Close

It's easier to do it when you're laying down

A project log for 8x8x8 Blue LED Cube

512 LEDs driven by an Arduino via eight shift-registers and eight MOSFETs

hari-wigunaHari Wiguna 06/17/2014 at 05:320 Comments

Thanks to my fellow makers BrianM and TonyF for helping me solve the forest of 64 vertical wires!  As you've seen from my previous updates, I've been soldering 64 LEDs as horizontal layers.  This is a mistake!!  Once I have all all eight layers, soldering in a forest of 64 vertical cathode wires would be very difficult if not impossible.  I've seen others solve this by creating pillars or vertical walls of LEDs instead of horizontal layers of LEDs.  The next problem is how to keep the vertical wires straight up while also keeping the LED rows lined up.  BrianM came up with a brilliant solution! Lay them flat on the table!  Although we're making a wall of LEDs, there is no reason why we can't lay them flat while we solder them.  I made a jig using my 3D printer and as you can see, it works very well.  I just need to print a few more so I can solder the whole wall at once without moving the jig.

Discussions