Rainbow Cube

In this box, you’ll find everything you need to build a ready to shine Rainbow Cube!
Have some fun and start creating a masterpiece today with this 4x4x4 RGB LED cube kit from Seeed Studio:
The “Rainbow Cube – Ready to Shine” requires no soldering and comes pre-assembled with a Rainbowduino (Arduino-compatible) LED driver controller. Just plug it in to your PC or Mac, grab a copy of the free design software, and you’ll discover just how easy it is to program this spectacular device and see the results in real time.
The Pack consist of:

1 x Rainbow Cube Kit ( Assembled )
1 x Rainbowduino v3.0
1 x Power adaptor
1 x USB cable

Seeed Studio has made a video to show how to use Rainbow Cube and program to it. Watch the video, you'll know how cool this product is.

Curing program makes Rainbow Cube Kit PnP
Diaphanous Acrylic sheet makes the shining LEDs looks so cool
Programmable property let the Rainbow Cube shining in your style

Here is the link in YouTobe: http://youtu.be/v44i73zmwA4

Great thanks to Riley Porter @Synthetos, for the excellent job of Acrylic Case design.

Rainbow Cube Kit (Assembled)

Rainbow Cube is a 3D RGB LED Cube useful for creating colorful design. The 3D Cube is artistically crafted with sixty-four 8mm RGB LEDs arranged in a 4 x 4 x 4 manner. Rainbow Cube can be used to create many beautiful visual effects with A Rainbowduino. The Rainbow Cube comes with an inbuilt 3.3V / 1 Amp LDO useful for powering the independently. A XBee compatible socket is provided as well, this can be used to connect Rainbowduino with a PC or an Arduino wirelessly.

Model: KIT101E1P

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/images/cubeani.gif

Features

8mm RGB diffused LEDs.
4 x 4 x 4 arrangement
XBee compatible socket
Provides a 3.3V/1 Ampere LDO for power the Cube with unregulated DC 6-9V. Useful when not powered by USB.
Provides 8 Red, 8 Green and 8 Blue common cathode pins along with 8 Vcc pins in a 2 x 16 header pin.
- Controllable with a 8 x 8R,8G,8B multiplexed PWM LED driver like Rainbowduino.

Application Ideas

Colorful LED display : Mix various intensities of RED, GREEN and BLUE channels to produce different colors
Bright mood Lamp / Night lamp
Useful for artistic application.

Schematic

Rainbow Cube is made up of two parts :
- Panel (board) which supports the cube structure.
- The Cube structure (8 slim pillars, 8 side panels).

Click here to download Rainbow Cube
- Complete schematic in PDF
- Eagle CAD files

Specification

Operating Voltage

3.3V

LEDs

8mm common anode RGB LED.
4 Leads (Blue-shortest lead,Green, Anode-longest lead, Red).
Max forward current IF = 20mA.

Pin definition and Rating

All pins are accessible from the Panel board show below.

Panel board (bottom view)

Rainbow Cube provides 2 x 16 pin header for connecting to RGB LEDs driver board like Rainbowduino.

2 x 16 pin header connector

xBee Socket

2 x 16 pin header connector

DC Jack Pin
- Middle Pin VIN (6-9DCV)
- Side barrel: GND
4 pin Green terminal.
- 2 GND pins, 2 VIN pins

Mechanical Dimensions

Assembled cube is of approx. of 10cm (l) X 10cm (b) X 12cm (h) dimension.

Understanding the Schematic

To easily understand the working of Rainbow Cube, a very simplified schematic is presented below. In essence, 64 RGB LEDs are arranged in a form consisting of 8 common anodes(positive pins) and 8 common cathodes(gtound pins) for each color Red, Green and Blue.

The complete schematic of RGB Cube is represented in a 2D RGB LED Matrix form below.
- Numbers 1 - 32 indicates the pin number of the 2x16 pin header shown above.

