How to build an 8x8x8 LED cube and control it with an Arduino

Step 7 Display your handiwork

You're done, now it's time to enjoy your cube.

As you can see, my cube came out a little crooked. I'm not very keen on building another one though so I'll live with it being crooked. I have a couple dead spots that I need to look into. It might be a bad connection, or I might need a new controller chip.

I hope this Instructable inspires you to build your own cube, or some other LED project using the A6276AE. Post a link in the comments if you build one.

I've been trying to decide where to go from here. The controller board will also control a 4x4x4 RGB cube, so that's a possibility. I think it'd be neat to do a sphere and the way I have the code written, it wouldn't be too difficult to do.

Comments

[fryddog]

Your tutorial looks pretty awesome so far. But before I give it a go, do you know what I can use instead of the led drivers. They appear to be discontinued everywhere.

[mickjc75]

Check out the TPIC6B595, these are similar (Hi current sink capability, output latch ect..) only they do not have constant current output so you will need series resistance on each column. They are commonly used in LED moving message displays.

[bibor168]

Thanks for the detailed instruction on how to build an LED cube. I eventually managed to build one of these things my own and it works fantastic. Thanks alot again. I used eight 8bit shift registers and changed the code a little, but in the end it works like your prototype does.

[deanevans]

this is awesome!! Im just in the process of getting the parts now. I'venever done anything quite like this before so i'll post here how itturns out when. Thanks heaps.