Shelled out $60 for a roll of EL wire and it was way harder than the videos made it look

I was dead set on making a glowing jacket for a local con in Portland, spent $60 on EL wire and a driver from a shop online. Three hours in I realized the wire kinked and went dim, and my soldering on the connections was garbage. Turns out those smooth YouTube builds skip all the real troubleshooting. Anyone have luck with fiber optic cable instead of this stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

paulw8714d ago

Oh man, I feel your pain. Did you try using conductive thread instead of soldering? I switched to that for my cosplay projects and the connections hold way better when things get bent around.

terryh2012d ago

Conductive thread's a game changer, really opens up the possibilities for soft circuits.

iris_davis9014d ago

Oh man, I totally get it! I tried EL wire for a cyberpunk vest last year and it was a disaster. The kinking thing happened to me too, and I found out the hard way that you have to be super careful with the bends or it just goes dead. My soldering looked like a mess of angry spider legs, I had to redo it like four times. I haven't tried fiber optic but I've been eyeing it for a mask project, does it handle curves better than EL wire?