Hi all! This is my first post here and I am quite new to the world of microcontrollers and wiring and coding and what-have-you, so please forgive any ignorance on my part and feel free to talk to me like a 5-year-old, lol. Anyway, I’m using the Arduino Duemilanove and the EL Escudo to try and control four [approximately] 3’ strands of EL wire. The inverter from CooLight.com was out of stock when I ordered, so I’m trying to use an inverter that came with the wire I bought: it was a 7.5’ segment wired to a 2AA battery pack with an inverter and a 3-cycle switch.
The first time I set it up, I disassembled the battery pack and wired the inverter/switch directly to the Escudo as instructed in the Escudo user guide. It seemed to work fine and ran through the program when powered by USB, but the wires were extremely dim, so I switched to 9V wall power through the Arduino’s barrel jack. Bad idea. I know now that this was probably a dumb mistake but, long story short , the Arduino ran through the program a few times with the wires glowing VERY brightly, then the transistor (D1616) on the inverter board burned up. I don’t have time (this is for a class project) or cash to replace the transistor or buy a different inverter, BUT I do have another identical inverter/switch to use. Is there any way to step down the power coming from the 9V wall adapter? Or to use the 3V power from the 2AA battery pack? Thanks for any help or advice!