LED Cube 4x4x4

Step 1: What you need

First of all, you need quite a bit of time to solder together 64 leds ;)

Knowledge list:

• Basic electronics and soldering skills
• Know how to program an AVR microcontroller - I will not cover that in this instructable.

Component list:

• Protoboard. The type with copper circles.
• Atmel AVR Atmega16 microcontroller
• Programmer to program the Atmega16
• 64 Leds
• 2 status leds. I used red and green. (optional)
• Max232 rs-232 chip, or equivalent.
• 16 resistors for leds. (100-400ohms) will get back to this.
• 2x resistor 470 ohm. for status leds
• 1x resistor 10k
• 4x resistor 2.2k
• 4x NPN transistor BC338 (or other transistor capable of switching 250-ish mA)
• 1x 10uF capacitor
• 1x 1000uF capacitor
• 6x 0.1uF ceramic capacitor
• 2x 22pF ceramic capacitor
• 1x crystal 14.7456 MHz
• 2x tactile button
• optional pwr switch
• connector for 12v power
• optional connector for 5v power

Comments

[randomness72.5]

Hey what is the wattage rating for the resistors because that is an important part of a resistor when buying, and the same goes with the voltage rating of the capacitors used. Any information on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

[Roshan25]

Which item is missing fro the list?please help me.

[fredzica]

I guess this list is missing the 7805t?

[JimRocky]

I wonder if there would be a way to make one of these but with only a USB connector out from the LED cube?  The power, programming and controlling would be provided from a computer with some form of  LED cube driver software.

 

[nadav]

 if you use an arduino to control it, then you can power it via usb, and control it via the computer.

[AnswerGuru]

Not really...USB would still require a processor on the other end to decode the messages from the PC and control all of the signal lines.

[drsaeid]

Why my LEDs has Poor Light when connects to 5V and with out any resistor !!!! " Super Bright LEDs "

[mstahm1]

What size proto/bread board did you use.  Also, where would I get the max rs232 chip?

[garet1]

and capacitors, of what voltage do I need them?

[garet1]

What microcontroller do I need? IS ATMega8-16 good or is it wrong microcontroller?

[budiyanto]

Maaf pak.bisa enggak kalau power saya gunakan bekas lampu Fluorency.yang 8 watt. kalau bisa ditambah apa.terima kasih saya tunggu jawabannya.disini saya pake LED yang terus menerus tidak berkedip..

[Karyuko]

I cant find a connector for 12v power, what could I use? could i use a usb port? Im very noob at this and this is infact my frist project like this.

[w0.op]

see the bottom left of the schematics in step 7. You can simply attach a 9V battery to that.

[samman946]

I think a usb port only carrys 5v

[anam_funny]

i was purchasing the microcontroller, AVR Atmega16. I was purchasing it from the following link http://robokits.co.in/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=19_20&products_id=105, here the name of the controller is given as ATmega16-16PU AVR DIP, is it the right one? Should i go ahead and purchase it?

[Freeztech]

Chr, This looks great, my one question would be what is the digikey or mouser part number for the atmega16 your using?

[gtrunks2]

Do you have a number for the 10 pin connector you used?

[gtrunks2]

OK thanks. Yea that:s what i meant i found one that should work off of digikey.

[vespine]

what does "number" mean? Part number? That's going to vary depending where you are ordering it from. The full name of the part is: 10 Pin Shrouded Male Headers for IDC socket connector. I got mine from this place http://www.futurlec.com.au/Connectors/IDCMH10.jsp

[iblistheman]

were would i go to get a protoboard... i would assume radioshack but perhaps a easier way?

[chr]

I got mine of eBay. just search for protoboard. Oh, and be sure to post a picture and/or video when you finish your cube :)

[sofauxboho]

Please excuse the utterly clueless question, but I'm not sure what sort of LEDs to buy. They seem to come in several different voltages, and I'd rather not buy a ton of the wrong one.

FYI, I'm mainly looking here: http://superbrightleds.com/leds.htm and I love the blue hue of the ones you used in your original cube.

Any advice?

