DIY

CIRCUITS

TWINKLE TOES

Add a flashing, tricolor UFO to your roller skates. By Dan Bassak

Skatetown is our local roller rink in Bloomsburg, Pa.

For years, it’s also been my artistic LED experiment laboratory. I started by taping single-color LEDs to skates. They were so popular that one session on the floor looked like a swarm of fireflies.

Photography by Brent Eckart

My latest LED invention is the UFO Toe Stop. It uses a disk-shaped “flying saucer” unit that contains a red, green, and blue (RGB) LED. I wanted to blend the colors in interesting ways, so I wired it to a PIC-controlled RGB microcontroller that comes with programmed routines such as fixed colors, fast-changing rainbows, or dazzling strobe effects.

I also used some translucent jam plugs (small bolt covers used in skate dancing) that I bought in the rink’s pro shop as light diffusers.

1. Unscrew the boot and the old toe stop (or jam plug) from the skate plate (Figure A, following page).

Place the skate plate on the 1" plastic sheet (Figure B). Mark the 4 boot holes on the sheet and drill them to the same size as the boot screws.

2. Temporarily bolt the skate plate to the plastic sheet with 1" screws. Trace the outline of the plate using a sharp point and then tap the skate plate with a mallet to leave marks where the plate’s protruding rivets are located. (In Step 4, you’ll drill holes through these marks to allow clearance for the rivets.)

3. Mark the center of the toe stop, looking down through its threaded hole. This will be the center of your LED. Because most toe stops are at an angle, center the hole slightly toward the front of the skate. This slight angle will give higher light output from your LED toe stop.

Make: 145