Backlit panels and cool lighting

[Guest jsippy]

Just thought I'd share this...www.beingseen.comThis company sells electro-luminescient sheets and fibers that emit a perfectly even, bright glow, in many color choices.Their products range in size from small to large, and can be cut and bent into just about any shape. The power source can be either a 9-volt battery, or a "wall wort" style power adapter. The light this stuff gives off is created by an electro-chemical process, there is no heat generated (at least not enough for any of us to measure). Which means that these things can have decals and even paint applied to them without cause for concern. As far as the life span of the material is concerned, it seems to never really burn out. It does lose its brightness over a very long period of time, in a manner similar to the "half-life" of radioactive materials (although it is NOT radioactive).I don't work for this company, i'm just one of their customers who found this stuff about a year ago and think its too cool not to tell people about.I have plans to incorporate this stuff into my own cockpit just as soon as I have room to build one. I hope someone else finds it as usefull as I doRegards,---John R. SippyChicago, IL, USAPowerMacG4 -Dual 5001024MB RAMnVidiaGF2 - 32MB

[Guest MikePowell]

Electro-luminescent lighting is definitely attractive. There is a category of light plate based on it. Up to now I was not aware of a reasonable source of flat EL products. All the products I had seen were sealed and not to be cut, or specialty items. The Being Seen product just begs to be used in a simpit. Now if they would just drop the price a bit.Thanks for the post.Mikewww.mikesflightdeck.comInfo for the simpit builder

[PeterR 9]

If you don't need a specific color, an inexpensive panel light is the EL night light. The panel is about 2.5 inches in diameter and plugs into a wall outlet. It doesn't get hot and uses very little power. I've seen them in green and blue. Got mine at the local hardware store but haven't tried it for panel stuff yet.Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums Moderator

[Guest jsippy]

Funny you should mention those things...I have about a dozen of them plugged in throughout my house, but I never thought they were usable in a panel due to their size and AC frequency requirements. The lightsheet stuff works at around 400Hz making it compatible with most "off the shelf" inverters. Thats not to say you couldn't build a cheap 60Hz inverter, I just never really considered doing it.Cheers---John R. SippyChicago, IL, USAPowerMacG4 -Dual 5001024MB RAMnVidiaGF2 - 32MB

[Guest jsippy]

Glad to see my post has "shed new light" on EL lighting in simpits.: )The stuff is still not cheap, but it is getting better. ---John R. SippyChicago, IL, USAPowerMacG4 -Dual 5001024MB RAMnVidiaGF2 - 32MB

[PeterR 9]

Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. I have a number of them as well and it went "ding" when I saw your post.For a home sim, I wouldn't even bother with an inverter. Just have lots of short power cords running to the panels that you want. Or, solder them to a "power bus" (i.e. plain PC board with slots drilled out for the plugs and then wired together with a nice cord on one end) and plug that into the wall.The only limitation is the border around the light. You can't get continuous light, per se, without putting some distance between the panel and the light source and hope for diffusion to fill the gaps.Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums Moderator