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A while ago, when I first started using Arduino, my first project was a 4x4x4 LED cube, I built it from a Guide I found here in Instructables, I didn'...
For the most basic cube you will need; 1x Atmega328 (With arduino Optiboot bootloader) 3x TLC5940 4x P-Channel MOSFETs 3x 4K7 Resisto...
First you'll need to decide the size of your cube, it can be any size you want to, but nothing bigger than what the leads on the LEDs allow, my LEDs h...
To be able to make all the layers with the same spacing and keed all the LEDs "Snapped to Grid" we need to actually make a grid, for this we will need...
Once you have your grid ready, you can start making the layer, one by one and testing them as you go, to be able to repair them in case of a faulty LE...
Now we need to add the wires for the columns, for this we will need 48 wires (pic 3) that are about 12 cm long, then, with the help of a helping hand ...
Here comes the tricky part, joining the 4 layers, as we have 48 wires sticking out which have to fit in the correct square of the layer grid. To accom...
just place the remaining 2 layers as you did for the second one. You should now have a complete LED cube, now we can start with the electronics, but, ...
To begin with the electronic circuitry, we need all the components shown in pic 1 and 2 PCBs the same size or bigger than your cube.
Mark your PCBs just a little bit bigger than the cube (pics 1 & 2) and cut them, I used a circular saw for this but you can use just about anything, e...
get 3 rows of 16 MALE headers and 1 row of 4 MALE headers, we'll be mounting these on one of our PCBs. First off we need to modify them a bit, pushin...
We now need to start mounting the LED cube on the top PCB, I'm using 2 PCBs to keep all the electronics hidden while still having access to them, the ...
once you have all your leads in, proceed to soldering the four corner leads to hold the cube in place, BEFORE you do this push the PCB as far in as it...
Now we need to connect all the columns to the nearest pin in one of the 3 MALE headers, it doesn't matter what do you connect where, you can help your...
Place the 3 FEMALE 16 pin headers on the male ones and then place the second PCB on top of that (pic 1), make sure you align them correctly and procee...
the first thing we need to place in are the 3 TLC5940 PWM ICs, we are going to place one aside each header (pic 2), centered and with the outputs faci...
Now we are going to add the Atmega328 chip, the brains of our cube. Place it somewhere near the center of the board, use a socket for this one as it ...
Add the crystal oscillator and caps for the Arduino Chip, see pic 2 for the pinout and where you should connect the crystal (the 2 pins that say cryst...
find a nice, free space to place your MOSFETs, remember that it needs to be enough to fit them all bent down plus the 4 pin FEMALE header. If you dec...
VERY IMPORTANT! don't forget to add a six pin right angle male header somewhere near the edge of the board, this will enable us to program our chip wi...
begin connecting everything together, solder all the TLCs as shown on the picture, joining the 2 pins that go to ground together and the two that go t...
add some pull up resistos to your MOSFETs, this is to default them to the Off state. they go between the first and last pin of each MOSFET.
From now on we'll be working with the main chip, so print a copy of this Arduino compatible labels and stick one in your chip to make your life easier...
Connet all the wires that go between the Arduino chip and the TLCs, remember that all but one wire go to all the chips, the only one that doesn't conn...
Now connect what you can directly on the bottom PCB, with solder traces and leave space for adding wires where you couldn't solve a path. What you ne...
Finish up connecting everything on the top side with thin wire wrap, connect each MOSFETs Leftmost pin to a free arduino pin, connect the EEPROMs and ...
test that all places which should be connected to VCC are indeed connected, do the same for the Gnd pins, and check that Vcc is not shorted with Gnd.
At this point, you can now add the 4 pin male header to the top PCB and connect, with a wire, each pin to one of the layers, make sure the header alig...
Congratulations! you have successfully built an RGB LED CUBE! all that's left it to configure the code so it works properly with your cube, so start...
Now we are going to map the columns to the correct LEDs in the software so it looks like the one on the video from last step. Upload the Mapping sket...
Congratulations! you now have a working RGB LED cube to show up to your friends, so sit down for a while and enjoy the show. NOTE: this is not how it...
I machined a nice wooden base for my cube on a friend's CNC, it looks great!
This project is not complete, I still need to; Finish an applet to make it easy for you to make your own animations. Make a set of custom ani...
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Apr 30, 2012
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I'll notify you when I have it, hopefully tomorrow