

Visit Quadrum on GitHub! The GitHub repository contains the Quadrum source code together with license agreement and other information.Īltough there currently is no library for microcontrollers other than Arduino, the Quadrum editor does not care whether the device on the other end of the serial bus is an Arduino or not as long as it responds in a similar way. This quick tutorial will explain in step-by-step how you can implement Quadrum on your cube. Animations can be streamed in real-time from the editor to the LED-Cube with the help of an Arduino library, alternatively get uploaded to the Arduino through the use of the editor’s code generating function. Quadrum is an open-source LED-Cube framework that helps you create and upload animations to the cube (the cube can have sizes between 2x2x2 and 8x8x8). Together with an awesome 3D-screen as an end result, you will learn how to solder, control a large number of LED:s, program microcontrollers and much more! The final circuit uses a 2N2222A NPN-Transistor and a FQP27P06 P-Channel MOSFET for each layer, and no extra transistors for the shift registers.LED-Cubes are fun DIY electronics projects that (depending on the cube size) can be really beginner-fiendly. This resulted a lot of unnecessary circuit, which I was later able to eliminate. I made a mistake in wiring the ground of the shift register to the AREF pin of the Arduino instead of GND.

However, it took many more hours to build compared to the usual led cube.

The result is an impressive 11"x11"x11" cube. Larger cube also meant more fragile cube. More soldering, having to deal with alignment of the extra wires. My desire to spread the LEDs beyond the length of the LED leads added a LOT of complexity to the cube construction.

Quickly setting up which of those LEDs on that layer should be on and then repeating that for the other layers, gives the illusion that we can individually control every individual LED. I decided that I'm not ready for RGB version yet, so I'm only building single color.Įlectrically, the cube is made up of 64 pillars containing 8 LEDs each.Įight 8-bit shift registers (74HC595) supplies the GROUND for those pillars.Įach layer of the cube shares a common +5V switched by a P-Channel MOSFET, for a total of 8 MOSFETs.Īt any time, a maximum of 64 LEDs of ONE particular layer would be all lit up. I found the 4x4x4 RGB cube very rewarding to build so I'm moving up to 8x8x8.
