EL shield for Arduino

Description

The EL Shield lets you control up to 4 electroluminescent strips from Arduino with operating voltages up to 160 VAC; specifically, the shield can drive strips up to 15 meters long. It features 4 MOC3063 phototriacs and 4 SMD power TRIACs labeled BT134W-600E (600 V, 1 A). The shield receives command signals from Arduino’s digital pins and uses them to power the input sections of the four MOC3063s, which in turn power the load on each channel. The phototriacs ensure pulse transfer from Arduino to a high-voltage line while maintaining galvanic isolation. The MOC3063 integrates a zero-crossing detection circuit, i.e., a detector for the zero crossing of the sine wave or AC waveform, ensuring that the internal phototriac conducts away from the peak and preferably after polarity reversal.
Note: the shield is prewired for connection to a specific inverter (not included) for electroluminescent tubes: it connects via the input to the INV_5V connector and the output to INV_OUTPUT (both are JST 2.0). The shield is supplied fully assembled except for the strips, which must be soldered.

Video

Documentation and useful links

• wiki page