LED Cube

Many years ago, when I was just starting to get into hobby electronics, I was perusing the internet (like I do every Tuesday). I came across someone's article that involved a 3x3x3 LED Cube. I thought "Oh my, I have to make one!" My sister's birthday

was coming up, so I decided to have it done before then. This was in March. 

I more or less followed along with the general idea of the LED Cube I found on the

internet, but I had to put my own spin on it due to the parts I had on hand.

Here is a picture of both a jig made to put the LED cube rows together, as well as the beginning of the first row.

I finished the LED Cube on protoboard with a bottom-of-the-line microcontroller, the PIC16F84. I was just happy that it worked! 

Here you can see the finished 27 LED structure with the three rows connected to larger wires coming off the left side.

For any project, power is always a part I hate dealing with. For small power applications that aren't mobile, a nice hack is to cut off one end of a computer USB cable and just make a nice connector using it. It provides ~5V power and usually enough

current to power small things. Some USB controllers will shut off ports if there is no active device on the port, or if too much current is drawn. Your mileage may vary.

A very ugly prototype board with the LED cube columns connected to current limiting resistors.

Another shot.

Here you can see one of the LEDs lit while an animation is running.