Introduction: Longboard LED Lights

By

This Instructables shows how i added some LED lights to my longboard in a very clean and rugged way. You can set the lights to a specific color or use some fading or blinking modes.

My longboard is pretty soft, which means it has a pretty high flex. The led strip and the electrics took some beating after some time of usage, but they never stopped working.

Step 1: List of Materials

Things you need:

  • ~0.5 m LED strips
  • LED controller
  • Battery
  • Toggle switch
  • Longer screws
  • (Access to a 3d printer or some workmanship)

There are many versions of small LED controllers out there. I used a simple one with buttons, since i don't want to carry a remote with me all the time. (2-3€ on china electronic pages).

The LED strips are made vor 12v usage, but i used a simple 9v battery because of the small form factor. If you want to achieve a bright white light, you'll have to with a 12 v battery. Colors are pretty decent even with the low voltage.

Almost all LED controllers feature an inbuild On/Off switch, but most of them will still drain your battery even when they are off, therefore a external toggle switch is recommend.

You may need longer screws for one of your trucks, since you are mounting the battery housing on top of the trucks.

Step 2: Battery Housing

If you have access to a 3D printer you can use my provided files to create you own version of my battery housing.

Please check your measurements, you may have to adjust them to fit your trucks.

Before soldering check if everything fits inside your housing.

Attachments

Step 3: Soldering

The soldering is pretty straight forward. Just connect your battery to your LED controller and make sure your external toggle switch cuts the connection properly (since you don't want a dead battery after some weeks, even when you're not using it).

Since a longboard gets dirty and even wet from time to time isolation is important. Use shrink tube on all your open connections to prevent shorts.

After soldering make sure everything is working. For testing purposes i used a variable power adapter, but you can just use your battery.

Step 4: Mounting and Finishing

I used some hot glue to make sure the LED controller and the toggle switch stay in place.

Just mount the battery housing on your trucks, as mentioned you may need longer screws to archive this.

If you followed this instructable until now you're good to go!