The Light Speed Snowboard
Here I have a handmade snowboard that I made and cut down the middle so it can also be split into walking skis to go up the mountain. I wanted to modify this board to fix an issue I always have when snowboarding.
When I go night snowboarding there is always one spot on the mountain that is darker than the others or there is somebody who has the wrong lenses in their goggles and can't see a thing. I have been hit while riding enough times to where I felt the need to come up with a solution.
I put neo pixels on the front end of my board that are controlled by an Arduino nano. I programmed the lights to have a chasing light effect in the hopes that the moving light would be more attention grabbing as opposed to a constant color so people on the mountain can see me and steer clear.
This is the circuit I used to power the neo pixels. I added a button so the lights could be easily turned on and off. The wires and connections are obviously not water proof so I needed to make something that could protect the circuit from the snow that accumulates while riding.
I constructed this box in the woodshop. It was built for a job not aesthetics. The corners are all sealed so no water can get in, and I was able to drill out some holes on the bottom so that the wires could fit snuggly underneath the box but still maintain the water tight seal against the board.
This is the code I uploaded to my Arduino to make the neo pixels have this specific traveling light effect.
