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| 3X3X3 RGB Cube |
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| I recently saw the Make: Weekend Projects Podcast about their 3x3x3
green led cube and decided to make one, only better. A while ago I
bough 50 RGB LEDs on E-Bay for $25 from Hong Kong (50 RGB LEDs normally
cost around $100!) each one worked perfectly. The LEDs were
water clear so to diffuse them I used rough sand paper until they had
a nice frost to them. Then I first made each layer. On each layer
every red, green, and blue pins are connected. With each column the
grounds are connected. This way I only have to use 18 I/O pins to
control 27 RGB LEDs! (equal to 81 one color LEDs!) The cube was then
connected to the 16F777 and was ready to go.The source code
may be downloaded here.
I use MikroC (demo) for my compiler.
The Schematic is here. Here is a short clip of all the patterns I currently have. Here are some pictures. 
 |
| 2/26/08 |
The kit is almost ready! I just need to write the code. Sadly when I tried to use C the PIC16F767 was too slow to show more then 1000 colors (10 shades each). Even with only 1000 colors it took 95% of the time to run so I am now re-writing it all in assembly. Saddly though my PIC programmer stopped working so I ordered a PicKit 2 from Mouser. In my time waiting the the parts I wrote the instructions. You can download it here. Here is a picture of a completed one.  |
| 3/2/08 |
| I received my new Pickit2 programmer as I could not get the one I had to work on Ubuntu or on virtualbox (windows inside of Ubuntu). I got the Pickit2 working today on Ubuntu using PK2. I am using the 3.00 alpha version as my Pickit2 is version 2.04. So far I have not noticed any problems with it and the ICSP is very nice. Before I was popping the PIC in and out of the cube now I just press a few buttons and it is reprogrammed. Any one who is looking for a programmer I would highly recommend the Pickit2. It supports all kinds of PICs and some dsPICs too. It is only around $35 from Mouser (just the programmer) or you can buy it from Microchip directly. I started to make the code for the cube. Assembly is not the easiest thing to use. I wrote a delay for it (seconds and ms) and tested the pin output. The PCB does have an error, but it is on the silkscreen. The LED labeled G are actually blue and the B LED are green. I hope that I can finish the code within a week or two now that everything is working again. |
| 25/11/08 |
| The cube is for sale on Embedded Micro! Kit and a pre-assembled versions will be available. |