It's pretty much exactly as described -- pop the batteries in, plug in your EL wire, and you're done. I had a few small issues, though: - 3V EL wire is not very bright at all. You can only see it in low light conditions - The case is very cheaply made and the battery door occasionally pops out on its own - As other reviewers have mentioned the inverter produces an audible hum that will annoy you in quiet environments

For small cheap projects, though, this works great.

We used 2 of these on the kids costumes this year for halloween, they went as Daft Punk, and the EL-Wire starter kit was easy to use without any effort. It's all inclusive, so you don't need to do any additional work, just attach the wire to whatever you are putting it on and stick the battery pack in your pocket.

The Wire is softer than you would think, and hopped back and forth around the needle without being punctured.

I was so happy that this starter kit lasted the whole weekend of Coachella without any issues or breaking! The tubing is strong and sturdy but plenty flexible.

Nice lighting alternative lighting to LED. The only thing that I didn't like was the shipping and handling charge (It was almost the same as the product). If you doing a project and need some cool lighting then this will do it. But other websites have it about the same price without shipping & handling.

So I posted a negative review here before because the item I received included an incorrect part. It was a standard battery pack and not an IL inverter, it was a little confusing to work out what went wrong and why the plug was not even right, but once I realized it was the wrong part in the kit, I contacted support and they helped me get the correct part. The pack was just packaged with the wrong part.

I edited my post because Sparkfun has sent me the correct part and the kit now works perfectly. There are also two connectors on the inverter which i didn't see at first (thought it was only for a single strand) but the pack having two connectors means that it can support an additional strand without additional wiring, so better than expected.

Thanks for helping me resolve the issue, i can see how this is an easy mistake to be made when packaging, it took me a while to figure it out having it all in hand. Almost identical battery packs.

I should add, that they have also identified the problem and corrected the issue in inventory.