instructables EL Wire Neon Nixie Style Clock by Gosse Adema This Instructable describes how to make a clock board with EL wire. Then a single EL wire is divided using EL wire. The design of this clock resembles a into several wires. And these are controlled with an combination of a Neon sign and a Nixie clock. Arduino. Then the design and the build of the clock is While creating a "Neon" name board with EL Wire, I described. Together with two different build options wanted to add some animation. This resulted in some for the electronics: A solderless version with relays arduino controlled EL wires. And somehow I came up and a version with triacs. with the idea to create a clock using EL wire. This clock contains a total of 40 EL wires, of which 32 With 21 steps this instructable has become more are controlled by an Arduino. And all time between extensive than necessary for this clock. But the 00:00 and 23:59 can be displayed with these EL additional steps provide extra information to get wires. started with EL wire. And that does not necessarily have to be this clock. This instructable starts with making a simple name https://youtu.be/-hxyk1huYQI EL Wire Neon Nixie Style Clock: Page 1 EL Wire Neon Nixie Style Clock: Page 2 Step 1: Electroluminescent Wire This project uses electroluminescent wire (EL wire). El wire is available in different lengths and different This is bendable and looks like a thin neon tube, colors. For this clock I use orange EL wire. And I've which makes it ideal for flexible decoration. And it ordered 8 pieces of 4 meter at Gearbest (about $3,55 gives 360 degrees of visible light at the whole length. a piece). This gives over 100 feet (32 meter) of orange EL wire. And most of it has been used for this El wire consists of a thin copper wire coated with clock. phosphor, with two thin wires wrapped around it. The phosphor acts as an isolator/capacitor and starts to glow by means of an alternating current. This EL wire has some disadvantages: It doesn't give as happens at a voltage of about 200 Volt, with a much light as LEDs. And the color might fade from frequency of 1000 Hz. However, the required voltage sun exposure. Since this clock is used in a shady does not have enough power/energy to be environment, I will not be bothered by this. dangerous. EL Wire Neon Nixie Style Clock: Page 3 Step 2: EL Wire Name Sign Making a name sign with EL wire is easy. It doesn't Cut the cover cap of the EL wire, and start (from the require any soldering or working with electronics. back side) with the first letter. Start with a rough sketch, on paper or on a large Although EL wire is easy to glue, I've used a different cutting mat (first image). The black taped parts will be technique. Drill a very small hole (0.8 mm) and use a on the backside of the wooden panel. thin copper or fishing wire to attach the EL wire (third image). Copy this design onto a piece of wood. And drill 2.5 mm holes in the wood to thread the EL wire through. EL Wire Neon Nixie Style Clock: Page 4 Step 3: Arduino Controlled EL Wire In this step we are going to control the EL Wire Always connect some EL wire to the inverter before through an Arduino. turning this on. EL wire acts different than a light bulb or LED. The The inverter has a switch. And the EL wire turns on rapid charging and discharging of the phosphor emits when the button is pressed. By pressing the switch light. The wire can be modelled as a capacitor with permanently, the wire will immediately glow when the about 5nF of capacitance per meter. And EL wire has batteries are inserted (or power is connected). This a high resistance of 600 KOhm per meter. makes it possible to control the supplied voltage (3 Volt) with an Arduino. But this will require an inverter The inverter uses 2 AA batteries to convert the DC to for each EL wire. a high voltage AC output. The inverter combines the capacitive EL wire with a transformer (spool) to create Switching the (high voltage) AC with an Arduino high voltages. Each change in voltage on the primary requires a Triac. Triacs are electronic component that side of the transformer creates a voltage on the conducts current in either direction when triggered. secondary side. With a sinus wave, the height of this They work almost the same as transistors, but then voltage depends of the turns ratio of the transformer. for