Electroluminescent Dog Collar

EL Tape has become a popular and inexpensive way to add lighting to any DIY project, even sewing projects.  Since EL Tape, like EL Panels, can be punctured, cut and sewn and still work, it’s a great medium to work with for a sewing experiment.  With our dog collar experiment, we set out to make an inexpensive Electroluminescent Dog Collar using a store bought collar, EL Tape and a sewing machine.

We see EL applications as a big component in the next generation of safety gear.  Today, EMS workers, fire and police are all wearing reflective gear that is manufactured with reflective taping. Reflective taping is a great medium to use for safety gear but it requires a separate light source to be effective.  On it’s own, reflective taping does not provide any visibility.  Moonlight, head lights a flash light or other external source of lighting, even the moon, is needed for reflective taping to be an effective source of protection. EL tape illuminates under it’s own power source, and is a great alternative for safety gear. With it’s great principals of being able to adhere to almost anything and light up under it’s own power, it’s a great option to keep emergency workers safe at night, we believe it could do the same for dogs.

If you are a dog owner and are use to walking your dog at night, you’ve likely thought of the danger of passing cars and the low visibility of your dog near the ground.  Reflective collars and carrying a flashlight can help keep your dog safe.  While reflective dog collars and flashlights are a great start to protecting your pooch, an Electroluminescent Dog Collar that can flash or stay lit is a great alternative.

In this experiment we took a standard dog collar and sewed a piece of EL tape to it, then using zip ties we attached a small inverter to provide a portable energy source to light the EL tape.  The result was an inexpensive Electroluminescent Dog Collar that can be made in under an hour.