I am very, very new to the whole Arduino world, but i am excited to begin tinkering. I have a newbie question, will the Mega 2560 R3 drive a 3x3 LED cube directly. or do i need to use something in between? Sorry for the newbie question.
Lee
A 3 x 3 arrangement of LEDs is not a cube. A 3 x 3 x 3 arrangement would be.
Whether the Mega would "drive" it directly depends on the LEDs (and current limiting resistors) chosen.
20ma typical according to the item description on ebay
item number 120803062151
To directly interface a 3x3x3 led cube requires 12 output pins so even a Uno board has enough pins to do that task. You will require 3 output switching transistors to handle the maximum of 180ma that each 'level' of the cube would draw if all leds are commanded on for that level.
Lefty