Rainbowduino 4x4x4 LED Cube Crucial Question(s)

Other Hardware LEDs and Multiplexing
1

Hi guys, just purchased this cube a couple of days ago and I see the light at the end of the tunnel with all this soldering madness. The manual for building the cube seems to be out of date as it includes an older version of the Rainbowduino whereas I have V3.0. The problem with this is, I think the little red/black double power cord that I need to connect between the terminal on the Rainbowduino and the actual cube base PCB has the wrong "headpiece" for my Rainbowduino's accomodations! Nowhere on my Rainbowduino do I have a female acceptor of the white plastic-encased end of that power cord, and so I can't figure out what to do with that end. Essentially, I could connect the free ends of the cord to the PCB's terminal but not the other end to anything on the Rainbowduino... I'm stumped.

I have everything constructed, I just can't get the thing lit up! Furthermore, I am not even sure if I successfully built this cube at all-- this was a crash course in learning to solder for me. Is there perhaps any way to tell if my cube works? I can power the Rainbowduino via USB and then "DC In" on the PCB (when connected to its power supply) does nothing to my cube. Is this a sign that I flubbed up, or is there something I need to be doing on my computer to kickstart the cube?

Please, help a noob on this first foray into making!

-Brennan

2

You should include 1 or 2 pictures to make clear the arrangement.

Solutions for the perennial power connector mismatch:

(1)Given the 1.7 million (or is that 177 million?) possible combinations of power connectors, mismatches are very common. Simply cut off an offending connector and replace with one that matches. I seem to be doing this several times a month.

(2)If you do not wish to alter a cable then simply build an adapter cable. I have a small box with a dozen power adapters I've made over a few years.

(3) Complain to the vendor who screwed up and ask for the proper cable or connector.