Share My Creation 4X4X4 LED CUBE

Hi Guys....

It gives me great pleasure to be the first sharing my creation with B4R!

This is one of those "everyone builds this" kind of thing, and there are literally thousands of examples using Arduino to builds this, as well of other variations...

This is my 4X4X4 LED CUBE

Materials:

64 Leds, I'm using white-bright 5mm ones
20 connection cables
1 Arduino compatible board with at least 20 I/O pins
Patience... lots of it

and of course, B4R IDE

Obs...Most of the designs I found, use Transistors as a switch to enable each layer... But I found one designe that didn't use them, instead, it connected each layer wire to an analogic pin (A0-A5) and set it to 0, witch seems to simply connect it to GND.

The CUBE construction is the thing that will take the longest and that is more prone to mistakes.
Here a base representation of it:

I decided to build mine "freehanded" and thus not use any kind of positioning jig... This resulted in a "FrankenVersion" of this base wiring... Not pretty, but it works!

Here's my CUBE:

An this is the wirings (remember that I do not use those transistors) ....

So, each layer consists of 16 Leds, common ground.
Each Ground (there are 4 of them) is connected to an Analogic pin (A0-A3) and the remaining 16 pins each go to a LED column.

Here is my CUBE at work!

Now, The B4R part....

First I declared 2 global Arrays, One 4 in size, and the other 16 in size, These refer to each led in each layer...
Then comes the dimming... Yes, 20 of them.
Then its all a matter of turning on the leds in sequence... just for testing...

Sub Process_Globals
    'These global variables will be declared once when the application starts.
    'Public variables can be accessed from all modules.
    Private PinVcc(16) As Pin 'Rows
    Private PinGnd(4) As Pin 'Colloms
End Sub

Public Sub Initialize
    PinGnd(0).Initialize(PinGnd(0).A0, PinGnd(0).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinGnd(1).Initialize(PinGnd(1).A1, PinGnd(1).MODE_outPUT)
    PinGnd(2).Initialize(PinGnd(2).A2, PinGnd(2).MODE_outPUT)
    PinGnd(3).Initialize(PinGnd(3).A3, PinGnd(3).MODE_outPUT)

    PinVcc(0).Initialize(PinVcc(0).A4, PinVcc(0).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(1).Initialize(PinVcc(1).A5, PinVcc(1).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(2).Initialize(0, PinVcc(2).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(3).Initialize(1, PinVcc(3).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(4).Initialize(2, PinVcc(4).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(5).Initialize(3, PinVcc(5).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(6).Initialize(4, PinVcc(6).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(7).Initialize(5, PinVcc(7).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(8).Initialize(6, PinVcc(8).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(9).Initialize(7, PinVcc(9).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(10).Initialize(8, PinVcc(10).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(11).Initialize(9, PinVcc(11).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(12).Initialize(10, PinVcc(12).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(13).Initialize(11, PinVcc(13).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(14).Initialize(12, PinVcc(14).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(15).Initialize(13, PinVcc(15).MODE_OUTPUT)
   
    Reset   

End Sub

Public Sub Reset
    For n = 0 To 3
        PinGnd(n).DigitalWrite(True)
    Next
    For n = 0 To 15
        PinVcc(0).DigitalWrite(False)
    Next
End Sub

Public Sub TestLeds
    SequenceLeds
    Reset
    SequenceLayers
    Reset


End Sub

Private Sub SequenceLeds As Boolean
    For x = 0 To 3
        PinGnd(x).DigitalWrite(False)
        For n = 0 To 15
            PinVcc(n).DigitalWrite(True)
            Delay(100)
            PinVcc(n).DigitalWrite(False)   
        Next
        PinGnd(x).DigitalWrite(True)
    Next
    Return True
End Sub

private Sub SequenceLayers As Boolean
    For x = 0 To 3
        PinGnd(x).DigitalWrite(False)
        For n = 0 To 15
            PinVcc(n).DigitalWrite(True)   
        Next
        Delay(200)
        PinGnd(x).DigitalWrite(True)
    Next
    Return True
End Sub

Public Sub LED(n As Int, ON As Boolean)
    Dim row As Int = n/16
    Dim collomn As Int = ( n -( 16 * row ))
    If ON = True Then
        PinGnd(row).DigitalWrite(False)
        PinVcc(collomn).DigitalWrite(True)
    Else
        PinGnd(row).DigitalWrite(True)
        PinVcc(collomn).DigitalWrite(False)
    End If
End Sub

One note, since the TX/RX pins are also used to control leds, and I didn't eliminate the "serial.initialize(..." part, those leds are always in a variable ON state, reflecting the flow in TX/RX...

