Only On Saturday Night

ViCuEd

Thanks to John, this Red+Blue=Magenta cube now operates efficiently.

This picture shows 3 of the colors, Red, Green and both together making an Yellow. The Red does not come through very well in pictures. The colors exist only in "persistance of vision". Newest PCB(3) supports 8x8x8 dual-color cubes.	Dual-Color 5x5x5 Led Cube. Includes the ViCuEd Editor. This one uses Red/Green dual-color leds. This gives 64 colors, from Red to Green. PCB supports 5x5x5 or smaller.

Figure 1	Figure 2	Figure 3
4x4x4 Led Cube. Hi efficiency red led's, in common cathode configuration. PIC-16F636, 74H595's. Click Figure 1 for AVI. 4x4x4-2.3g2 Second movie, shows intensity flashing.	5x5x5 Led Cube. Non-color matched yellow led's. in common cathode configuration. PIC-16F74/77, 2N3904's. Click Figure 2 for 3G2.	3x3x3 Led Cube. Standard quality yellow led's, in common cathode configuration. PIC-16F636, 74HC595's, Dual N-FET soic's. Click Figure 3 for AVI. Bad pix, camera CCD going out.
Schematic in JPG Right-click "view image"	Schematic in JPG Right-click "view image"	Schematic in JPG Right-click "view image"
This one works great with those 3mm high-efficiency led's. A bit fragile, though. Digikey, 70 each cost: ~$5.11. Cube: Adjustable speed for each "frame" of  "video". Added: 4 levels of  "brightness" per "frame". Patterns: Length limited to 6 pages, where each page has 30 frames.	The PIC-16F74 is driving the whole cube. It tends to be not so bright with these type of led's. Added P-FET's for more anode drive (not shown).	The empty sockets are for the 74HC595's, which are now installed.

 

Figure 4 White 4x4x4 LED Cube. LED's salvaged from two 50-count Christmas Light strings. Thanks to Albertson's. Actually they're not quite white, but a bit on the yellow side.	Figure 5 Amber LED's; clear, oval body. On 1" centers. This is a remake of Figure 2.	Figure 6 White LED's from Rite-Aid Christmas light strings, they are the pull-apart kind. On 1 inch centers. With maple base. These are the best LED's that I've found. Sold.
Common Anode Cube. No Schematic. No AVI.	Thanks to local companies for the LED samples. Thanks to Microchip for the PIC samples.	Click for Schematic. Click for close-up.
This cube seems really bright. It was originally running with a PIC-16F636 and two 74ACT164's, with 4  each P-Fet high-side anode drivers. Now it is using 74HC595's and still has the  P-Fet's. Reason: I thought the board was dead, but it was just programmed to "do nothing".	New circuit board, 25 P-Fets for anode drive, 5 N-Fet's for common cathode layers. No shift registers, PIC-16F77. (two pins left over for bit-serial-eeproms)	New Circuit. Using: PIC-16F877A (20MHz), CAT4016 (2ea), P-Fet's (5ea) Now using dual 24LC512 bit-serial eeproms, for pattern storage.

ViCuEd, Pronounced Vi-Que-Ed.	Cube Editing Commands: W Write to 24LC512, copies one current edited frame to I2C eeprom. "~" Go directly to Player. Use rotary switch for eeprom selection. m Movie. Playback of frames, using Repeats & Page counts. (5x5x5=12 frames/page, 8x8x8=3) @ Start at, starts movie at any page in I2C eeproms, @###. { Page counter, So now you can start at any page and only play that page, {###}. \ Repeat movie down-counter. Repeat the three commands above. v Pull/View one cube frame from I2C eeprom, no cursor until any-key-hit. To see without cursor. n Goto next I2C eeprom frame address. A 5x5x5 has 12 per 0x0100 bytes, 8x8x8=3. p Asks for 3 digits, sets I2C eeprom page (upper address). Zero-based. [ Asks for 2 digits. sets frame [##]. Zero-based. Mostly for checking editing. x Go to next I2C eeprom. Switches, then prints X0, X1, X2.... Supports 8 each 24LC256's. . Prints: p###[##] s### b# x# g# , Prints: @### {###} \###. E Erase the current visible frame buffer. Not the I2C frame. T Erase the 4 local cube frame buffers.Useful at power-up. H Home the cursor. Fourth Quad. R Cold reset, similar to pushing MCU reset. l Linear move cursor, wraps, stays in layer. h Reverse linear move, wraps. j Jump layers, wraps, stays in column. k Reverse jump layers. i Move in columns, wraps, stays in layer & row. ; Reverse move in columns. f Fix or set a pixel under cursor. d Delete a pixel under cursor. c Change/XOR a pixel. z Set brightness per layer, 1 digit input. b Set brightness whole frame, 1 digit input. s Set speed of frame, 3 digit input. g Get/flip through 4 local frame buffers. All saveable to I2C eeprom. (5x5x5 only) / Comment command. Ignores line until first <Enter>.
Figure 7	Flying Bird. A short 3G2 clip.
8x8x8, common anodes, Quad shift-reg's. PIC-16F877A, 20MHz crystal, CAT4016 (4ea), P-Fet's (8ea). Sockets for 2 each I2C 24LCXXX's, for pattern storage & retrieval. Linear socket, for ECB containing a third I2C 24LCXXX. Rotary switch to select: Edit or Play. In Play, select: Rom(0..7) or Random#'s.	A Led Cube Editor through RS-232, 9600, N81. Edit cube frames (shows real-time brightness), save cube frames, replay all frames (24LC256 size). Can save to / read from 24LC64/128/256/512 or 24LC02/04. Manual movers around in the cube, set/delete pixels. Has 4 local copies to work from. Can work with 3x3x3, 4x4x4, 5x5x5, 6x6x6, 7x7x7, or 8x8x8 cubes.
PCB from ExpressPCB. 02/10/2010	Make dos-script files to send to ViCuEd. It executes all commands or draws them on the fly. The "terminal software" used for "downloading": TeraTerm 3.13.
Future: (Done) Considering using 3 lead Red/Green common cathode LED's. This would give red, green and yellow colors. Would require new firmware but no ECB changes.

Movie More movies on YouTube, idezilla's channel.

Short Clip, YouTube Ignore the barking dog, he's just protecting his 8lb territory. Latest PCB, Rev.3

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