I posted about this to other fora recently, and they seemed to garner some interest. Basically I recently came across a fairly new product online - flexible silicone filaments containing a ton of tiny LEDs. The difference from previous ones on the market is that both electrical connections are at one end.
So, pretty cool! Might be useful for making a glowing light sabre for a 1:6 figurine, or a laser blast from a spaceship frozen mid-shot. Without having a visible return wire soldered at one end and running back.
Before you post saying, yeah yeah I've seen these before...
So, pretty cool! Might be useful for making a glowing light sabre for a 1:6 figurine, or a laser blast from a spaceship frozen mid-shot. Without having a visible return wire soldered at one end and running back.
Before you post saying, yeah yeah I've seen these before...
- The reason I find these interesting is because the connectors are both at the same end. That is what makes them new. LED filaments with connections at opposite ends, seen in fake tungsten filament light bulbs, have been around for a while now.
- These are not EL wire, which requires an inverter. This is a string of LEDs wired in parallel.
- I don't know of any Western sellers/distributors for these. I've included a generic Google search for them because I don't want to include a short-lived link to one specific reseller. At the moment it appears that they're available from Chinese sellers via Aliexpress and eBay.
- It appears there are two types on the market. The ones mounted to metal strips are not flexible, and only emit light on one side. The ones that emit light all around are flexible silicone.
- Some if not all of the advertised lengths include the connecting wires, stupidly. So the active light emitting portion is less than the advertised length.
- The connectors with the tiny holes in them are the cathodes (positive end). That's what the "no holes/has holes" comment means that you see on some adverts for the filaments.
- They're sold in a variety of lengths. I don't know how feasible it is to cut the filaments to a specific shorter length. It's possible that, since the wires run in parallel, that it would be straightforward to do so. The picture below of the 25mm filament, where you can see the wires in silhouette, suggests so. But that's just me guessing.
- I haven't bought one yet, so I can't comment on how useful they are, how warm they get in operation, etc.
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