My project is moving along and slowly taking shape. My biggest difficulty is getting the main sensor that I need to get this whole project to work. I gathered most of my materials before the quarantine hit and everything got shut down, however I was unable to acquire an accelerometer before everything got delayed. I ordered one since then but now has an expected delivery of April 27th, so I am unsure if I will have time to incorporate it into my project.

The whole idea was to create a snowboard that changes colors with motion. I acquired the LED lights and figured out how they change color based on different excitation voltages. So first I took an old snowboard that I had and removed the bindings and stomp pad and attempted to remove a few stickers that were on there but was unsuccessful (even with a blow dryer).

Here is the snowboard that I am using and as you can tell it has seen better days. To give it a newer look it was recommended in one of my reviews to put on a shiny vinyl to the surface to help reflect the lights of the LEDs. S my next step was to take the vinyl shown below and attach it to the surface.

Cutting this posed to be fairly difficult as I don’t have a machine that makes this easy to apply. I started with cutting out a rough square the size of the snowboard and then I used a credit card to apply the adhesive to the board rubbing out most of the bubbles as I went along. Then I attempted to use a box cutter to shape the vinyl around the snowboard. I was less carful in this stage of the project because the lights I am using will be going around the edge of the snowboard, so if the edges look a little choppy, it was okay because they’re going to be covered up anyway.

I still need to cut out around the area for the bindings, which will be done after the lights are attached.

I have the power source for the lights, and have began constructing a housing unit for it, this will need to fit the accelerometer and arduino as well because that will be incorporated at some point. After I attach the lights and reattach the bindings, this project will be in “rough draft” form as it will be nearly done, it just won’t include the accelerometer. It will though still be able to change colors manually, which still could be pretty cool.