NEW PRODUCTS – Blue, Green & Red Electroluminescent (EL) Tape Strip – 60 cm
EL tape is the big sister to EL wire – it has the same glow effect but with a flat, wide shape instead of a round shape. The glowing part of the tape is 1 cm wide (the plastic coating is about 1.5cm wide). The other side has an adhesive on it so you can stick the tape onto something. Its covered in what seems to be PVC, the tape is thus weather-proof – but note that the connectors are NOT waterproof, just a bit of heatshrink. This isn’t something we would suggest leaving outdoors for extended periods.
Because EL tape has more surface area than wire, it requires a more powerful inverter for the same length. This tape is about 4 times more capacitive (per length) than our high-brightness EL wire and 8 times more capacitive than ‘standard’ EL wire. For that reason, we are shipping the EL tape in 60cm lengths – the maximum amount for the 2xAA pocket inverter we carry. Plug it in and it will light up nicely! The full strip draws 200mA from the 2xAA batteries (so 2000mAh batteries will last ~10 hours if on ‘constant’ mode)
This particular strip comes with two EL connectors, one on each end! This means you can cut the strip in half and use both sides. However, do not connect two inverters to the same strip! If you dont need the second connector, just cut it off.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
