Upcycling Old Smartphones Into Physical Widgets for Skiing: Cardboard, Spray Paint, and Cricut Vinyl Cutter.

I have a collection of old iPhones, shattered or with terrible batteries, worthless for trade-in. This was an experiment in re-using them to create a functioning speedometer, compass, and altimeter that would attach to my skis.

• old smartphones, smart devices, whatever old electronics aren't be used anymore
• cardboard
• sandpaper
• paint
• digital calipers
• vinyl cutter, I used vinyl to spiff up my widgets
• sticky velcro strips for attachment method

I wanted to change the shape and aesthetic of the devices.

I glued layers of cardboard together to create a panel with greater thickness than the phone, and then cut two pockets: one in the back to hold the phone, and a smaller one in the front to reveal only the portions of the screen that are important to see. The goal was to hide any controls, ads, etc. on the screens that are distracting, or are reminders of the original device. I used a simple speedometer app that I found on the App Store.

I repeated this with two other devices and cardboard enclosures, for a compass and an altimeter.

I used some 220 grit sandpaper to clean up the papery edges of my cardboard enclosures, and then gave each a few coats of black spray paint, making sure to hit the interior and exterior edges.

I used some digital calipers to get the exact dimensions of the enclosures so I could recreate them in Adobe Illustrator, and visually test a few different embellishments. I picked one of the designs to cut out of white vinyl with a Cricut. After a few botched runs, I got a usable vinyl designs and applied to each enclosure.

The last step was to use some adhesive Velcro strips to attach the phones and enclosures, separately, to the skis. The enclosures can be removed, and then the phones, for charging.

Demo Video : https://vimeo.com/685523199