Has anyone successfully rewired Adafruits el tape? everything ive found online hasnt really helped. I think their design is different than the other brands ive seen tutorials for.
THIS!
I have both EL tape from Adafruit and Ellumiglow and just recently (after two weeks of attempts and 2-3' of trashed tape) figured out how to get the Adafruit tape to somewhat work.
I was using the instructables.com tutorial and it says to remove the "semi-non-conductive" layer to reveal the conductive layer underneath. I kept doing that and failing every time, it would just short the connection and turn the inverter off. I also tried using the staple method in this thread (like page 175ish) and no go. Finally gave up and super-simplified the costume in question to where my (5) 42" strips we could only cut once as to just utilize the pre-made connections and then run wires everywhere into the inverters. I even looked for the ETCO connectors and while my google-fu is strong, I couldnt find anyone who had them that wouldnt require ordering 20,000 units from China, though no guarantees that this would even work for offset 90/10 EL tape as you would have to be pretty on-point with getting the teeth to get that tiny strip off to the side....
Earlier tonight while messing around I tried NOT scraping or removing the "semi-non-conductive" layer.
SUCCESS.
I put the copper tape (per the tutorial) right over the top layer and then another piece onto the super thin layer on the side and folded the excess tape around the edge.
Now the issue. When I connect it with my testers, it lights up great. When I go to solder onto them to make a permanent connection, it shorts. I believe the heat of the soldering is just hot enough to melt through and short out the underneath layer. This EL tape stuff is super sensitive. I even tried the drop-solder method (as seen in the second pic) no dice.
I might try on the Ellumiglow tomorrow to see if their green layer acts the same as the Adafruit stuff.
Does anyone know where to buy EL Tape thats split 50/50 down the full length of the tape? I think thats the key to making this whole thing work reliably. My CLU caped costume has since been downgraded to finding a bomber jacket and black jeans and doing a "Pre-Coup Retro Clu", and my sisters Quorra went from pretty extravagent with angles and whatnot to pretty amateur, though still looks pretty awesome. Oh well, I guess theres always next year.
First time poster but been lurking this thread for months now. Didnt get all my parts in until 2-3wks ago so its been very disappointing to say the least once I found out how insanely difficult this EL tape is to work with.
