4x4x4 LED Cube Arduino

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4x4x4 LED Cube Arduino by jtmanders on August 5, 2012

Table of Contents

4x4x4 LED Cube Arduino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Intro: 4x4x4 LED Cube Arduino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Step 1: Prepare The LED's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Step 2: Solder the LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Step 3: Build the Circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Step 4: Connecting the Cube To Arduino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Step 5: Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

http://www.instructables.com/id/4x4x4-LED-Cube-Arduino/

Author:jtmanders I like Arduino :)

Intro: 4x4x4 LED Cube Arduino After seeing all the different instructables for Led cubes i was still left with a lot of unanswered questions. So after reading everything i could find this is what i got. I decided to make the instructable after building it...so ill try to recreate the process the best i can. This cube is different from others for many reasons: 1. It connects directly to your Arduino. 2. It uses few components, so its relatively inexpensive. 3. Runs on code that's easy to write. or you can use the ones provided. 4. Everything can be bought at your local Radio Shack Parts Needed: 64 diffused LED Lights (it cost a lot less to order 1000 off ebay for around $20) (Also i used 3mm LEDs, but 5mm or 8mm would work to) 16 220 resistors 4 22k resistors 4 NPN type Transistors 1-2 Perfboard (The kind with the little copper circles) (you only need one if you are good at compacting your soldering unlike me....) 1 Arduino (I went ahead and bought a MEGA so there's room to expand fro future projects, however UNO has just enough i/ o ports) Insulated 22 gauge Wire some craft wire Knowledge Needed: Basic electronics and soldering be capable of following directions

Image Notes 1. Every thing connected to arduino


Image Notes 1. Craft Wire to construct the cube with 2. Craft Wire to construct cube with

Image Notes 1. 1000 LED lights (Not necessary, but much cheaper than Radio Shack) Buy them in Bulk from China on ebay...


Step 1: Prepare 1: Prepare The LED's The first thing you must do is make the cube. If you look at the pictures of mine the LED's are not all just soldered to each other. This is because I actually made all the wiring and circuitry when i was waiting for my LED's to get here from China....(Note that it takes about two weeks for the lights to get to you). Therefore when Finally got the LED's they were a lot smaller than i anticipated, and i did not want to redo my circuit board, so i just made frames out of craft wire to hook all the cathodes to. After i started to do that i then realized that it would the be shorter than it is tall making it a rectangle rather than a cube. So that's when i added the vertical columns of wire to solder the anodes too. The cube is split into 4 l ayers of 16 LEDS. All the LEDs aligned in a vertical column share a common anode (+). All the LEDs on a horizontal l ayer share a common cathode (-). Now if i want to light up the LED in the upper left corner in the back (0,0,3), I just supply GND (-) to the upper layer, and VCC (+) to the column in the left corner. To begin the Construction of the cube use a drill with the proper size drill bit to make holes in a piece of wood. draw a grid to the size of the cube you want. (this is determined by how long the leads are on your LED's. Your going to want to test you LED's before you solder them into place because it would be sad if you put your cube together and had one in the middle that didn't work. I'm sure they would be pretty hard to replace. So just use a 3v battery between the two legs of the LED. (long leg is positive, short is negative)

Image Notes 1. Cathode (Short) Negative 2. Anode (Long) Positive


Image Notes 1. anodes make the columns 2. cathodes make up the layers

Image Notes 1. Test your LEDs!!! 2. 3v Battery

Step 2: Solder 2: Solder the LEDs To solder all the LEDs together i used alligator clips to help hold everything t ogether. As i said before, i decided to to this after i built it, so i don't really have any pictures of the building process. However the pictures below are excally what it should look like. These are from Chr's instructable for his 4x4x4 cube . cube . Also there is additional information on his that may not be included on mine. So go r ead his too. First make all four layers, then solder the layers together.

Image Notes 1. Use alligator clips to Hold the LEDs while you solder them....the clip gets hot after a while!!


Image Notes 1. all the anodes should stick up, and all the cathodes should be soldered together.

