Wireless LED CubeI've worked on a few large scale (In Plume , LCCC ) LED projects. I decided I'd like to work on something a little smaller that I'd be able take around with me and show off.I've experimented with some 8x8 WS2812 LED panels in the past and thought "why not use them to build a self contained cube I could control from my phone." The only time I'd have to open it up would be to reprogram it (for now), so I decided to also include a wireless charging option. I was searching for some WS2812 LED strings on Amazon when I came across some 8x8 panels. They were pretty compact and already had mounting hole in them, so it would interesting to try and make a cube out of them. I thought that it would be simple to create a support structure for them, but I was trying to minimize the amount of support needed in order to maximize the space available inside of the cube, and I ended up going through several revisions before settling on the final design shown in the photos below. All of my designs were created using OpenSCAD. Return to my projects homepage 
All of the parts laid out before final assembly.
Drawing up the final support braces in OpenSCAD.
3D printouts of the support braces. Interestingly the size of the screw holes worked out that they can be considered "self threaded" and I didn't have to put a nut on the bolts to tighten them up.
Connecting the Adafruit Power Boost/Charger to the Qi wireless charging module. The Qi unit provides 5V at up to 500mA. I'll find out later that's really important for this project.
Mounting the Qi/Power Boost combo on what will be the bottom LED panel.
Mounting the Arduino Pro Mini and HC-05 Bluetooth modules on one of the side panels. The HC-05 connects directly to the pins normally used for programming the Arduino. This way the two can talk via the serial port and also power the HC-05.
The NDP6020P MOSFET with a pullup resistor between the Gate and Source. This was not part of the original design. This came about after some initial testing.
Initial assembly of the cube. I've attached the LiPo battery to one of the panels, the two support braces to two of the panels, then attached all three of them together.
All four walls of the cube have now been attached together.
Top down view after attaching the bottom panel.
The final assembled cube.
Charging the cube using a Qi charger unit purchased from Adafruit mounted in a custom 3D printed case.
Parts List: 8x8 WS2812 LED matrix (Amazon) |
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