Schematic in a 2D RGB LED Matrix form

The RGB Cube inter-connection are presented in a block diagram format. This block diagram clearly shows how the 64 LEDs in 2D form are mapped into a 3D Cube form.

RGB Cube from driver software view point

The actual 3D positions of LEDs are marked in the below photograph.

RGB Cube LED's 3D Positions illustrated

The X,Y coordinates of 2D RGB LED Matrix is mapped to the RGB Cube block diagram as follows:
- Locate the 2D-XY coordinate (X,Y) from RGB Cube block diagram
- Use these (X,Y) co-ordinates with (X,Y) coordiantes of RGB Matrix to know how the LED is controlled (i.e locating VCC and Cathode pins)
- For example: LED (Z,X,Y):(1,0,3) 's 2D-XY is (6,3). This LED's VCC is Pin 31. The R,G and B LED's cathode are connected to 12,25 and 4 pins respectively.

Rainbowduino v3.0

The Rainbowduino board is an Arduino compatible controller board with professional multiplexed LED driver. It can drive a 8x8 RGB Led Matrix or a 4x4x4 RGB LED Cube in common Anode mode. Rainbowduino v3.0 uses two MY9221 chips which is a 12-channels (R/G/B x 4) constant current Adaptive Pulse Density Modulation (APDM). Rainbowduino v3.0 has provisions for cascading more such boards with I2C interface.

Rainbowduino v3.0 is flashed with Arduino boot-loader and this makes it easy to program sketches using Arduino IDE. Unlike other LED drivers, this comes with a USB to UART (FT232RL) inbuilt for programming the sketches.

Rainbowduino v3.0

Rainbowduino v3.0 bottom

Features

Provides 2 x 16 pin header for connecting multiplexed LEDs
Constant current(20.8mA) LEDs driver.
Can drive 4x4x4 RGB LED Cube or 8x8 RGB LED Matrix (i.e 192 LED)
Built in USB to UART chip (FT232RL)
Built in 5V / 1 Ampere voltage regulator

Application Ideas

General Purpose LED driver
- Connect 4x4x4 RGB Cube
- Connect 8x8 RGB Matrix
Create LED sign boards by chaining more than one Rainbowduino v3.0

Specifications

Constant current output: 20.8mA
Maximum LEDs driving capability: 192 (i.e 8x8x3)

More information, please check the Rainbowduino v3.0 datasheet in wiki.

Power Adapter

High quality switching 'wall wart' AC to DC 6.5V 2A power supply. It has a DC jack connector suitable for for Rainbowduino. Also works well with Arduino / Seeeduino. It can function with 100-240VAC inputs.

Model:TOL113C3O

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/images/product/rainbowpower.jpg

Mini USB Cable

There is a 110cm Mini USB cable, with black color. It can be used to connect Rainbowduino V3.0 with your PC for programming.

Model:ARD112C5B

Usage

The case is made of Acrylic, to disassemble the box, please pay attention and follow the disassembling note:

The keys are not strong enough to withstand hard stretching. To disassemble the box, you should use your left hand to push the two legs and at the same time use your right hand to pull the key out. This is illustrated in the image below:

Hardware Installation

Connect Rainbow Cube 2x16 male pin header to Rainbowduino as shown below

2x16 pin header positioning

A Rainbowduino properly connected to Rainbow Cube

Attach an USB cable to Rainbowduino for programming

Programming

Let us get started with a simple example:

Download Rainbowduino v3.0 Library
Open Cube1.pde sketch (a copy of it is reproduced below):
Compile and upload the sketch

/*
 Rainbowduino v3.0 Library examples:  Cube1
 
 Sets pixels on 3D plane (4x4x4 cube)
*/
 
#include <Rainbowduino.h>
 
void setup()
{
  Rb.init(); //initialize Rainbowduino driver
}
 
void loop()
{
  //Set (Z,X,Y):(0,0,0) pixel BLUE
  Rb.setPixelZXY(0,0,0,0x0000FF); //uses 24bit RGB color Code
 
