jolliCube - an 8x8x8 LED Cube (SPI) driven using MAX7219 ICs

Projects Showcase
1

LED Cubes never fails to impress us. Watching some animations on 7x7x7 or larger LED Cubes can be very mesmerizing.

We have long wanted to build one of these cubes larger than 7x7x7. We researched online for similar projects and found that the time just to construct the LED Cube alone is very time-consuming and may be quite complex for some. For most of these projects, the electronic circuits to drive these LED Cubes may be quite complex for entry level hobbyist to build and may not be easy to troubleshoot if something goes wrong.

We have now designed a single color 8x8x8 LED cube based on the MAX7219 ICs. Hopefully, entry level hobbyist are able to follow and complete it without too much difficulty. There may be a faster method to build such a cube but this is the best we can offer as of now without using complex jigs to facilitate the build.

For those interested in the project, you may check it out at http://www.instructables.com/id/JolliCube-an-8x8x8-LED-Cube-SPI/

You may check out our jolliCube YouTube video to see it in action.

2

Nice work guys. 7219 should make cube management easier than for other multiplexed types. And a great idea to use multiple PCBs each with one 7219 - really simplifies the whole thing.

You may want to try out the software in my library to drive cubes - I have a version for a 4x4x4 MAX7219 driven cube from another post in this forum. If you do, let me know how it runs on the bigger cube as it was an experiment on my part. Software available on my library site linked in the signature block.

3

Thanks for your interest in our cube.

We designed jolliCube with the objective that entry level hobbyist will be able to successfully complete an 8x8x8 single color LED cube without too much difficulty.

An 8x8x8 cube is much more interesting than a small cube which most entry level hobbyist normally start off with.

We will look into the library for LED cubes you have contributed to the community and let you know if it works with our cube hardware. However, it may take a while as we are currently busy with some other commitments.

Thanks for contributing so much to the community.

4

For anyone who is interested in this cube, the MD_Cubo library now has all the code to run this cube, including examples for graphics and text display. Link to the Code repository in the signature block below.

5

We have built our second jolliCube using orange LEDs for a warmer feel.

For those interested in watching jolliCube with the MD_Cubo library in action, please visit http://www.instructables.com/id/JolliCube-8x8x8-LED-Cube-With-MDCubo-Library/.

Thanks again to Marco Colli for creating the awesome MD_Cubo library.

6

Nice. :slight_smile: