I buy EL wire from ELWirePros.com - reliable, reasonably cheap, and reasonably reliable. I havn't put it on a game yet (I don't think it would look good on TZ, and I don't think i'm going to keep No Fear, though it'd look bitchin with some super-bright orange on ramp) - I use it to make glowing posters/murals/whateveryoucallem with geometric patterns on them.

I don't know if they have any inverters that will run off the ~6v of GI lighting (i know they've got 3v ones, and 12v ones, and 9v ones, but not sure about 6 - a 6v one designed to run off 4 batteries would work on 6.3 though). I know the Stern machines have a 12v header available for aftermarket use (thanks Gary!), but for older machines, you might end up taking directly off power driver board.

Generally speaking, soldering the leads onto EL wire is unpleasant, avoid it if you don't need to make lots of odd lengths; The wire has a solid copper core covered with hard-to-scrape-off phosphor on it, which needs to be scraped off. That's one wire. The other wire needs to go to the two hair-thin wires wrapped around the phosphor-covered core. Can't see them? That's because you cut through them when you stripped the plastic off (or because you don't have your reading glasses on). Those hair-thin wires are very hard to work with.

Not sure what to say on how to attach the EL wire. All I can say is that epoxy doesn't work, and neither does hotglue, unless you totally surround the EL wire in hotglue (it doesn't stick).

I have not played around with games either, but have used every type of glue under the sun. DrAzzy is correct in saying that hot glue, epoxy etc doesn't work. These glues are very difficult to stick to the plastic surface of EL Wire. You can get around this by taking sandpaper and roughing up the wire which will give the glue a bit more hold. Note: if you use hot glue without roughing up the wire, it will hold for about 30 minutes and then fall right off without an afterthought.

My favorite glues are GOOP (the fabric kind) and Green Super glue. The green bottle of super glue is a gel and is easy to use. Regular super glue has the same tendency that hot glue does and falls right off, so make sure it's the gel in the green bottle.

The wire that I get is from http://www.ellumiglow.com and they have a few sizes that already have the connection done, so that makes it easy. I think 8, 12, 16 foot, but not sure what size you are looking to do. The Dr is also right about the angel hair wires. They are pretty difficult to see, but an easy way to not worry about snipping them off is light the end (probably about 1") with a lighter until the plastic bubbles up, then take the ends of your fingers and pull it off in one swift motion. The plastic is hot so don't hang on to it too long, but I have nearly a 100% success rate with this method.

Nutshell, if you complete this project, please post pictures as this would be a cool thing to see.

nutshell,

You should post on RGP to see if you can find the guy whose machine was at Expo. I'm sure he'd be happy to help you. It's just a matter of tracking him down. That's the great thing about RGP. Even if the guy doesn't read it, odds are that someone who knows him will see your post.

ebay is way cheaper

This thread is dead Jim!

dead_jim.jpg