  //Set (Z,X,Y):(0,3,0) pixel RED
  Rb.setPixelZXY(0,3,0,0xFF,0,0); //uses R, G and B color bytes
 
  //Set (Z,X,Y):(3,0,3) pixel GREEN
  Rb.setPixelZXY(3,0,3,0x00FF00); //uses 24bit RGB color Code
}

Output

Cube1.pde Demo

Application Programming Interfaces

In the above example, we have used few of the below APIs

init()

First we need to initialize the driver using init()

Usage:

Rb.init();//initialize Rainbowduino driver. This should be placed inside setup()

To set a LED in the 3D Cube we use the below two APIs.

setPixelZXY(Z,X,Y,R,G,B)

To set a LED (Z,X,Y) we use setPixelZXY(Z,X,Y,R,G,B).

Usage:

Rb.setPixelZXY(unsigned char x, unsigned char y, unsigned char  colorR,  unsigned char colorG, unsigned char colorB); //This sets the pixel (z,x,y) by specifying each channel(color) with a 8bit number.

setPixelZXY(Z,X,Y,24bRGB)

Alternatively a LED (Z,X,Y) can be set by using setPixelZXY(Z,X,Y,24bRGB).

Usage:

Rb.setPixelZXY(unsigned char z, unsigned char x, unsigned char y, uint32_t colorRGB /*24-bit RGB Color*/) //This sets the LED (z,x,y) by specifying a 24bit RGB color code

blankDisplay(void)

At times, it useful to blank all the LEDs. For this there is an API blankDisplay(void).

Usage:

Rb.blankDisplay(); 
//Clear the LEDs (make all LEDs blank)

Demos

setPixelZXY() Demo

To understand the (Z,X,Y) pixel addressing let us see another example. In this demo, the Layer 0 (i.e Z-0) is painted Green and Layer 3 is painted Blue.

/*
 Rainbowduino v3.0 Library examples:  Cube2
 
 Sets pixels on 3D plane (4x4x4 cube)
*/
 
#include <Rainbowduino.h>
 
void setup()
{
  Rb.init(); //initialize Rainbowduino driver
}
 
unsigned int z,x,y;
 
void loop()
{
  for(x=0;x<4;x++)
  {
    for(y=0;y<4;y++)
    {
     //Paint layer 0 Green
     Rb.setPixelZXY(0,x,y,0x00FF00); //uses 24bit RGB color Code
    }
  }  
 
  for(x=0;x<4;x++)
  {
    for(y=0;y<4;y++)
    {
     //Paint layer 3 Blue
     Rb.setPixelZXY(3,x,y,0x0000FF); //uses 24bit RGB color Code
    }
  }
}

Output

Cube2.pde Demo

setPixelZXY() Random Colors Demo

In this demo, all LEDs are painted with some random color. After five seconds of delay, the whole cube is repainted with random colors.

/*
 Rainbowduino v3.0 Library examples:  Cube3
 
 Sets pixels on 3D plane (4x4x4 cube)
*/
 
#include <Rainbowduino.h>
 
void setup()
{
  Rb.init(); //initialize Rainbowduino driver
}
 
unsigned int z,x,y;
 
void loop()
{
 for(z=0;z<4;z++)
 { 
  for(x=0;x<4;x++)
  {
    for(y=0;y<4;y++)
    {
     //Paint random colors
     Rb.setPixelZXY(z,x,y,random(0xFF),random(0xFF),random(0xFF)); //uses R, G and B color bytes
    }
  }
 }
delay(5000);
Rb.blankDisplay(); //Clear the LEDs (make all blank)
}

