H Bridge to drive EL panel

Thread Starter

Green-0424

Joined May 2, 2016
4
Hi all,
Just wondering if a H-Bridge could be used to drive an EL Panel? The panel is about 36" square and the EL circuits I have tried don't seem to be able to drive a panel that big. I was thinking that a H-Bridge could provide a good A/C voltage from a DC voltage source. Not sure if it is possible, any help would be appreciated.
 

RichardO

Joined May 4, 2013
2,270
All the small EL panels I have seen need about 100 volts (RMS, I think) to work. The easiest way I can think of is to use a high current H-bridge driving a step-up transformer. Fortunately, EL panels work at 60Hz so a common power transformer should work.
 

DickCappels

Joined Aug 21, 2008
10,152
An H Bridge would be a good choice. Just be aware that using power transformers "backwards" is fraught with hazards and it is difficult to get very good efficiency that way. I think this is mainly because of and IR drop in the low voltage primary -the resistance of the low voltage winding times the magnetizing current in that winding, which can be huge. I did something similar recently and went through a lot of different transformers before I achieved success.
 
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