SparkFun will be closed on Tuesday, November 5th to support our team in being able to go out and vote! Orders placed after 2 pm MT Monday, November 4th will ship on Wednesday, November 6th. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Who doesn't love the soft glow of electroluminescence? This EL panel is a flexible plastic sheet which contains a phosphor layer and lights up with a neon-like glow when the proper voltage is applied. It's a lot like the ever-popular EL wire except, well, it's a panel. Panels are particularly well suited for backlighting LCDs as well as illuminated signage.
These can be driven with any of the EL inverters and sequencers that we carry and come in a variety of bright colors (check below for other colors). This particular panel is 10cm square and illuminates with a blue/green color. It is attached to a 20cm cable which is terminated with a JST PH connector.
Note: These panels can be cut to any shape! Regular scissors work fine to cut this EL panel but after you've cut the panel you should seal the exposed edges with some tape or epoxy to avoid shorting the panel or shocking yourself.
If it requires power, you need to know how much, what all the pins do, and how to hook it up. You may need to reference datasheets, schematics, and know the ins and outs of electronics.
Skill Level: Rookie - You may be required to know a bit more about the component, such as orientation, or how to hook it up, in addition to power requirements. You will need to understand polarized components.
See all skill levels
We welcome your comments and suggestions below. However, if you are looking for solutions to technical questions please see our Technical Assistance page.
Based on 1 ratings:
I was really happy with the glow panel--it worked exactly as I hoped it would. I wanted it for an adult-size Lego Minifigure batman costume, for the eyes. The glowing eyes made the costume in my opinion. I would have loved some instruction on how to wire it. I figured it out on my own but instructions would have been lovely :-) https://imgur.com/a/jPkdq
Can these be used with the ELastoLite INV133 inverter? Being AC i'm guessing there isnt an issue on the panel pins, but the inverter has 4 pins... time to experiment.
Typo in the Example Sketch!!! ARduino Bootloader, line 5.
How badly can you cut and punch holes on them until they stop working?
Theoretically, as long as you don't short the two sides of the panel together and have good connections to the wires, as many times as you want. Practically, this is very difficult to do. Cutting them without accidentally shorting the two sides is difficult.
Would like to see a video, just to see how bright and the color it give....
Any figures on the capacitive value of these panels?
I guess not...