The 4x4x4 LED cube (Arduino)

Step 1: The 4x4x4 LED cube (Arduino)

In this instructable I will show you how to make a 4x4x4 LED cube that will be controlled by an Arduino Demulionove. now yes you might say" that Arduino has only 14 I/O pins well also the 6 analog pins can be used as pins 15,16,17,18,19,20. that way giving us enough pins (16 columns + 4layers = 20 I/O pins)

This instructable is made for those who know how to solder (well) and how to program the Arduino. Also I will be providing detours to skip sum steps so if you see (Detour available skip to __ Step) you can follow if you are to lazy to do that.

Step 2: Get the materials

To start of you will need these materials:

Mandatory
-- 64 LED (color optional) **
-- Arduino Demulionove
-- Wire

Optional
--32 male pin strip
--PCB prototype board
--Fine Grit (400 +) sand paper

Your choice
-- 64 resistors or 16
you can get 64 resistors which will help by keeping all the lights at the same light out put regardless of how many are on but it will be considerably more work.

Tools:
--Computer
--Soldering Iron
--Solder
--thin nose pliers

**Color is optional but use this website to find the right resistor for your leds http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz (I got Green so I used 100 ohm resistors)

Step 3: assemble the board(the LED cube base)

(Detour available skip to next step)

In this step you will need the board and the wiring. First you will want to map out were all the wires will go and then feed the wires through the board. Don't mind the LED and resistor note on the picture for now.

NOTE: I recommend you use Different color wire just because you won't get confused which wire is which.

Step 4: Defuse the LED

DETOUR if you don't want to do this then go to next step

So to defuse the LED I took normal 400 grit sand paper and sanded all the LEDs which made them look pretty good.

Step 5: Construct the cube

Now there is the Easy way to do this and that is to connect all the (--) in one layer and then the columns (+) to the resistor and then board. (Look at picture diagram below) what happens is when you turn it on (all of them) the lights are dimmer then when one is on.

My solution to this was to solder a 100 ohm resistor to each LED. (Follow picture instruction on how to do it.) Everything is done in the same way only now you solder all the resistors to the column which is a piece of Ethernet wire. (See picture)

Step 6: PROGRAM

Good job on making it too this step now all you need to do is upload this code and you are done.

the code did not fit the line so here it is

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Step 7: ADD on

so to program the cube all you need to do is change the

B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, B1111, 80,

code
each B1111 corresponds to a line of LEDs in your cube 0 being off and 1 being on. The last number is the time it will display that part in milliseconds.