[chr]

Just make sure they can run on 5V with a resistor, and that they don't exceed the maximum mA current specifications of the AVR. See step 6 for max values. I got my leds off eBay. I just searched for "1000 Leds". Be aware that product descriptions may not be accurate. My leds were supposed to be "defused" (diffused) according to the product description.. But ebay leds are very cheap! :D

[omglolbah]

I buy mine from eBay also. There is an ebay store "Sure Electronics" that will ship worldwide. Their "100 pack" high brightness leds are extremely bright. My 4x4x4 cube looks great in full room light, and you can clearly see animations etc on it even in daylight through a window :) The leds are a few USD per 100 pack so not too bad. Price could have changed though...

[pinkoza]

please what does it mean : Protoboard. The type with copper circles. ?? in french pleaase pleasse

[OmAcronAlpha1]

Protoboard. Le type de cuivre cercles. Atmel AVR Atmega16 microcontrôleur Programmer pour programmer l'Atmega16 64 Leds 2 leds statut. J'ai utilisé le rouge et le vert. (facultatif) Max232 rs-232 puce, ou l'équivalent. 16 résistances de leds. (100-400ohms) reviendra à cette question. 2x résistance de 470 Ohms. de statut LED 1x résistance de 10k 4x résistance 2.2K 4x NPN transistor BC338 (ou d'autres capables de transistor de commutation de 250 mA ish) 1x condensateur 10uF 1x condensateur 1000 6x 0.1uF condensateur céramique 2x 22pF céramique 1x Crystal 14.7456 MHz 2x bouton tactile REP passer en option connecteur 12v pour pouvoir connecteur en option pour pouvoir 5v Sorry I utilisé Google, ce traducteur mai pas une pratique courante

[Sagar Gondaliya]

cool. now can you do it in african?

[grajasekar]

chr, I know its a bit of a vague question. But what kind of wire have you used and what kind of wire can be used? In our labs at college we sometimes use these thin wires with a single core for making connections on breadboards. But they seem a tad bit too flimsy for soldering. Is it possible to use the kinda wire that usually has a few filaments of copper (like several strands of copper) instead of a single core?

kinda like this one from the wikipedia page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stranded_lamp_wire.jpg but with a far fewer number of strands.
Or should we use this kind of thick wire as shown in that wikipedia image itself....

Please help..... We're trying to build a cube for a college project and we're real novices at this(especially the microcontroller programming part)

[sparks-va]

Chr. Excellent instructable. It inspired me to pick up an AVRISP mkII and have a go at making it myself. I do have two questions though: 1. What would cause the program to run very slowly making the effects run slowly? 2. What would cause an entire vertical stack to stay (very) dimly lit, and not run with the rest of the program? It looks like they never light up. I tested them, and they all work individually, but four stacks will not work. Interestingly enough, they are all next to each other on the ATMEGA 16L chip, pins 24, 25, 26, and 27. Thanks in advance for any advice on this...

[chr]

Read step 10! "By now, the cube should reboot and start doing stuff. It will be running at 1mhz using it's internal oscillator. And some of the leds won't work, because some GPIO ports are used for JTAG by default. To enable the external oscillator and disable JTAG, we need to program the fuse bytes: run "avrdude -c usbtiny -p m16 -U lfuse:w:0xef:m" and "avrdude -c usbtiny -p m16 -U hfuse:w:0xc9:m"."

[sparks-va]

Chr. Thanks for the help. I should be ashamed for not reading all the way through. :) Here is a link to a video of my cube.

[chr]

Oh! and please post a video and pictures when you have the cube up and running at the right speed! I also update step 10.

[hasancetiner]

A really nice project! I wonder how much does it cost approximately ?

[chibiturtleboi]

Looks pretty cool,but what's the angle on your leds?

[lolzertank]

I've been wondering this too... also, do you know the intensity of your leds? I'm not too sure I want 1000 leds lying around. Just too many!

[verymanley]

Where did you get your leds? The seem to be irregularly long (which is good).

[chr]

Found them on eBay, by searching for "1000 leds" if i remember correctly. Don't remember the seller.

[verymanley]

ty

[captaingeek]

whats a protoboard? a breadboard?

[chr]

It's a circuit board with copper circles or stripes on one side.