LED Cube 8x8x8

Step 28 Build the cube: cathode risers

You now have a LED cube with 64 anode connections on the underside of the base. But you need to connect the ground layers too.

Remember those 8 small holes you drilled in a previous step? We are going to use them now.

Make some straight wire using the method explained in a previous step.

We start with ground for layer 0. Take a short piece of straight wire, Make a bend approximately 10mm from the end. Poke it through the hole for ground layer 0. Leave 10mm poking through the underside of the base. Position it so that the bend you made rests on the back wire of ground layer 0. Now solder it in place.
Layer 1 through 7 are a little trickier. We used a helping hand to hold the wire in place while soldering.

Take a straight piece of wire and bend it 90 degrees 10mm from the end. Then cut it to length so that 10mm of wire will poke out through the underside of the base.
Poke the wire through the hole and let the wire rest on the back wire of the layer you are connecting. Clamp the helping hand onto the wire, then solder it in place.

Rinse and repeat 7 more times.

Carefully turn the cube on it's side and bend the 8 ground wires 90 degrees.

Comments

[tnahas]

for ground layers, can you just use those extra cathode leads on the layers that aren't used for anything?

[bkeaton]

Sure can. It doesn't matter how you connect to the cathode layers, just as long as you get them connected. Here's the thing though, if you want to use the cathode "ears", no matter how you orient the layers, unless you stagger them during layer construction, you will wind up with one ear directly above another one. To connect them, you'll have the cathode risers extending outside the cube and sticking out pretty far. Putting them inside or outside only matters from an aesthetic standpoint.

[tnahas]

Thanks. Well i was thinking about just attaching ribbon cable wires right to those cathode leads. It might not look great, but it will be way easier and less time consuming.