How to Add a Multi-User Odometer and Speedometer to Your Skateboard

If you enjoy riding skateboards, you may have found yourself wondering how many miles you’re traveling, and at what speed. This…

Cameron Coward
6 years ago

If you enjoy riding skateboards, you may have found yourself wondering how many miles you’re traveling, and at what speed. This Skate-o-Meter from Pieter Thomas will teach you how to add an odometer and speedometer to track that data. Even better, this build uses an RFID-based user database system, so you can track that individually across multiple riders.

The basic circuit for determine distance — and subsequently calculating speed — is just a hall effect sensor that is monitored by an Arduino Nano. If you only wanted calculate the distance and speed for a single rider on a per-session basis, that would be all you’d need. But, the Skate-o-Meter remembers the data from multiple users, which means it needs persistent data storage and a way to determine who is currently riding the skateboard.

For those tasks, Thomas used a Raspberry Pi paired with an RFID scanner. A MySQL database runs on the Raspberry Pi, and RFID cards are used to switch between riders. Once a rider has been selected, the Arduino sends the data from the hall effect sensor to the Raspberry Pi over USB serial. The data is stored in the MySQL database on the Pi’s SD card, and an LCD mounted to the skateboard displays the odometer and speedometer for the current rider. If you’d like to track that data yourself, Skate-o-Meter is an inexpensive way to do it.

Cameron Coward
Writer for Hackster News. Proud husband and dog dad. Maker and serial hobbyist.
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