Purchase
Price :- $7.98 / £4.99 (On Offer)
Size:- 250mm long by 30mm Wide and 37mm Deep on handle.
Weight (With Batteries):- not known
Battery Type / Qty :- 2 off AAA
Battery Life :- 20 Hours Continuous or 40 Hours Flashing
Wire Type :- 5mm Electroluminescent Lytec
Estimated Lifespan:- 1000-25000 Hours depending on operating frequency
Colours:- Lime & Blue
Electronics:- Inverter Power supply
Body Material :- Plastic & Polycarbonate tube
My interest in electroluminescent wire products comes from my desire to light up one of my Radio Controlled aeroplanes for night flying.
So I have bought several products to test the technology :-)
These were on offer so I thought that I would try one of each colour.
The Glo Stix consist of a plastic handle containing a small inverter power supply and a polycarbonate or similar tube containing the electroluminescent wire.
The handle contains two AAA batteries and these came supplied with the units. A sliding cover allows these to be changed when they become flat.
Operation is via a sliding switch on the side of the handle. The first position will cause the unit to flash rapidly several times a second. The second position will turn the unit on constantly.
These Glo Stix use an inverter to drive the wire to cause it to light up.
What does the inverter do then? Well it converts the 3V DC supplied by the batteries into a higher voltage that is pulsed on and off many times a second.
This frequency can be between 60Hz and 10000Hz and the higher it gets the brighter the wire will glow. But this comes at the expense of the lifespan of the wire, which will reduce at the higher frequency.
After attacking the unit with a screwdriver I have gained access to the innards and took some measurements with my Fluke 179 True RMS Meter.
These units use a fixed frequency of about 8600 Hz and a voltage of 133.3V this puts them into the Superbright category for inverters. This will also drastically reduce the lifespan of the wire. But unit's such as this are not designed for constant use such as an illuminated sign would be. Therefore this is not a problem.
Just a quick tip for anyone who wants to play with these, please note that the 133.3 Volts will bite you if you touch it when it's switched on! This will not be lethal as the current involved is very low. But it is enough to give you a nasty surprise :-) especially when you think that it only runs on 2 AAA batteries. You have been warned.
You can also tell the inverter is switched on by the very high pitched wine that it produces.
In use the light output is quite good and possibly compares well to a chemical light stick. I like the fact that I can turn this unit off though when finished with and that it takes cheap batteries.
I have yet to try them for illuminating the wingtips of my model aeroplane but this will happen in the next few weeks.
They are great toys for your kids and will probably go down well with clubbers for raves and such. The only thing that would slightly concern me is the pointy aspect of the 7mm tube. Not sure if waving this around surrounded by lots of dancing people would be completely safe.
These products are available in the UK from Surelight and I did a web search for the manufacturer based on the other products that I got from them. This gave me the Lytec information.
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