Ground Tracking LED Longboard Mod

This mod uses a custom designed encoder on one of the wheels to track where the longboard is on the ground and light up the LEDs so that the light pattern remains stationary on the ground as the board moves over it.

To make doing this instructable as easy to understand as possible, you will need to know how it works up front.  There are rare earth magnets on one of the wheels.  As the wheel turns, there is a sensor that reads those magnets and tracks how fast the ground is moving under the board.  That sensor reports to a microcontroller that turns LED's on/off in sequence so that the light appears to be stationary as the board moves over it. The faster you go, the faster the LED's shift and likewise, the slower you go, the slower they shift.

Step 1 Materials and Tools

This project can get pricey if you don't have some of these things already.  Know that before you get started :)


Materials:
~Longboard (or skateboard)
~Arduino Mega (or pin equivalent)
~60 "super bright" LEDs
~60 100 Ω resistors
~1 10K Ω resistor
~1 latching Hall effect sensor
~150 feet of 22AWG solid wire
~2 meters of heat shrink (3/32" dia)
~project box (one that will fit your arduino)
~cable ties (aka zip ties)
~cable tie anchors 
~solder
~epoxy (5 minute works well)
~plexiglass
~1" wide stainless steel strap 
~painters tape (wide and green works best)
~rare earth magnets
~velcro
~9V batteries (rechargeable is smart)
~9V battery clips

Tools:
~Drill press and hand drill
~13/64" drill bit
~1/4" drill bit with stop
~carpenter's square (a ruler will work too)
~soldering iron
~tweezers
~3rd hand
~soldering torch or lighter
~wire cutters
~wire strippers

 
Optional:
~sand paper
~wood stain
~polyurethane spray


Oh, and you will need A LOT of time! This isn't a 1 weekend project ;)  

Comments

[thompsor]

i am attempting to make something similar off of this same design, using gyroscopes to show fluctuation and tilt on the board during acceleration an deceleration hopefully. will have pics up soon! :D

[triggur]

Splendid.

[slimjimnixon]

looks awesome but sounds expensive could u give me a price range on this project

[A_Steingrube]

In terms the board and the parts on the board itself, around $310 if you include wire, epoxy, ect.

In terms of how much you will spend, around $450 (a lot of LEDs and such that you buy in bulk don't get used).

[neufuture]

Hey I would look into these addressable LED strips
https://www.adafruit.com/products/306

It would probably cut the time down to only a few hours. and make it much smaller

[A_Steingrube]

I thought about it, but there are two issues with using those strips:
1) They aren't nearly bright enough. You are bouncing light off of a black surface most of the time, so you need very bright LEDS. Those wont cut it.

2) It takes a great deal of time to do the data exchange in order to get the lights to change. The result is that you wouldn't be able to go faster than 5 or 6 miles per hour before you started to loose the tracking capabilities.

If you wanted to just put lights on the side and have them do speed-independent animations, the strips would be fantastic, but they wouldn't be good for much else in this application.

[mprisco]

this is amazing to say the least. i dont know where you got the idea but put a patent on this. if you can simplify it and sell it you will sell alot of them.

[sgandhi]

Yea seriously, this is literally one of coolest things I've ever seen, even cooler than 16x16x16 led cubes!