How to build a 8x8x8 led cube (English version)

Step 4 Build the control circuit (second part)

Connecting the wires to the cube:
Go back to the cube. Take the flat cables with 40 and 34 pin and cut it by removing the connector from one side.
We must separate for about 10 cm the wire to the side where we cut the connector. That wires will be connected to different pins of cathodes and anodes of the cube according to the scheme that we made during the construction of the board. Each pin of an output shift register will be connected to a whole row of connectors in the order of pins (so not at random). In this way the first shift register controller the first row, the second controller second, ecc&
PS: of the 74 pins available (40 + 34) we will serve only 72 (64 columns, 8 layers), 2 remain not connected.

SEE IMG FROM 25.01 TO 25.04

Build the cable to connect to the parallel port:
In my case I've found a cable of an old 486 mother board. The outdated mother board have not the parallel port integrated, it is connected by a flat cable to the pins of mother board.
If you do not have a way to retrieve a cable and want to build it, this is the scheme of the parallel port pins:

SEE IMG FROM 30.01 TO 30.03

You'll have to use the pin from D0 to D5 connetting like this:
D0 -> input shift register columns
D1 -> clear shift register columns
D2 -> clock shift register columns
D3 -> input shift register layers
D4 -> clear shift register layers
D5 -> clock shift register layers

CAUTION: If the pins are not connected as described above, the control software will not work.

Construction of cables for the power switch, power LED and power supply:
For all 3 cables you must only solder the components to the wire.

Comments

[nate1357]

Would using a parallel to usb adapter still work with the given software. I no longer have any computers with parallel or serial ports.