User:Steven1108/ENES-100/project 1/Week 1 CDIO

Problem Statement
Study the EL wire and learn how to successfully connect the wires to a power source.

Requirements for each element or component derived from system level goals and requirements
The requirement for this task is to come out with a wire connected to power and have it look good. The wires can not be touching and they also need to be insulated.

The initial design
My only idea right now is to have the wires exposed and spread apart. That will not work though. They are connected by solder.

Experiment prototypes and tests need for design
Starting with the physical nature of the wire. There is an outer housing, an inner housing, and then the wire.

There are two little wires exposed immediately, one more thick wire is covered in some white stuff, that scratches off. Once you scratch it off you are left with two little wires and a thick one. The little wires go together, they can be touching. The thick wire can't touch the two little wires though.

The wires are very small so everything is difficult. The one thing that is mandatory is that the wires do not touch. It will not light up if the big wire touches the two little ones at any point on the wire.

The idea is to connect the wires with solder and wrap them individually with heat shrink.

Next heat shrink the whole wire, concealing its innards.

Creative and critical thinking, and problem solving
It took problem solving to figure out how to keep the wires together, without having them touch.

Aesthetics and human factors
The wires need to be insulated both for aesthetic purposes as well as safety. When touching the exposed wires when the are connected to power you notice a slight electric current.

Next Steps
Next steps are to hook up the wires to the arduino circuit board which is connected to power.