Electro Luminescence Testing | specialistpractice

Lighting Testing

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Fig. 25.13

Fig. 25.15

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Fig. 25.2

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Fig. 25.3

Below is the panel that I purchased for this makeup. I managed to find it on Amazon, and it cost £7 for the panel and the inverter, however it did not come with a battery pack. I decided to choose the Aqua colour panel as I think that would best suit my design.

As you can see from the details below it is very lightweight and I hope that this will help me utilize the product. However there are no instructions about voltage or powering the panel here, so I had to find some other sources of information.

Testing It

When I first got the Panel I took it to an electrical shop, but forgot to record this. The expert fitted it with a battery pack, with a range of different voltages. We settled on the 9v Battery because the 6V was a little dim, but didn't want to risk, blowing it with anything more powerful.

The first test I did with the Panel was just to see what it would look like under silicone, if it would show through at all, which was exactly how I expected it to go, although the piece I tested was very opaque, it was futile, the panel was just not strong enough to light through a thin prosthetic, so I definitely do not think that it would shine through the larger sculpted one. Therefore it confirms that I cannot lay the panel on the skin and then lay the piece on top, it means I have to cast it into the silicone.

Cutting It

To be honest there is not a lot of things I have to say about this process, only that I was a little dubious of cutting it and then it not working, but I followed all the steps from the tutorials I found and it worked well. To ensure safety I covered the cut edges with cello tape so as to keep the electricity contained.

I first cut it as a generic oblong, just basic for initial tests.

Intrinsic testing

Before actually casting the mould, I definitely needed to test it. So I used the flat mould I made with some gelatine to see if it would shine through a more translucent material.

I found it is somewhat of a success, you can see the colour through it, although it dims the brightness somewhat, however this gelatine is old and not coloured properly, so I think I will just go ahead and test it in the real thing.

Reinforcing the Soldering

This is something I was not expecting to do in this project, but the El Panel is very flimsy, and with this constant handling, the wires were becoming weak, so I used the soldering iron and more metal to add more to the wire, and strengthen it. I hope that this will now not break again, as next I will be inserting it into the mould and running the silicone.

As you can also see below I have cut the panel further, to give it a more interesting shape, that fits the sculpture a little better. In Fig. 25.13, you can see where I will be placing it in the fibreglass mould when running it.

Code Patterns

I took Pete’s advice about trying some patterns on the top of the panel. So I used the scan code that links to my website, and some other tech patters, in various sizes and printed them onto acetate paper, They printed well, and the results over the panel can be see in Fig. 25.15 and Fig. 25.16. I will see if they work in the casting. But I think I prefer the one on the right, because the one on the left makes it looks like the screen is broken. And I don't really like it.