Ok ok, this may be not the right place to post this, but it sort of is... This forum is Audio/ELECTRONICS.....so it fits under the electronics bit.

Now I know alot of you know what electrolumenescne (EL) panels are. Some dont, The stuff has been around for years, but has just recently become ligheter and flexiable more than ever. I have some around the house alredy I play with. Basically, for people who dont know what EL is, its a thin or flexible plate or wire that gives off light with minimal heat. Which is a pretty neat trick in the first place, mind you. Im not gonna get into the technicals too much cause I can already see all of your eyes glazing over. What I did want to ask is if anybody was interested in doing EL graphics on the side of their car, or club logos, or whatever. would look great on some woofer cones maybe? (idea?) Here is a litle bit of it I have, cost be about $20. Runs on 12 volts. I wraped some EL wire around a pepsi can, for easy reference to size, felxability. Pics are with lighs on and off. I did this with my $70 crap digital camera.



You get the idea. Ok, lets take at look at it on a grander scale from these folks at www.electricvinyl.com ...


[IMG]httphttp://electricvinyl.com/a_graphics/perfalite/floor.jpg[/IMG]

Thought that would grab ya. Neat stuff eh? I can easily see kickass graphics on the side of a vette, or a C4 or C5 logo on the hood or maybe the back windshield of your ride. This stuff even comes in a laminate that can go over glass so that you can see thru it on one side (like a bandpass light filter, or at least similar). Some of their stuff is reflective only, but some isnt. Either way, the stuff is neat.
http://www.electricvinyl.com/a_graph.../seethru_a.jpg

Check out their website. They even offer that if you supply them with a digital pic of what you want on your EL display, they'll do it.




any suggestions on this idea? or am I just a nut....?


snoopdan

 

i just ordered some el-tape for my car pc project. I am going to make a touch sensative trim ring around my monitor that will be back lit with this stuff. basically there will be a piece of plexi bordering my monitor. against the back side of the plexi is a vinyl graphic that has different modes cut out of it (i.e. music, gps, cam, dvd, and obd-II) the el tape will go behind it and light up the letters. behind that will be a touch sensative sensor that i'm building that will sense when your finger touches the panel and that will switch my cmputer to the appropriate mode.



That one way el light is really cool....i am getting some ideas for this now!

i'm nutts too!

 

oooh... another idea... probably 'me' specific but...

I'm going to be mounting a vfd display (like the one that displays d.i.c. information) behind my rearview mirror (will replace it with a one way mirror) inside it's casing. The vfd display is a dot matrix display that will eventually display navigation information. This will probably render my interior light unusable because they may need to be gutted to fit the display. Now what if i put some of the 'one-way' el tape in front of the display bet behind the mirror. when i need an interior light i could slip a switch and my rear view mirror woulld light up.

i'm crazy...this will be a long ways away since i'm still wiring up the vfd display and havent even tested the visibility issues that may arise.

 

Haha leave it to you Scott to be thinking of stuff already for this product. Ive been interested in the stuff when I first played with it in 94, (when I used to fix video games at the mall for extra cash) The NEO-GEO upright arcade games had them in their kiosk instead of flourecent lamps. As soon as I saw it. I took it apart to figure out out how it worked.

Maybe youd be interested in these guys too :


http://www.universaldisplay.com/foled.htm

These guys make flexible organic light emitter displays (basically 2nd generation LCD type screens that are flexiable like an overhead transparency.) They have a video on their site you should check out, if your interested in this stuff as well as I am. And, from reading your posts, you're thinking about the same uses as I am!

snoopdan

 

Damn you Snoopdan and Scott_fx....you keep giving me ideas
Now I will have to rob another bank to afford the things you guys are doing or plan on doing This EL idea, I know I will checking into this on my latest Talon prodject.

 

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! THIS STUFF IS AMAZING!! what to do, what to do...
This is so cool! I'm all up for robbing the bank with knewblewkorvette, we could arrange a cruise/robbery this spring... no that wont work, good luck on trying to decide on who gets to be the 'get away' driver

 

uhh, we DO own corvettes, but its hard to outrun a police radio.


Thats the same stuff that they took the idea from for "digital newspapers" like in the movie "Minority Report" where the guy on the subway train was flipping thru the plastic pages as the images on the paper changed. I had this idea long before that movie though. Ive been watching this company since 98. I was too poor to invest with them back then. What a mistake! Their stock was at like $1 .. sigh! They have some neat products. Did you watch that video on the site! SO COOL. Im already thinking about that stuff on subwoofers, door panels, seats, Liscense plate..UGH .. The list is about as long as your imagination takes it. Ive really been thinking about graphics on the side of your car that changes, or even shows multimedia. IDEAS IDEAS!

It seems ive perked you all's intrest in this geek stuff, for use on our vettes. I think some of this stuff could be implimented without looking too 'RICEY'.

snoopdan

 

you could put that one-way stuff underneath black outs or on the break lights. if it's orange you could wire it up to flash when turning while keeping your break lights red... maybe.

it'd be a kick *** window tint for car shows, flip a switch and you cant see inside the window because of the light.

for the flexible organic light emitter displays what if you mounted that on your windshield (off to the side) and use that to display obd-ii info.

if it could be trimmed think of the kick *** round flat panel gauges you could make! no more bulky a-pillar gauge holders, just disc mounted off a thin rod.

 

I can already think of some paint schemes for EL stuff. The basic process for creating even basic organic light emitters is similar to painting a car really. Just different layers of materials that are either sprayed on or evaporated onto a surface under vacuum. Then just connect the anode and cathode to a suffecient high voltage power supply. Maybe we're getting ahead of ourself tho. The starter kits for this stuff dont cost too much, but its not cheap either. But to be innovative in car aftermarket products, you got to start somewhere. At one time no one ever put neon on cars, till the mid 90's. I remember when a neon kit cost 400 to be custom cut at the local sign shop. now you cant give em away on ebay for 100 bucks.

snoopdan


maybe some of you all out there have some similar ideas to me and scott...dont be shy!

 

that stuff is