Wondering if anyone can help a noob answer a few questions about starting a 8x8x8 cube:
I see a lot of people using the Uno for their cubes. Is using a Nano possible?
I was looking for a TLC9516N LED Driver Chip but can't seem to find a source using Google. The tutorial I'm using is 4 years old so I'm guessing it's just outdated. Does anyone know a modern substitute? And what is important to look for in led driver chips?
Thank you in advance
Any arduino could run led cube. The difference in refresh rate, simple "on-off" led drive or pwm, with pwm how many bits.
I've seen recently TLC5916 on the arrow-dot-com. There are no new replacement, AFAIK. It was TLC5940, so they don't make it in the hobbyist friendly DIP package anymore.
Okay great. Thank you!
Have you built a 4x4x4 RGB cube yet? If not, have you built a 4x4x4 single colour cube yet? If not, I think this is the route you should take to reach your goal. If you try to go straight to 8x8x8 RGB cube, the are so many things that could go wrong that your chance of success is low.
Have you considered "NeoPixel" LEDs? The most common type is ws2812b, but if you need 5mm, 8mm or 10mm thru-hole LEDs for your cube, they are difficult to find and expensive. But the alternative may be apa106 which are much easier to find and cheaper in these sizes. Using the LEDs will mean that you do not need complex driver chips/circuits and do not need to multiplex your cube.
Nano should be fine for 4x4x4 cube with apa106. But for 8x8x8, it may be wise to look for an Arduino compatible board with more speed and ram memory, such as those made by AdaFruit or SparkFun.
LivingOnCrayons:
I see a lot of people using the Uno for their cubes. Is using a Nano possible?
The Nano is the "workhorse" version of the UNO, used for serious designs that have to do something rather than just play. It uses the same processor and thus code, just a different package, and also implements the final two, analog-only input ports.
It is far more practical than the UNO, usually comes without the pins soldered so you can solder the pins in to mount on a "solderless breadboard", or a terminal adaptor or as a daughter-board to your own custom PCB, or you can solder wires directly to the Nano PCB.
The UNO on the other hand comes fitted with sockets which limit you to flying leads or a matching "shield" so unless there is shield which does exactly what you want (or you use a "prototyping shield" within its limitations), construction becomes messy.
The performance of the NeoPixels or similar is so vastly superior to multiplexing that I really would not recommend any other approach and 8 by 8 by 8 would fit easily.
That gives me a lot to think about, thank you Paul's