How is this done?

[Konrad]

Looking at this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuV4fL4Yqvw&feature=related

My question is not how the Tesla coils and physics of the chainmail Faraday suit work, those are obvious and explained in the video anyhow. But how do the lit panels and stripes on the suit work?

Are they powered by some sort of EL or LED panels, some special material which self-luminesces when exposed to electric charge? Are they powered by batteries or do they somehow bleed power drawn from the Tesla arcs? Or are they just a well-done cheesy effect achieved by focussing external blacklight lamps?

If they are powered components, how are they constructed to withstand the voltage spikes?

I imagine the extremities on that suit can get quite warm pretty quickly, that's probably one reason the performer keeps hopping around like an uncoordinated yutz.

[TLHarrell]

If it were self-luminescing due to the discharge, it would flash in time with the discharge. It is not.

It is EL wire. The circuit is not part of the conductance path for the Tesla coils. And since EL wire is also a high voltage device, it is unaffected by the nearby discharge. The part of the circuit which causes the flashing is itself shielded in a Faraday cage.

[Konrad]

Haha, thanx, metal-enclosed Faraday chassis, duh. And there I was trying to figure out what amazing dielectric materials they were using as insulators, how to prevent the batteries from exploding, what sorts of fasteners would work, etc.

I feel so dumb whenever I overlook the blatantly obvious.