EL wire no longer works

[OnePostWonder]

I'm trying to find why this EL wire no longer works, so I opened the inverter that came with it and saw this:

http://i.imgur.com/70Ql1.jpg

Is this a problem? I know little of these things and will take all the knowledge I can get.

 

[driver66]

It looks as if that part has gotten Very hot. It looks distorted. Are there any part numbers on it so you can google it and see what it is supposed to look like?

 

[OnePostWonder]

It looks as if that part has gotten Very hot. It looks distorted. Are there any part numbers on it so you can google it and see what it is supposed to look like?

That particular component has no visible part number, but the inverter itself has a part number of S12S02. Googling this only turns up a tiny image and that's not of the inside of the inverter.

I bought the EL wire a long time ago from www.vibelights.com, but they're not in business anymore. It wasn't an expensive product or anything, I'm just asking here because I like to have the knowledge. I already know what blown capacitors look like and what happens when a resistor gets too hot.

I suppose if I knew what that particular component is called I could google that.

 

[angelhunter]

i beleive its a step up coil. its suppose to convert 12v to something like 120vac to make the wire glow kinda like a small transformer. The intensity is based on voltage and the color is based on frequency.
I've used their inverters, and they work with 9V, 12V and 18V battery
sources. The last time I checked, they had 4 different inverters. They
were low power/low frequency, low power high frequency, high power low
frequency, high power high frequency. The low power inverters are used
for strands up to 15' and the high power ones can be used up to 50'

try this link
http://www.wire-el.com/sdp/90004/4/pl-997794/0-500010/EL_wire_inverters_DC.html

 

[OnePostWonder]

i beleive its a step up coil. its suppose to convert 12v to something like 120vac to make the wire glow kinda like a small transformer. The intensity is based on voltage and the color is based on frequency.
I've used their inverters, and they work with 9V, 12V and 18V battery
sources. The last time I checked, they had 4 different inverters. They
were low power/low frequency, low power high frequency, high power low
frequency, high power high frequency. The low power inverters are used
for strands up to 15' and the high power ones can be used up to 50'

try this link
http://www.wire-el.com/sdp/90004/4/pl-997794/0-500010/EL_wire_inverters_DC.html

Yeah, that's the inverter. You found a considerably larger picture than I was able to