LED 7x7x7 Cube & Effects Generator

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
Might I suggest a clear acrylic box around the cube?

The tin plated steel wiring and tin plated LED legs will eventually discolour and oxidise, and that will be made much worse from airborne dust etc settling on the exposed wiring and being hydroscopic.
 

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mhutchie1

Joined Jan 21, 2013
17
The processing software that I wrote has two modes:

1. Basic manual Method - A UI with seven, 7x7 grids, with a live output of that frame ready to be dumped in the arduino.

2. Effects Mode - Customised to import scripts that can generate a specified number of frames of an effect. "I want 50 frames of rain, each lasting 75 ms" is what this component would generate.
 

Thread Starter

mhutchie1

Joined Jan 21, 2013
17
In the original prototype shown in the video I just have a large array of binary representative data, however I am now working on loading the frames live over serial. I choose to avoid file storage on the arduino.
 

rrussev

Joined Jan 23, 2013
1
Hi, Very good project! Unfortunately I’m not so good to write the C code on my own. Would you be so kind to share the code from the video? <SNIP> Thank you!
 
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If possible Please give us a full tutorial and code .. I'd really like to make one just like this ... saw simialr on insturctables but want to use an Arduino in mine , just like yours .. I havent made anything like this before so would need lots of details


I recently finished constructing and programming a 7x7x7 Blue LED Cube, so I thought I'd share a brief overview of the Cube itself. Please ask any questions if you are interested in making a cube, hopefully I can help you out.



Parts List:
• 343x Blue LED’s
• 49x 470 Ohm Resistors
• 7x 2N2222AG Transistors
• Approximately 30m of 0.9mm galvanised steel wire
• 1x Arduino Mega 2560

Equipment Used:
• Soldering Iron
• Heatsink
• Pliers
• Multimeter
• Vice

Software Used:
• Arduino Development Platform
• Processing (Used to design the frames & effects)

The cube is able to process 142 frames per second, that is, 1 frame every 7 milliseconds. Within this time period, it loops through a still frame 7 times (Each cycle of POV lasts 144 microseconds). This is able to compensate for flickering during video recording, allowing all camera’s to record fluid video without distortion.

The cube itself is controlled with an Arduino Mega 2560. For each frame in memory, the Arduino reads and bit shifts 49 bytes of data for an encoded duration. This allows for the cube to be applied to a variety of purposes, from text display to effects to music visualization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCjsbNEUUE

The frames were generated through complex Processing scripts, allowing for a multitude of operations such as shifting in any direction (seen in the rain effect), and an edge shift (seen in the scrolling text around the outside of the cube). These scripts were used to perform the basis of calculations for fireworks, as well as sine waves in 1, 2 & 3 dimensions (seen in the video).



In this cube the supporting structure was made 0.9 mm galvanized steel wire, straightened by stretching the wire. The 5mm Blue LED’s are positioned 30mm apart, with the anodes being attached to the verticals (white wires in the image above) & the cathodes are attached to the horizontal layers (green wires in the image above – bottom right – shown passing through NPN transistors). The Arduino Mega 2560 R3 is positioned on a suspended platform, with the anodes controlled on the Digital Pins as opposed to the cathodes on remapped Analog Inputs.

As the cube is divided into layers (shown in the schematics) I made a template with drill pressed holes that I could fit the 49 LED's in with a spacing of 30mm while soldering the layer. By using a template, the LED's were aligned consistently. On the wooden template, I attached several lugs that allowed me to position the structural layers consistently and accurately. Soldering the layers took me approximately 6 hours, as all of the LED's legs need to be bent to attach to the structure.

I then made a jig out of foam that allowed me to join the first two layers. Layers are joined by soldering vertical straight pieces of galvanised wire to the anodes of the LED's. Once I had done two layers, I shifted the jig up a layer, and mounted the next layer until I had joined all seven layers.



The vertical wires (49 of them) attach to the Arduino on Digital Pins 0-48 directly, shown in the above schematic. At this stage, you essentially have a 2D display with 49 pixels.

To add the third dimension, a small circuit is required (shown below), which uses seven transistors (one for each layer) to connect the cathodes to ground in sequence, so a 1 pixel resolution is the result. This could be done through an IC, however I opted for a small prototyping board, which has seven transistors (I used 2N2222AG - High Speed). The emitters of these transistors are wired to a common ground on the Arduino Mega 2560, each collector is connected to one of the layers, and then the base's are connected to the Arduino's Analog Pins A0-A6.



Please feel free to ask any question, I more than happy to help!

Hutchie
 

RRITESH KAKKAR

Joined Jun 29, 2010
2,829
In the original prototype shown in the video I just have a large array of binary representative data, however I am now working on loading the frames live over serial. I choose to avoid file storage on the arduino.
If we want to store hex data then what to do??
 

jmoffat

Joined Jul 18, 2012
42
I am really impressed with your project. I have been looking at LED cube projects for some time now and I would like to copy your work

A lot of people here would like to see your code even if if it is not fully commented and polished. Also where did you those leds from? Do those leds have conical depressions in the top?
 

dougy88

Joined Feb 10, 2013
1
Hi,
Im currently halfway threw an identical project for my uni course but have become stuck on creating visulisations. Ive got a fully functional program but i am currently having to write all the bit code manually, very time consuming!
How did you use the processing software to generate code and would it be possible to see yours.
Project looks ace btw, ill upload some pictures of mine when i can.
Thanks.
 
Well, I'm just finishing the build on the cube... that's the easy part for me.
The part I struggle with is the coding.
Do you plan on posting your demo code to this forum soon???

Thanks... this is a great project!

Tomk
 

Anonigga

Joined Mar 31, 2013
1
Hey man,

Super nice cube you made. I'm just wondering about the components used and how you know what to use.
With the transistors, how did you know which transistor to use? And did you use any resistors between the transistors and the arduino?
I'm making a 5x5x5 led cube, how do you know how much resistance to use for the bottom LEDs, some way to calculate that?

That's all for now i think

Thanks for your help so far ;)
 
Hello, is someone had the code? I have the same cube but without transistor and when a lot of led are on on a same level, the luminosity is very light. Do I need a external power , (I use the USB power) .
thanks for answer
 
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