Projectman
New Member
Hi. I have a display made out of el-wire. For those who don't know about el-wire, it is electroluminescent wire that can be bent into shapes. It is powered by high frequency AC power and draws very little current. For example, you might use a 9 volt battery with an inverter to provide 100 v AC power at 2000 hz. It draws something like .002 amps per meter.
My circuit has several inverters connected to various strands of el-wire, and uses relays to turn on and off the inverters. I attached a simplified diagram.
Because the inverters/relays are located a few yards from the el-wire display, a run the AC power to the el-wire through a multi-conductor cable. I have only enough conductors to run one wire to each strand of el-wire, so I connected the second wires together and ran them back to the inverters in a common wire. So far, so good - it works great.
My problem is that occasionally, one of the el-wire strands may short out. This is probably because I'm not great at soldering and the leads are tiny. It could also happen from a faulty inverter or some other reason. When this happens, it is normally not a big deal - one strand of el-wire goes out - such is life.
However, part of the circuit has strands of el-wire going on and off in sequence. Inverter one goes on, then one goes off while two goes on simultaneously, and so on. When one of these went out, it took the next one with it.
The inverters don't go off instantly when the power is cut by the relay - it looks like they hold their charge for a fraction of a second. So, my uneducated theory is that the short somehow goes through the inverters during that fraction of a second, shorting out the next strand.
Is there any way to prevent this? If it was a DC circuit, I would put a bunch of diodes in before connecting the commons together to isolate them. How is this done with AC power?
Thanks for any suggestions.
My circuit has several inverters connected to various strands of el-wire, and uses relays to turn on and off the inverters. I attached a simplified diagram.
Because the inverters/relays are located a few yards from the el-wire display, a run the AC power to the el-wire through a multi-conductor cable. I have only enough conductors to run one wire to each strand of el-wire, so I connected the second wires together and ran them back to the inverters in a common wire. So far, so good - it works great.
My problem is that occasionally, one of the el-wire strands may short out. This is probably because I'm not great at soldering and the leads are tiny. It could also happen from a faulty inverter or some other reason. When this happens, it is normally not a big deal - one strand of el-wire goes out - such is life.
However, part of the circuit has strands of el-wire going on and off in sequence. Inverter one goes on, then one goes off while two goes on simultaneously, and so on. When one of these went out, it took the next one with it.
The inverters don't go off instantly when the power is cut by the relay - it looks like they hold their charge for a fraction of a second. So, my uneducated theory is that the short somehow goes through the inverters during that fraction of a second, shorting out the next strand.
Is there any way to prevent this? If it was a DC circuit, I would put a bunch of diodes in before connecting the commons together to isolate them. How is this done with AC power?
Thanks for any suggestions.