... (And I'm using white wire instead of yellow, or in your case, blue or green.)
I'm not planning on having the wire show directly though, rather, I'm getting clear/colored rubber sheets and white rubber sheets and using dense foam as body armor. Foam is the first layer, (on top of the fabric that in some parts has hexagons on it,) then the white rubber will be cut wider than I want in the design. Cut even smaller than that yet still larger than the design visible will be the colored rubber, and the EL wire will rest on the edge of the colored rubber yet on top of the white rubber, so it lights up the colored rubber ans reflects off of the white rubber (not reflective because that messes with photos...) THEN the dense foam that I will have as the top layer will have the design of the light cut in it, hiding the EL wire and everything, only showing the design I cut! I have to do it for every body shell in the costume, and there are many. I then am cutting my own 1/16" thin foam hexagons (not one by one, with a tool,) yet I have to apply them one by one on the fabric layer where there are no foam armor shells. The printed hexagons on the lycra was cool, but doesn't have the same effect as the movie, and doing it the hard and long way costs $90 less. I plan on having the pants part underlap the top, so it can velcro together, and look seamless.
When I need to pass EL wire in-between body shells I will run it under the fabric and cover it in black tubing or electrical tape, if I can do it neatly. For the helmet I will carve it in clay, then warm up plastic sheets, mostly black with a few slightly transparent like sunglasses, so I can see, and a little bit completely clear, for the light, and shape them on the helmet... I'm using a helmet I have from a long time ago without it's plastic shell to put the new helmet on. It's the perfect size. All of the 3D models and such are NOT like the helmet in the movie, and I have yet to see one that someone has made for a costume that is like the one in the movie either... there's just something different with the center chin that nobody seems to pick up on... I have hundreds of reference photos though, (I have the Bluray,) so I will try...
Also, I need a pair of black boots I can ruin. Hmmm...
I am starting with the helmet, as it will take a few months for sure, and will finish the rest of the costume by NEXT halloween... That won't stop me from attempting to shop at a supermarket while wearing it... To test it out of course...
I am going to make it look nearly exactly like it does on screen, except dense foam instead of rubber, because it's lighter, and cheaper. I have, however, noticed that may costumes are done in big single pieces of foam... While some look awesome, it makes sense to me to do every different panel seperately, for mobility's sake, as well as not looking like a robot when moving. I expect to spend $145 on the whole thing. The most expensive thing being the lighting system, $85 for the wire and seperate power packs. With the helmet, hand-done hexagon texture, ID Disc from scratch, wiring the whole thing... My timeline to have it done for NEXT halloween, (18 months,) seems reasonable. When I start making progress on the helmet I will post pictures, and when I start to make the suit and disc, I will post my exact plans, body armor shell layouts, EL wire layouts, and everything else, as well as pictures, here for everybody to see.
BTW this is my first time attempting something like this, but, I really think I can do it. I mean, I really want to. Also, I finally registered, yet have been looking at some of these awesome projects for a long time. Hello everyone! Sorry for the wall-of-text and no pictures... Those will come soon enough.
