This LED Surfboard Reacts to Its Rider's Moves
River surfing enthusiast Moritz v. Sivers equipped his board with WS2812B strips that light up based on movement.
Physicist and part-time maker Moritz v. Sivers recently discovered river surfing. Conveniently, where he lives in Munich, Germany, there are several standing wave spots on the Eibach river for him and other surfers to ride. The downside to this new hobby is that he has less time for building electronics projects, so he decided to combine the two, creating a motion-reactive surfboard with WS2812B LED strips.
The device is controlled by an Arduino Nano and an MPU-6050 IMU to sense movement. Power is provided by an 18650 cell, along with a TP4056 battery charger and 3.7V to 5V step-up module. The original plan was to use a USB power bank, but most shut off below a certain threshold, which would have been inconvenient here.
For waterproofing, the electronics were sealed in a Tupperware container that’s zip-tied to the back of the board, and attached to the strip with an IP67 connector.
The strip itself is embedded into the side of the board with epoxy, hollowed out with a rotary tool to make a recess for the lights. The board is programmed to respond to turns with sweeping dots, as well as colorful animations for standing, pumping, and surfing straight. You can see the build process, plus a demo of it in action, in the video below!
