Cutting EL Panel

[don.r]

I purchased a small EL panel and was wondering is there are any recommendations on the best way to crop it to size. Its both a little tall and long for my application. Obviously I need to center the cropping on the pins. Anything else I need to worry about?

[Gyro]

At a guess... Atmospheric moisture ingress and possible delamination, causing degradation of the phosphor around the edge. Also the possibility of creating localised shorts between the upper and lower conductors.

I don't know for sure but I think they are edge sealed.

[don.r]

I could mitigate the environmental effects by sealing the cuts in Scotch tape.

[m3vuv]

[don.r]

I temporarily attached the new panel to the device and the light output is still very low. I measured the voltage from the driver and its only 16VAC rather than the 75VAC it should be. Looks like its the driver (a self-contained piece of unobtainium) rather than the panel. I'll hack in a modern driver and see if it works.

[Zero999]

I temporarily attached the new panel to the device and the light output is still very low. I measured the voltage from the driver and its only 16VAC rather than the 75VAC it should be. Looks like its the driver (a self-contained piece of unobtainium) rather than the panel. I'll hack in a modern driver and see if it works.

Yes, that doesn't sound good. The driver is probably fairly simple, quite likely a Royer converter.

I could mitigate the environmental effects by sealing the cuts in Scotch tape.

I'm not sure that will work, since moisture will still get in. I think a clear lacquer will be better

[don.r]

I temporarily attached the new panel to the device and the light output is still very low. I measured the voltage from the driver and its only 16VAC rather than the 75VAC it should be. Looks like its the driver (a self-contained piece of unobtainium) rather than the panel. I'll hack in a modern driver and see if it works.

Yes, that doesn't sound good. The driver is probably fairly simple, quite likely a Royer converter.

I could open it up via a dremel and have a look but a new driver is less than $2 so...

I could mitigate the environmental effects by sealing the cuts in Scotch tape.

I'm not sure that will work, since moisture will still get in. I think a clear lacquer will be better

Hopefully I won't need to go there right now but I'll keep that in mind for next time.

[don.r]

Finally got around to completing this after all the holiday business was taken care of. Got a $2 USB EL driver from Aliexpress and it works just fine in the Keithley. Will save the EL panel for future use.