Thank you for viewing my instructable! As the title says this is my 3rd led skateboard! But this is actually the first one I am making a 'how to' for. My first led board was alright, It did have a few flaws and aside from just turning it on there wasn't much appeal to it. Yes it did look very nice riding down the street but what it lacked got me thinking of how I can better it and then with a little bit of a wait came the led longboard! The led long baord has no faults to it, I can't think of anything negative to say about it. It was a huge leap from the first one. It used RGB leds and a bit more complex circuitry. The circuit was more complex than the first one but it wasn't too complex by itself. The third one I made out of boredom. After the longboard I thought my led skateboard hunger had been satisfied but was I wrong! I know boredom isn't that great of a reason for inspiration but I think it is! From boredom comes creation! The third led board is by far the most eye appealing and out of all three it is the easiest and cheapest! Lets get started by wathcing the video in the next step! The video shows what this guy can do!

Link to my first one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrMlYXBK1_I

Link to my second one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kAZj_Zz4ro

Step 1: Watch the Video!

Step 2: Whats Needed

The supply list for this build is very small which makes it that much cheaper! You will need;

36 rgb leds link here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006LUZLNY/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
solder + iron
Hot glue+ gun
helping hands and a skateboard.

The leds are really cheap. They come in a pack of 50 and the possibilities are endless with them!

Step 3: The Leds

The leds are the main focus behind this build. Now We will be running all these leds in parallel, which seems like a daunting task. If you had to connect leds in parallel before with no PCB then odds are you connected them all with a lot of wire. Don't worry I use to do the same thing! :/ Until I found a very nice way of running as many as you want in parallel with no wires at all! I can't take credit for this method. I saw dino from hack a week use this method. He bent the leads of the leds and used the leads to connect in parallel. First thought when seeing this was ''wow, I am an idiot for over looking this''. We will be mounting 18 leds on one side of the skateboard and 18 on the other side. We will be soldering two sets of 6 and 3 sets of 2. we can solder them all together but then the light effect will look bad because the lights will be focused on one area. If we spread them out we get a better result!

First step: get 18 leds and bend the leads in the same direction. See the picture for a visual.
second: solder two sets of 6 together using the bent lead method. Study the picture for an understanding of this method, see picture
third: solder three sets of two by bending the leads.

Repeat that for the other side aswell

After you are done you should have 2 sets of 6 for one side and 3 sets of twos for one side. The end total will be 18 for one side. You repeat the steps to acheive 18 for the other side with a grand total of 36.

Step 4: Moving the Leds to the Board.

This step is simple. You are mounting the leds to the skateboard. I chose to mount mine with on set of 2 leds towards the end then one set of 6 then one set of two then one set of 6 and for the other end a set of 2. Find where you want to mount them then use a little bit of hot glue to secure. I say a little bit because we still have some soldering to do.

Note* the the two sets of two leds at the nose and tail are not visible in the picture.

Step 5: More Soldering

After all the leds are mounted it is time to finish soldering them. We have to connect each set of leds together. To do so we will have to run some wires to each set then to the next. I didn't use color coded wires because I live life on the edge.

Step 6: Adding the Battery Pack and More Soldering

Okay this is the last step and we have some thinking to do. We need a power source to drive all the leds. I got lucky here. How so? My first intent was to use a 9 volt battery and some componets to drive them all but then I found a battery pack I made for an xbox controller a while back. It is a 3.6 volt lipo battery with controller. I think it is 700mah. I know you might still want to use the 9 volt battery to power it so I have included a schematic for that. I have tested it and it does work. The 9volt battery power source requires a 5 volt regulator and a 180 ohm resistor. After you have your power source decided and ready it is time to solder it! don't forget you might want a switch! my switch was built into my battery pack I made for the xbox controller, I think it serves a better purpose being used for the led skateboard!