We had a great opportunity to do an interactive lighting project on the Skykomish bridge, to help light it up for the holidays. Skykomish is a small mountain town 16 miles West of Stevens Pass on Highway 2. As people drive over the bridge, their cars are detected with a sonic range finder and the lights chase along with them.
Skykomish Bridge Project
The goal is to both excite people to drive over the bridge, and to notify the town that someone is driving in.
Water lights shine onto the beams, “reflecting” the river.
For the lights, we used outdoor LED lights with color controllers. We used a sonic range finder to detect the cars, and then we used an Arduino with a DMX shield and dimmer packs to animate the lights.
Testing the light animation at home before installation.
Testing the sensor and tweaking the Arduino software on the bridge.
It was very cold and wet during setup! We can’t thank everyone enough who helped get it all set up in time for the Skykomish christmas tree lighting party on Dec 6th; and thanks to the town for letting us light up the bridge!