I decided that it was too hard to write animations for my LED Cube. So I wrote a Processing program to generate the code for it. All you have to do is load the program and click on the green LEDs(circles) to turn them on and when you are done with a frame of animation you click the orange button at the bottom then the code will be printed out to the console. Then you copy the code into the firmware and upload the program to the Arduino. Here is the program.

So I was watching Weekend Projects a about two and a half months ago and saw how to make a 3 by 3 by 3 LED cube. I thought, “Hey! I could do that with my Arduino!” and I did. Basically, I can turn any individual LED on or off.

I started with soldering together the LEDs in layers of nine. Then I played around with how to wire up a protoboard with two Shift Registers on it and the LEDs to make a Shield for the Arduino. The first try was messy. The second try was better but not ideal. The final wiring guide may LOOK messy, but it’s basically what I used.

The final wiring on the protoboard from the bottom is the last photo.

The software was a compilation of the original software from the Weekend Projects post and the ShiftOut example on Arduino.cc. I started with the “Code Sample 2.3 - Dual Defined Arrays” at the bottom of the ShiftOut example and slowly stirred in the original code to produce the final result. Here is the final code.

Here’s a link to the Flickr photos.

P.s. On a side note, I did the layout and wiring wrong so I had to modify the code to compensate for the LEDs being connected wrong.

Hello all. I’m finally dusting off my old blog and plan to start posting again. I haven’t written since February. Wow. Nine whole months. We’ll see what actually happens.

Well it has been 30 days. In actuality, it was 44 days. As I said when I started the Napkin Count, I only counted days I ate fast food. I’ve learned when you are trying to count napkins, you rush yourself to eat it all before you forget how many napkins you had and how many are left. I felt sick eating so fast. All in all it was interesting, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

Now for some statistics:

Total Posts: 37
Total Fast Food Restaurants: 9

Top 5 Restaurants I ate at:
1. Taco Bell (11 times)
2. Carl’s Jr. (9 times)
3. Adalberto’s (7 times)
4. KFC A&W (4 times)
5. In-N-Out (2 times)

Top 3 Meals:
1. Large Number 1 Combo No Cheese with a Coke No Ice (6 times)
2. Carne Asada Burrito and a Jarritos Mandarina Soda (3 times)
3. Beef Crunchwrap Supreme and a Large Mountain Dew Baja Blast No Ice (2 times)

Top 3 Main Courses:
1. Beef Crunchwrap Supreme (11 times)
2. Famous Star, No Cheese (8 times)
3. Carne Asada Burrito (6 times)

Total Napkin Count: 192
Total Napkins Used: 90
Total Napkins Unused: 102
Highest Amount of Napkins for One Meal: 12

As you can see I proved my point to see if I got too many napkins or not enough. Obviously, there are way more napkins unused than were used.

Napkin Count: Day 30, 2/26/07
Restaurant: Taco Bell
Location: 4318 Marconi Ave. Sacramento, CA 95821 Near Eastern Ave.
Meal: Beef Crunchwrap Supreme and a Small Pepsi No Ice
Main Course: Beef Crunchwrap Supreme
Order Mistakes: None.
Napkin Count: 5
Napkins Used: 3
Napkins Unused: 2

Napkin Count: Day 29, 2/22/07
Restaurant: Jack in the Box
Location: 3500 Marconi Ave Sacramento, CA 95821 Near Watt Ave.
Meal: Number 9 Chicken Fajita Pita, Small Fries and a Small Coke No Ice
Main Course: Chicken Fajita Pita
Order Mistakes: None.
Napkin Count: 5
Napkins Used: 2
Napkins Unused: 3

I’m really tired of eating so much fast food. It kind of makes me sick to my stomach.

Napkin Count: Day 28, 2/21/07
Restaurant: Del Taco
Location: 2525 Watt Ave. Sacramento, CA Near El Camino Ave.
Meal: Big Fat Chicken Taco, Cheddar Quesadilla and a Small Coke No Ice
Main Course: Big Fat Chicken Taco
Order Mistakes: None.
Napkin Count: 4
Napkins Used: 2
Napkins Unused: 2

Napkin Count: Day 27, 2/17/07
Restaurant: Taco Bell
Location: 4318 Marconi Ave. Sacramento, CA 95821 Near Eastern Ave.
Meal: Beef Crunchwrap Supreme and a Small Pepsi No Ice
Main Course: Beef Crunchwrap Supreme
Order Mistakes: None.
Napkin Count: 5
Napkins Used: 1
Napkins Unused: 4

Napkin Count: Day 26, 2/16/07 Part 2
Restaurant: In-N-Out
Location: 2475 Sunrise Blvd. Rancho Cordova, CA 95670 Near Highway 50
Meal: Number 2 Animal Style Meal: Cheese Burger, Fries and a 7up
Main Course: Cheese Burger
Order Mistakes: None.
Napkin Count: 2
Napkins Used: 2
Napkins Unused: 0

Napkin Count: Day 26, 2/16/07 Part 1
Restaurant: Taco Bell
Location: 4318 Marconi Ave. Sacramento, CA 95821 Near Eastern Ave.
Meal: Beef Crunchwrap Supreme, Nacho Cheese Chalupa and a Large Mountain Dew Baja Blast No Ice
Main Course: Beef Crunchwrap Supreme
Order Mistakes: There was ice in the drink. They fixed it.
Napkin Count: 5
Napkins Used: 3
Napkins Unused: 2