[How I Upgraded My Skateboard to Cyberpunk]

Added on 25/10/2015

Yes, I’ve been learning skateboarding. It just seems like a useful exercise for a person who spends a lot of time by the computer. I suck big time at the moment so I usually go practising along the beach at night, where almost no one can see me. Since I think LEDs are cool on everything (those of you who have been in my home office know what I’m talking about!), I thought why not put my electronics skills to use and make under-body lighting for my skateboard? I think it not only looks great but it will make it easier for cyclists to spot me when it’s dark.

I already had some left over LED strips from modding my PC. They used to connect to a single molex connector, but that got broken. So I cut off the connector and decided to connect the strips to their own source of power. I bought a simple case for a 9V battery and a small switch. Then I soldered and stuck everything together:
The nice thing about the battery case is that it has 3 holes for screws. I screwed it to the bottom of my skateboard:
I attached the strips temporarily by tape so that I could try out different configurations. These two made the most sense:
I decided to go with the asymmetric one on the right. I superglued the wires to roughly complement the shape of the graphic on the skateboard:
And this is the final look in the dark. The picture on the right shows a view when you are standing on the skateboard. So the big question is: Is it ok to skate in my long leather jacket now?


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