OT LED Cube

Jezz · Nov 25, 2010

Hi All,
I'm waning to have a go at making an LED cube with my son

I'm just tring to find some (cheap) way of controling it via my PC any one any ideas?

leitmotif · Nov 25, 2010

How old is your son? How much does he know about electrical?

If 8 or 9 I think better to start simple with switches etc to turn any number of lamps he wants on. Knife switches would be good choice - visible for open or shut. Ohms law parallel and all that theory stuff.

At opposite end of scale for all I know he is PhD electrical engineer working with IBM.

Dan Bentler

Jezz · Nov 25, 2010

He's 13 and very keen to have a go, I was going to do it with switches first, then look at automating it, there seams to be a lot of stuff out there but I'm not sure what is going to be easiest and cheapest to start with.

leitmotif · Nov 25, 2010

Jezz said:
He's 13 and very keen to have a go, I was going to do it with switches first, then look at automating it, there seams to be a lot of stuff out there but I'm not sure what is going to be easiest and cheapest to start with.

Seems to me if this is a project he is keen to go on let him start with design and do what he wants to do. Dad just sits behind and answers questions and give guidance.

Dan Bentler

nic00 · Nov 26, 2010

Jezz,

If you search on google 'hackaday LED cube' you should find the results you are after. Or alternatively visit http://www.instructables.com/id/3x3x3-LED-Cube/

MikeGranby · Nov 26, 2010

Regarding interfacing to a PC, there are various USB I/O devices available for things like flight sim control panel that might do the trick at a reasonable cost. I haven't looked at pricing, but you've got to figure they are cheaper than real industrial I/O.

nic00 · Nov 26, 2010

Arduino's dont cost a massive amount

Contr_Conn · Nov 26, 2010

Definately Arduino, your son will have a lot of fun programming it.

here is one Arduino based:
http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Cube-and-Arduino-Lib/

OT LED Cube

Jezz

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Jezz

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