LED Neon & El Wire Signs Workshop

Workshop Topics

• How to make your own LED Neon or El Wire Sign
• Intro to Vector Design with Inkscape
• Intro to Digital Fabrication with Laser Cutter
• Intro to Electronics with LED Neon & El Wire

Inspirations

• Neon Art: Ten Artists Who Defined the Medium
• Neon Art @ Instagram
• NEon Art @ Pinterest
• The Museum of Neon Art
• Neon Creations
• Adafruit EL Wire Creations

Resources

• How to Make a DIY LED Neon Sign
• Download Inkscape
• Learn Inkscape Basics | Inkscape - Video Tutorial
• Learn Inkscape Dynamic Offset
• How to use the Laser Cutter Machine
• How to prepare the ends of the Strips and solder the power wires
• A guide to LED Neon Power options
• How to work with EL Wire

Materials

LED Neon Sign:

• LED Neon Strip - Single Color or RGB, 12 or 24VDC
• 3-key or remote RGB LED Mini Controller
• Power Supply 2A
• Connection Wire - Normal electrical cable 2 x 0.5mm²
• A base or substrate - This can be wood, expanded PVC, acrylic or you can attach your sign directly to the wall.
• Screws
• LED Neon Strip Fix Clip Holder
• Dual face tape

El Wire:

• Adafruit EL Wire Starter Pack

Tools:

• Strong scissor to cut the LED Neon Strip or EL Wire
• Craft knife
• Screwdriver and cutting plier
• Soldering Iron and consumables
• Hot Gun Pistol and consumables

Materials & Where to Buy

EfectoLED | LED Lux | TEMU | LED Box | Mauser | Adafruit

Assembling the Neon Sign

1. Design the LED Neon sign in Inkscape and "convert it to path" to be used for Laser Cutting.
2. Laser cut and engrave the design.
3. Plan the LED Neon cuts. Before starting cutting it, try to optimize the connections between the segments, this way there will be fewer wires visible.
4. Prepare the ends of all cut segments.
5. Attach the LED Neon Strip segments to the laser-cut acrylic base.
6. When making interconnections by soldering wires to LED Neon segments, test the connection at each step by applying power to the strip.
7. Connect the 3-Key RGB Led Mini Controller to the Neon LED Strip at one of its ends.
8. Connect the Power Supply to the 3-Key RGB Led Mini Controller
9. Turn On & Play with the LED Neon Sign!

Hacks & Mods

One of the most fun hack is to make some part of the NEON Sign starting flickering, as if it were broken, or to make an Neon Animation. To do that we will need a Micro-Controller, like Arduino, Micro:bit or Pico.

It's very easy, just program it so that one of its I/O ports simulates a switch that switches between on and off randomly to be similar as a broken one, or programing more than one I/O port to make an animation.

You can use the MakeCode on-line platform to Learning to Code a Micro-Controller like Micro:bit, Pico, etc..