Image Notes 1. One finished, just make three more

Image Notes 1. After making all four layers, Solder them all together

Image Notes 1. Close up Of joint

Step 3: Build 3: Build the Circuit The circuit is pretty simple. Each of the 16 columns will connect to a pin on the Arduino through a current limiting resistor. Each of the four levels connects to ground via a NPN transistor when activated by an Arduino pin. I drew these drawings if you can understand my way of labeling. First Make the Transistor arrays: Its made with 4 NPN t ype transistors. and 22k ohm resistors. In a nut shell connect all the collectors together, theses all go to a ground pin on the Arduino. Then all four bases should go their own pin on the Ar duino. Lastly the Emitters should go to the layers on the Cube. (Look at picture 2 and it will make since. The first picture is of both boards to understand how they connect to each other and the Arduino. The second picture is my drawing of the transistor array controlling the 4 ground layers. The third picture is the actual Transistor ground board. (The Bottom) The Forth picture is the actual Transistor ground board. (The Top) Second Make the main cube board: All that really happens on this board is that all 16 columns are connected to the Arduino through a 220 ohm r esistor. Also all four layers come into this board and then leave to the transistor Board. The fifth picture is of the entire Cube board. As you see all columns are connected to a 220 ohm resistor the another wire comes out the top of the board and goes to the Arduino. Also you will notice that the wires are kinda on the resistor backwards to common since. this is because the fi rst time i did this i completely forgot the resistors....so i did some improvising and it is kinda backwards to normal thinking. Therefore you be smart and do it right the first time. so if you do it right it does not have to look like mine however you can if you want. The sixth picture is a close up of all the connections. The four big solder trails are the 4 ground layers that leave the board to the transistor board. The seventh Picture is of the top of the board showing where the wires leave and go to. The eight picture shows where the Layers enter t he board. Just connect a piece of stripped wir e to the layer and then bring it down to the board. make sure these wires don't touch any other wires .... this would cause a short. however take all the insulation off so that you cant really see them in the cube. The ninth picture shows the connection between the two boards. As i said before, i am not that good at soldering yet. if your good you could cram all this on one board rather than two.


Image Notes 1. This is everything on the main board 2. this is the ground Board 3. Key: Blue: Where columns are soldered on board. Green: Wiring Red: where Layer wires enter board. Purple: Where wires leave Board Orange: Resistors Black Transistors

Image Notes 1. Base 2. Collector 3. emmiter 4. All of these are 22k ohm resistors 5. Layer 1: Bottom layer on cube, Pin 16 on Arduino 6. Layer 2: the secound form bottom layer, Pin 17 on arduino 7. Layer 3: 3rd from bottom, pin 18 on Arduino 8. Layer 4: Top Layer, pin 19 on Arduino 9. These are all NPN type transistors 10. To Ground pin on Arduino 11. To Layer 1 on cube 12. To layer 2 on cube 13. To Layer three on cube 14. To layer 4 on cube

Image Notes 1. Wires from cube 2. Wires to arduino


Image Notes 1. The 16 Columns 2. Layers 1-3 layer 4 is over there <----3. Wires From cube into resistor 4. Wires leaving resistor to wires on top of board connecting to Arduino

Image Notes 1. From th2 16 colums 2. From resistor to arduino 3. If your smart you will flip this around so that the wire coming from the cube are on top and the wires going to the arduino are closer to the edge of the board 4. the 4 Ground Layers

Image Notes 1. Wires going to Arduino 2. Tape to prevent pulling a wire out of the board 3. Wires leaving to the transistors

Image Notes 1. Layer 1 entering board 2. Layer 2 entering Board 3. Layer 3 entering board 4. Layer 4 entering board 5. The red dots show the solder trails on the bottom of the board


Image Notes 1. The connection between the two boards

Step 4: Connecting 4: Connecting the Cube To Arduino The cube is connected as follows: column # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 L1 L2 L3 L4 Pin# 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 14 15 16 17 18 19 Pictures explain better than words.....

Image Notes 1. To arduino pins in order left to right 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 14 15 2. From Columns

Image Notes 1. Column numbers


Image Notes 1. Base 2. Collector 3. emmiter 4. All of these are 22k ohm resistors 5. Layer 1: Bottom layer on cube, Pin 16 on Arduino 6. Layer 2: the secound form bottom layer, Pin 17 on arduino 7. Layer 3: 3rd from bottom, pin 18 on Arduino 8. Layer 4: Top Layer, pin 19 on Arduino 9. These are all NPN type transistors 10. To Ground pin on Arduino 11. To Layer 1 on cube 12. To layer 2 on cube 13. To Layer three on cube 14. To layer 4 on cube

Image Notes 1. Every thing connected to arduino

Step 5: Programming 5: Programming First i wrote a few simple codes just using simple digitalWrite commands to turn lights on and off...then i found a few different codes on the internet. 4x4 LED sequence 1 and 2 are very simple LED Show 1 is a full show that found on the internet LED Show 2 is another one that is different but it does really the same thing over and over Ledcube 3x3x3 show is one i found. as the tit le says its only 3x3x3 however it still works on the cube, it just doesn't use all the lights.... im currently writing my own code for it and i will put it on here when i finish.... Comment if you have any questions or would like to share ideas or creations! Thanks for Reading!!

File Downloads

LED Shows.zip (7 KB) [NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'LED Shows.zip']

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