How To Fix Light String

[shaggybirdman]

cool. now if i want to shorten a wire i just cut it, and seal the end with shrink tube, glue, or anything to keep moisture out?

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by shaggybirdman

cool. now if i want to shorten a wire i just cut it, and seal the end with shrink tube, glue, or anything to keep moisture out?

Pretty much. Make sure the filiments don't short to the core wire though.
Rick

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by flyinfool

Yes, all 4 tiny wire ends can be soldered together at the splice.
You might notice slightly less light at the joint.

To be more like the original wiring, would it work any better to solder each filiment on the first wire to a filment on the second wire rather than soldering all four together? It could be that it makes no difference at all.

Rick

[flyinfool]

You will be hard pressed to even find the difference let alone notice it in the air.
There will be a slight reduction of light on the side of the wire that does not have a filament wire only in the immediate area of the splice.

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by flyinfool

You will be hard pressed to even find the difference let alone notice it in the air.
There will be a slight reduction of light on the side of the wire that does not have a filament wire only in the immediate area of the splice.

Cool
Rick

[Ironizer]

I have a hard time stripping the insulator off from above the two very thin secondary wires without cutting them. Any tips?

What if I solder only one of them (because the other one has been cut)? Will the string be dimmer?

[flyinfool]

It helps to use a slightly dull knife to strip the outer insulation without cutting the fine wires.
Also do not cut all of the way through the outer insulation, you just need to score it and then you can break the last little bit as you pull it off.

It does take some practice.

Using just one wire will give you a barber-pole effect with light and dark strips.

[citium]

I have a 6 Cell battery and I know connecting it to the inverter will produce somewhere around 240~AC. The glow wire I believe are rated for 120VAC.

Will my glow wire burn up or my inverter blow up ?

[flyinfool]

The inverter will blow pretty quick at that voltage. It will also reduce the life expectancy of the wire.

It should be bright, can you say flashbulb?

[wolfman76]

what i s longest amount of string light per transformer i am thinking of the el light strings you can put in cars is this the same type of string light as wg light and other required components... any help would be greatly appreciated i appologize for being such a noob at this stuff like other things in life this is a learning process.. thank you

[338federal]

Very old thread. I have 3m glowwire on my 800 align. It is low light not so bright. Wire is align wire. Is there better wire on the market?

I have ledstrip but my soldering is bad.

[kavic5150]

Before you replace the el wire I think you should try another brand of inverter. From what I've read el wire and el ribbon appear brighter with a higher frequency inverter. Look for an inverter rated for 2000hz or better.

I've bought from these guys before and was happy with the results:

http://www.glowire.com/categories/GLOWIRE-Drivers/

If you can manage a 9v input, then the F2 driver has the best specs.

http://www.glowire.com/pages/Driver-Information.html

I've also used these:

http://manuals.hobbico.com/gpm/gpmm9...anual-v1_1.pdf

On this site they mention a newer, brighter version of el wire but I havent tried it:

http://www.thatscoolwire.com/store/s...CategoryID=155

[kavic5150]

I dont care much for soldering either. But there are plenty of ways to light a model without having to splice wires together should you decide to use leds. You might want to look for products that can dim the led strips a bit though, since 12.6v makes leds too bright to view up close.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__23133__JST_XH_to_JST_LED_Power_Distribution_Lead _4_JST_.htm