Anyone played around with these 3D LED CUBES?

[GT250]

Tempted to have a go, but there seems to be a lot of 'confusion';
1) About the parts one gets (as in are they all there?).
2) Some with Remote and some supplied with software (so unless you're a 'C' genius and can read Chinglese), it might be ok!

Was after a 8*8 Blue 3mm LED
Remote with preset patterns and preferably a 'random pattern' button and a Music 'sound' effect.
Don't mind doing the soldering But certainly don't want to get involved in the programming
Don't need a Perspex case either.

Anyone done one yet?

[ammlione]

A bit more expensive, but you can go to your local Jaycar see it running:

[tristen]

I haven't seen one or even heard of one until now.

Thanks for posting.

It's a lot less expensive at Aliexpress.

For starters, see or type 3D Lightsquared 8x8x8 Led Cube into their searchbox for many vendors.

It would be more than a little tedious assembling the 512 LED cube, which could be easily damaged unless potted in clear epoxy once completed.

[GT250]

Hi Tristen,

There are kits out there that come with a Perspex box (single sheets/sides supplied), you have to glue them up

I don't mind the soldering, but most kits I see are written in chinglese and one can't be sure of what one is getting.

As Ammlione says small kits can be bought, but requires that Arduino stuff and most (as far as I can see), of the other kits say "1 = Water Fall, 2 = Wave..." So that looks like a D/S setting and none of them say "Random'.

Be nice though to get a cube (possibly that Arduino), with patterns you could share with other 3D Cube people.


You can also buy them pre-made. But again what I have read the Chinglese about repairing/faults is off putting.

[trash]

Why don't you just buy a bag of 100 cheap arse LED's and start soldering and see how big you can make one just free standing by the solder leads?

Though personally if you want something that is the next step and looks f'awesome, why not use WS2812 5050 RGB LEDs?
That makes assembly a piece of piss.
ll you have to do is give each LED 5VDC and join them with one communications wire (Din and Dout) for each LED.

Then it's either a matter of just addressing. Lets say you have a 10x10x10 array. That's 1000 LED's on the bus writing at 800kbps or 30,000 pixels per second.
So you can address the entire array with a refresh of 30fps, full colour.

The bus speed, lets just say 1MBps is going to require something with a reasonable clock speed.
I tried to drive an array with an 8MHz PIC chip. It's just not fast enough to move data around and get it onto the serial bus if you're trying to do complex stuff.
But with a 20MHz PIC, there's heaps of time to write up display memory and manipulate it and bit bang it out a port.

[GT250]

I'll get on it right away Trash

[trash]

if ya need some code or some help, let me know. But buying a strip of them for like $20 is the way to go, that way all they need is 5V and an MCU that can bit bang at >1MBps.
It takes an hour to read through the white paper on them, but if you have somebody explain them, it's about 2 minutes.

[weirdo]

Are they your mardi gras rollers?

[Krustyone]

I built one of these many moons ago.