This is still very far from being a finished "art piece", and its only purpose was to be the first in the share your creations forum!
Maybe I will build a better and proper 8X8X8 RGB B4R controlled Cube in a near future...

 

[sorex]

Here is my CUBE at work!

is there a video or video link missing here?

 

[Cableguy]

The first post is now complete!

 

[wonder]

Make it RGB (1204, 1204, 1204) and you'll have an HD-ish 3D "holographic" display.

You could even start your own business! I'd buy it!

 

[Cableguy]

Make it RGB (1204, 1204, 1204) and you'll have an HD-ish 3D "holographic" display.

You could even start your own business! I'd buy it!

I don't think that could be done with Arduino....
not that it isn't capable of controlling all those leds, using addressable rgb leds would make it easy, but to control the data flow, would be a pain!!!
I do plan to start making things...
I received my nano, and it really is ... nano!

 

[JordiCP]

Looks nice. Congrats!

Is it a cat (on the top right) moving its tail when the cube leds are lighting?

 

[Cableguy]

Looks nice. Congrats!

Is it a cat (on the top right) moving its tail when the cube leds are lighting?

indeed it is!

 

[Beja]

Your very patient.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[wonder]

Can you add x, y, z functions?

'Switches an individual LED ON/OFF
Sub LED_Switch(x As Int, y As Int, z As Int)
    'Something like this:
    LED(x, y, z).State = Not(LED(x, y, z).State)
End Sub

'Switches an individual LED ON
Sub LED_On(x As Int, y As Int, z As Int)
    'Something like this:
    LED(x, y, z).State = True
End Sub

'Switches an individual LED OFF
Sub LED_Off(x As Int, y As Int, z As Int)
    'Something like this:
    LED(x, y, z).State = False
End Sub

This project is really cool!! If you write such functions, I'll write a small game for it!
On a bigger cube, we could even load 3D .obj files!!

 

[Erel]

You can replace this code:

    PinVcc(2).Initialize(0, PinVcc(2).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(3).Initialize(1, PinVcc(3).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(4).Initialize(2, PinVcc(4).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(5).Initialize(3, PinVcc(5).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(6).Initialize(4, PinVcc(6).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(7).Initialize(5, PinVcc(7).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(8).Initialize(6, PinVcc(8).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(9).Initialize(7, PinVcc(9).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(10).Initialize(8, PinVcc(10).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(11).Initialize(9, PinVcc(11).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(12).Initialize(10, PinVcc(12).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(13).Initialize(11, PinVcc(13).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(14).Initialize(12, PinVcc(14).MODE_OUTPUT)
    PinVcc(15).Initialize(13, PinVcc(15).MODE_OUTPUT)

With:

For i = 2 To PinVCC.Length - 1
 PinVCC(i).Initialize(i - 2, PinVCC(i).MODE_OUTPUT)
Next

 

[Cableguy]

Can you add x, y, z functions?

'Switches an individual LED ON/OFF
Sub LED_Switch(x As Int, y As Int, z As Int)
    'Something like this:
    LED(x, y, z).State = Not(LED(x, y, z).State)
End Sub

'Switches an individual LED ON
Sub LED_On(x As Int, y As Int, z As Int)
    'Something like this:
    LED(x, y, z).State = True
End Sub

'Switches an individual LED OFF
Sub LED_Off(x As Int, y As Int, z As Int)
    'Something like this:
    LED(x, y, z).State = False
End Sub

This project is really cool!! If you write such functions, I'll write a small game for it!
On a bigger cube, we could even load 3D .obj files!!

I have implemented a Led(x as int, ON as boolean) being x an int from 0 to 63...
I will have a play with the x,y,Z suggestion

 

[Peter Simpson]

Very nice work @Cableguy