3D LED Charlieplex Cube from Chrismas Tree Lights

Step 2 Build the cube

Now build the cube.

Because we are using charlieplexing we can take a few shortcuts to your average LED cube making.

In particular we can use a bunch of sections that all have the same connection. The main picture below shows one section. It's just tinned copper wire soldered together. Each section becomes one line in the charlieplex matrix.....you did read the articles mentioned in the intro didn't you??

I soldered my wire into a 5x4 grid and left some tags on the bottom. These are used to fit down onto some stripboard (aka veroboard) and gives both some mechanical stability and allows easy even spacing of the grid.

Note if I did this again, I would use some premade pet cage mesh, say for rabbits or other small animals rather than solder a whole bunch of wires together.

The other pictures in this section show the individual LEDs soldered to each section. One leg of the LED solders to the mech section and the other is bent out at 90 degrees to solder to the cross pieces.