AC current. I'm using BT131 triacs which can But this inverter applies voltage first and then turns it handle up to 600 Volts for this instructable. off, giving a square input wave. Now the magnetic flux inside the windings produce a flyback voltage. The triac is directly controlled by an Arduino. The And this voltage can be much more than the applied circuit in this step has no additional (optical) voltage. Without an EL wire attached, the output insulation between the low-voltage and high-voltage voltage can be very high. Even up to 600 Volt. This parts (don't use this circuit for switching AC mains can damage the internal electronics of the inverter: voltage). EL Wire Neon Nixie Style Clock: Page 5 https://youtu.be/sM7oX-rFt7g EL Wire Neon Nixie Style Clock: Page 6 Step 4: Flashing Name Sign This step uses 5 EL wires and an Arduino to create a flashing name sign. It uses triacs to control the EL wires. And one EL wire should always be on (the inverter requires a minimum load). Therefore power on the Arduino first, and then the inverter. The electronic circuit is placed on a breadboard and controlled by an Arduino. The Arduino is powered by a power bank, and the EL wire is powered by 2 AA batteries. void setup() { pinMode(0, OUTPUT); pinMode(1, OUTPUT); pinMode(2, OUTPUT); pinMode(3, OUTPUT); pinMode(4, OUTPUT); } void loop() { digitalWrite(0, 1); digitalWrite(4, 0); delay (500); digitalWrite(1, 1); digitalWrite(0, 0); delay (500); digitalWrite(2, 1); digitalWrite(1, 0); delay (500); digitalWrite(3, 1); digitalWrite(2, 0); delay (500); digitalWrite(4, 1); digitalWrite(3, 0); delay (500); } Further in this Instructable I will describe how this name plate can be made, even without soldering. EL Wire Neon Nixie Style Clock: Page 7 Step 5: First Design There are different ways to make a clock with EL 3 - turning point underneath other figures. wire. And I've chosen to take advantage of the 4 - placed slightly to the right, horizontal line slightly continuous 360 degrees of visible light which is down from the centre. emitted. And I use the same technique as Nixie tubes 5 : All numbers are placed one behind the other. 6 - no semi-circle for the upper part , use a line. 7 - Because EL wire gives less light, and isn't 8 - upper round can be smaller than lower circle. translucent, the letters can't be put straight behind 9 - no semi-circle for the lower part, use a line. each other. As a result all figures must be shifted slightly relative to each other. Only the following digits are required for the full For this first design I started with LEGO and an old display of a clock: computer/UTP cable. This gave some insight into the (im)posibilities for this clock. For example, the most left digit: 0 1 2 number of layers and crossings must be minimized. middle left digit: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 This resulted in the following adjustments in the middle right digit: 0 1 2 3 4 5 figures: most right digit: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - the top and bottom circle don't have to be the This allows for all valid values between 00:00 and same size. 23:59. I have chosen to make four equal pieces, ever 1 - placed slightly to the left. unit can display all 10 digits. 2 EL Wire Neon Nixie Style Clock: Page 8 EL Wire Neon Nixie Style Clock: Page 9 Step 6: Fusion 360 Design All figures are drawn in Fusion 360 after building the The measured required minimum lengths are: prototype. The distance between the lines is 4 mm, with a thickness of 2.3 mm for the EL wire. 0 - 50 cm 1 - 30 cm EL wire isn't electrically conductive, so the wires may 2 - 45 cm touch each other. I've choosen to get as many parts 3 - 45 cm of the numbers as possible in the top layer. There are 4 - 45 cm some interruptions by other lines, but the main 5 - 50 cm characteristics of a number will remain visible. 6 - 45 cm 7 - 40 cm Not all figures require the same amount of EL wire. 8 - 65 cm However, shorter EL wire emits more light than longer 9 - 45 cm EL wire.Therefore the final (used) lengths of the EL wires differs from the minimum required length. EL Wire Neon Nixie Style Clock: Page 10 Download https://www.instructable…s.com/ORIG/FN3/VD1I/JIXQIQBJ/FN3VD1IJIXQIQBJ.f3d Step 7: 3D Print The design of the figures is about 5 x 10 inch (13 x 25 sure the EL wire fits through the holes.