Tim's Mind » Geek

LED Cube Editor

Tim — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:49:50 +0000

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.

LED Cube Project

Tim — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:28:48 +0000

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.

My Predictions For A Brighter Future

Tim — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 10:30:30 +0000

More people reading and writing blogs.
More sites and a variety of projects using wikis.
More people using RSS for blog syndication, getting podcasts, getting torrents.
More cross-site integration.
More mashups.
More people listening to and creating podcasts.
More vidcasts.
More people using Flickr for sharing photos. My Flickr Photos
More people using BitTorrent for all kinds of content, free and legal content licensed under Creative Commons.
A broader user-base for all of these.
More hardware hacking fun. To learn more about it go to Hack-a-Day, Make Magizine

Toys You Can Make That Illustrate Different Science Principals

Tim — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 08:19:32 +0000

Science is cool and now even more fun! link

The Young Steve Jobs On The First Issue Of Macworld Magizine

Tim — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 08:12:06 +0000

Steve Jobs looked pretty young on the cover of the first issue of Macworld magazine. link

Gas Can Shoulder Bags

Tim — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:25:31 +0000

This guy made a bag you carry with a shoulder strap out of a gas can! Crazy, no? link

The 50 Best Robots Ever, According To Wired.com

Tim — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:18:25 +0000

Wired has an article called ‘The 50 Best Robots Ever.’ It was interesting to read about some of the lesser known ones. link

My Online Existence

Tim — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 03:26:00 +0000

My Old Blog On Blogger
This Blog

How I Make “Techno”(Yeah Right!) Music

Tim — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 03:22:00 +0000

Get a program called TS 404 and SimSynth or other sound generators.

Now get Audacity for recording and editing.

Read this tutorial that covers everything you need to know about Audacity.

Get the LAME MP3 Encoder.

Read this tutorial that explains how to setup your sound card to record from the sound generators and other programs. (Only do step 3)

Read this short tutorial on setting up Audacity and recording with it.

Todays Comic Strips

Tim — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 12:47:00 +0000