LED Cube 8x8x8

Step 29 Build the cube: attach cables

64+8 wires have to go from the controller to the LED cube. We used ribbon cable to make things a little easier.

The ground layers use an 8-wire ribbon cable.

The cathodes are connected with 4 16-wire ribbon cables. Each of these ribbon cables are split in two at either end, to get two 8-wire cables.

At the controller side, we attached 0.1" female header connectors. These plug into standard 0.1" single row PCB header pins.

The header connector is a modular connector that comes in two parts, metal inserts and a plastic body.

The metal inserts are supposed to be crimped on with a tool. We didn't have the appropriate tool on hand, so we used pliers. We also added a little solder to make sure the wires didn't fall of with use.

1) Prepare one 8-wire ribbon cable and 4 16-wire ribbon cables of the desired length
2) Crimp or solder on the metal inserts.
3) Insert the metal insert into the plastic connector housing.
4) Solder the 8-wire ribbon cable to the cathode risers. Pre-tin the cables before soldering!
5) Solder in the rest of the cables. The red stripe on the first wire indicates that this is bit 0.
6) Tighten the screws on the strain relief to make sure everything stays in place.
7) Connect all the ribbon cables to the PCBs in the correct order. See pictures below. Our 8 wire ribbon cable didn't have a red wire. Just flip the connector 180 degrees if your cube is upside-down.

Comments

[Stevooo1985]

Don't you mean the anodes are connected with the 4x16 wire ribbon cable?
The cathodes are all connected as the layers.

[bkeaton]

Yes, Chr meant anodes. Due to the size and complexity of this project, there are many errors in component values and especially in the wording. I have found that it is extremely important to read all the comments first. There are many tips in them. This was a massive undertaking on Chr's part. Kudos is in order. However, you need to be able to figure out quite a bit on your own. That makes this kind of rewarding.

[Stevooo1985]

I understand, my cube is finished and works great !! I only have some trouble with ghosting led's, but i"m going to try another transitor. i used 2n 2222A and chnaged it to bc639 as a comment said. But the problem remains so I ordered now the PN 2222A transistor. What did you use?