Carlitos' Project: RGB LED Mood Cube

by RobotShop

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Intro: Carlitos' Project: RGB LED Mood Cube

This is the first in a series of electronic / robotic DIY projects. These projects are accompanied by instructional videos that will help you trough the many steps involved in completing the task at hand. For this first iteration, we are making an RGB LED Mood Cube.

Glowing colour-changing objects are always cool. So why not make your own? Mood lights have been around for some time and, while it is cool to have a colour changing light, it would be even cooler to have something more complex and geekier. An RGB LED Mood Cube seems to be the way to go.

STEP 1: Materials

Below is a list of the components you will need to make the LED cube:

1x LED Cube Kit
Provides the LEDs and all the structure required to create an LED cube
1x Rainbowduino
It is a special Arduino microcontroller built to control up-to 192 LEDs. 1x UartSB (USB-to-serial adaptor).
A USB to serial interface that is used to program the Rainbowduino (or for serial communication in general) trough a USB port. 1x USB Cable
A cable to hook-u the UartSB to the Computer 1x 9V Wall Adapter
A power supply that will power the cube once the assembly and programming are done.

STEP 2: Tools

Below is a list of tools which you will need to assemble the LED cube:

1x Wire Cutter
It will be used to cut the leads off components. 1x Soldering Iron
In order to solder all the (many) connections, a soldering station might be preferable since it provides steady and reliable temperature control that allows for easier and safer soldering (you have less risk of burning the components if the temperature is set correctly). 1x Third Hand (optional)
A third hand is always useful for holding components and parts when soldering. 1x Small Flat Head Screwdriver
This will be used for un/tightening terminal blocks   1x Computer
Necessary to program the Rainbowduino using the Arduino IDE

STEP 3: Assembly

  1. The first step is to assemble the LED cube kit. This kit is much easier to put together than the more common way of constructing an LED cube using the LED leads as the supporting structure.

    The kit includes all the parts required to hold the LED together and takes care of all the complex wiring. Full instruction on how to put the cube together are available in PDF format.

  2. Once the cube is assembled, we need to drive it in order to display cool stuff in it. For this, we use the Rainbowduino, an Arduino clone created specifically for driving massive amounts of LEDs. The cube fits directly on top of the Rainbowduino, and can provide power to it by using the included JST cable. When connecting both modules together, it is important to make sure the "Green" male headers from the LED cube match the "Green" female headers on the Rainbowduino. Also, it is important to set the Rainbowduino switch to “JST”.

  3. Now that all electrical connections are done, we need to write some software in order to make it display cool stuff in our new cube. We took the liberty of modifying, cleaning and updating the plasma code readily available for the Rainbowduino. This new code should display a nice smooth wave as of colours that propagates softly though the cube. The code can be downloaded from here: Rainbowduino-RGB-LED-Matrix-Plasma.zip.

    In order to upload this code to your Rainbowduino, you will need to use the Arduino software, so, if it is not already done, it has to be installed. Also you will need to install the USB-to-Serial adaptor drivers.

  4. Once the code and the Arduino software are downloaded and installed, simply unzip the code and open the .pde sketch file found inside of the unzipped folder using the Arduino software. Then, upload the sketch to the Rainbowduino using the USB-to-serial interface.

  5. Now that the Rainbowduino is programmed, simply remove the USB interface, plug-in the power adapter and admire the light show!

STEP 4: Programming

Of course, colourful lights are pretty and everything, but for those of you who would like to program your own patterns and animations, there are functions in the provided code that allow you to set the LEDs individually. You could also add some sensors and make the cube interactive. There are even some Xbee headers that could be used to send information to the cube remotely from a nearby computer Using an Xbee module.

On the physical side, you can make a cover for your cube out of paper, plastic, fabric or whatever other materials you have on hand (make sure the material is translucent though)

Finally, at the end of the construction, you will have many RGB LEDs and a bunch of male and female headers left-over. Make sure you put them to good use in your next project.

STEP 5: Get Your Own

For those of you wishing to make their own cube, you can use your own parts and buy the missing materials separately or you can get all the components in a convenient kit at RobotShop.

You are also invited to share your results and experience in the RobotShop Forum and by simply leaving a comment here.

7 Comments

alzie 10 years ago

I have done the rainbow cube and
it is awesome!
Actually, writing code to control it is a piece of cake.
Dont be afraid to get your feet wet.
Itll keep you busy for days!

richardoson 11 years ago

This looks great! I want to try your code on my Rainbowduino cube, but I have Rainbowduino v3.0b and yours in this project is v1.2. When I upload it, only 6 LEDs light and they don't color change. Do you happen to have, or could you update your code for the Rainbowduino v3.0?

RobotShop 11 years ago

You can find the latest code and samples here: http://seeedstudio.com/wiki/Rainbow_Cube

SuddleD 12 years ago

Is there other versions of the Plasma example code? I like it and I got it to work, but I would like to have more options, I was wondering if anyone has modded the Plasma code, or if there is other code available for the 4x4x4 cubes?

hatschel 13 years ago

this is is commercially kit,whats about with Diy?
soldering together?

gcampton 12 years ago

It doesn't really matter if it's DYI or not, this is the "Instructables" website. Instructables don't HAVE to be DYI projects. Instructables implies "Instructions" from the name. TBH though I did also think this was lame...

RobotShop 13 years ago

Hi hatschel,

DIY is certainly an option, and there are many people online who have made custom LED cubes using custom microcontrollers. One approach is to simply bend the connectors on each LED and solder them accordingly. Having the pre-made PCBs makes it easier to solder together (and aesthetic since it makes a perfect cube). If you have some ideas, we are open to showing different types of projects.