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Introduction Recently we looked at a cold cathode light kit sent to us by PC Case Gear. For all those who missed that, take a look here. Reading this both these reviews will give most of you out there an idea as to what exactly you need to get. Thanks to PC Case Gear today we look at this new lighting kit called EL lights. Electro Luminescent lights have been around for quite some time now, the only exception is that they were hardly used in PC's.
Spanning no more than 2.3mm these EL lights are not much thicker than a conventional tennis racket string. The best part about these EL lights is that they are incredibly flexible and can be bent as desired like any string. If you already have a Cold Cathode light kit installed in your machine, the EL lights could be used to bring out some really cool special effects to your case. It'll be limited to your imagination only, so let it run wild :)
Alright, lets see what the package contains. The light we requested was a lime green and trust me it looks great. The lit contains one inverter box with a dimmer knob, 1.5m section of EL cable, an installation leaflet and the standard Velcro adhesive. Unlike the cold cathode kit, you needn't have to be too cautious when handling the EL cable; heck I just move it around like a piece of string and nothing has happened to it yet. For those looking for some extra knowledge as to what EL is all about, stay on, the rest of you skip to the next paragraph. This is an extract taken from the installation leaflet provided. "EL Cable is a Phosphor coated wire that glows when current is applied. Unlike other cable lighting, the illumination is consistent throughout its length. The light emitted from the EL cable comes from a chemical coating on the wire. The brightness of the coating will degrade as time goes on." The graph in the manual shows that the brightness level will degrade to around 50% of its original level once the EL cable has been used for around 4,000 hrs. That's just over 5 months and it'll remain another 4,000 hrs at this state. We're not sure as to the exact life period of these EL cables, nevertheless I wouldn't give much thought if it lasts me 1 year with all that glory. PC Case Gear have modified the inverter box to hold a dimmer switch, a molex connector and a on/off switch. You could also set the switch to flash mode if you require. Personally I prefer not to use that setting. A really cool feature of EL lights is that they hardly produce any heat. You can have them on for hours, or days, but you'll still be able to hold it by hand. Now for another cool tit bit. Say you do not require the full length of the EL cable for the mod you have in mind. You wouldn't want the rest of the wire to just go waste now would you. All you have to do is, simply cut the required length of EL cable and use the extra wire to build another EL cable. Now ain't that the coolest or what? All instructions on how to do this are provided at the back of the installation leaflet. We mentioned earlier that the EL cable kit also comes with a dimmer switch attached to the inverter. I didn't see much point for this really, since I would require my EL light to glow as bright as it can. Think of it as an added feature at no extra cost :)
Lets look at how you get this kit hooked up;
First thing you need to do here is identify where you want to place the light kit. I'm still at cross roads thinking whether to use it on my PC or my car since the look is incredible anywhere you put them. However in light of the review I placed it in my case, but I know this will not be its final resting place. Get some magic tape or some scotch tape so that you can experiment with various placements within the casing. Once you have locked in where you exactly want it, get some glue and place it accordingly. I did not use a very strong adhesive glue since I knew I'll be changing the location some time later, however you could use something strong for faster results. Furthermore you will have to cut out small sections of the casing to place the dimmer switch and the on/off switch for easy access. Before you look at the pics though let me say this, the camera simply
is not able to capture the actual picture you see for real. It's much
nicer than what you see here.
If you already own a Cold cathode kit, you might wonder why you'd
want to have one of these EL lights. The case we tested this kit on
also has a CC kit in it, however they go together just perfectly and
the look is super, you'll never regret it. thing is, the CC lights
provide a overall glow to the casing while the EL light will add any
special effects that you want to create. Since they are so flexible,
you can twist and turn them to almost any shape you want to. Like
I said, let your imagination run wild!!!. PC Case Gear offers these
kits for only AU$49.50, which is the same as their CC lights. Now
that's what I call great value for money, it's definitely well worth
the investment.
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