I’ve been looking at the power coils.
I know, I know, I’ve said it doesn’t bother me, and it really doesn’t. I know outside of a couple of pictures I’ll never turn them on again once the build is finished, but the supplied led’s just don’t really cut it.
They look great at the bulb, then good, then fine, then disappointing, then not even illuminated.
So, I have investigated.
I used EL rope before in the Exgol diorama model, and was very happy with how they work and look. So I picked up some more and went to work!
The rope pack I picked up has 5 single strips of 1m length, so plenty to replace the existing tubes. They are thicker, at 2.3mm instead of the 1.3 of the original, but with a little squeezing they should fit into the brackets and be covered by the metal plates.
My intention was to simply supply power from the cables that lead to the LED’s, and simply connect to the new rope.
It didn’t work like that.
Connecting the power directly to the rope seems to do absolutely nothing. I took the battery box supplied with the rope apart and found a transformer lurking inside. I assume it steps up the power or frequency, or amperage, or something else we’ll beyond my electronics skill.
In the end, I love the way it would make it work, but I can’t see any way to incorporate them into the original electronics. I think I will need to get de the new battery box, and route the power to the front and back of the car.
It’s not impossible, and I expect I will return and find a way of sorting it, but for now it’s gone back on the back burner.