Output

Cube3.pde Demo

Night Lamp / Mood Lamp Demo

/*
 
 Rainbowduino v3.0 Library examples : Mood Lamp 
 
*/
 
#include <Rainbowduino.h>
 
 
// HSV to RGB array 
 
unsigned char RED[64] = {255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,238,221,204,188,171,154,137,119,102,85,
68,51,34,17,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,17,35,52};
 
unsigned char GREEN[64] = {0,17,34,51,68,85,102,119,136,153,170,187,204,221,238,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,
255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,238,221,204,188,170,154,136,120,102,86,68,52,34,18,0,0,0,0};
 
unsigned char BLUE[64] = {0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,18,34,52,68,86,102,120,136,154,170,188,
204,221,238,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255};
 
void setup()
{
  Rb.init(); //initialize Rainbowduino driver
}
 
unsigned int z,x,y;
void loop()
{
 
for(z=0; z<64 ;z++)
{
 for(x=0;x<8;x++)
 {
    for(y=0;y<8;y++)
    {
     //Paint random colors
     //Rb.setPixelZXY(z,x,y,RED[i],GREEN[i],BLUE[i]); //uses R, G and B color bytes
     Rb.setPixelXY(x,y,RED[z],GREEN[z],BLUE[z]); //uses R, G and B color bytes
    }
 }
 delay(100);
}
 
for(z=63; z > 0 ;z--)
{
 for(x=0;x<8;x++)
 {
    for(y=0;y<8;y++)
    {
     //Paint random colors
     //Rb.setPixelZXY(z,x,y,RED[i],GREEN[i],BLUE[i]); //uses R, G and B color bytes
     Rb.setPixelXY(x,y,RED[z],GREEN[z],BLUE[z]); //uses R, G and B color bytes
    }
 }
 delay(100);
}
 
}

Output

[[Image:|thumb|none|400px| .pde Demo]]

Plasma Cube

/*
 
 Rainbowduino v3.0 Library examples : 3D Plasma
 
*/
 
#include <Rainbowduino.h>
 
// HSV to RGB array
 
unsigned char RED[64] = {255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,238,221,204,188,171,154,137,119,102,85,
68,51,34,17,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,17,35,52};
 
unsigned char GREEN[64] = {0,17,34,51,68,85,102,119,136,153,170,187,204,221,238,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,
255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,238,221,204,188,170,154,136,120,102,86,68,52,34,18,0,0,0,0};
 
unsigned char BLUE[64] = {0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,18,34,52,68,86,102,120,136,154,170,188,
204,221,238,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255};
 
unsigned char plasma[4][4][4];
 
void setup()
{
  Rb.init(); //initialize Rainbowduino driver
 
  for(unsigned char x = 0; x < 4; x++)
  {
    for(unsigned char y = 0; y < 4; y++)
    {
      for(unsigned char z = 0; z < 4; z++)
       {
        int color = int(32.0 + (32.0 * sin(x / 1.0))+ 32.0 + (32.0 * sin(y / 1.0)) + 32.0 + (32.0 * sin(z / 1.0))) / 3;
        plasma[x][y][z] = color;      
       }   
    }
  }
}
 
unsigned char x,y,z,colorshift=0;
 
void loop()
{
for(x=0;x<4;x++)  
{
 for(y=0;y<4;y++)  
 {
  for(z=0;z<4;z++)
    {
     Rb.setPixelZXY(z,x,y,(RED[plasma[x][y][z] + colorshift]) % 256,(GREEN[plasma[x][y][z] + colorshift]) % 256,(BLUE[plasma[x][y][z] + colorshift]) % 256); //uses R, G and B color bytes
    }
 }
}
 delay(100);
 colorshift=  colorshift + 1;
}

Output

PlasmaCube.pde Demo

Third-party Demos

RGB iPhone Software (by KonchaTech)
- Send RGB values to your cube via an iPhone (requires connected computer and TouchOSC software)
- http://konchatech.blogspot.ca/2012/05/4x4x4-iphone-controlled-rgb-led-cube.html (for sourcecode)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXr-Jgzgigs [Video]

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JXr-Jgzgigs/0.jpg

Ambient Visualizer Software (by KonchaTech)
- Make your cube change colors in reaction to what is displayed on your computer screen (requires connected computer)
- http://konchatech.blogspot.ca/2012/05/ambient-led-cube.html (for sourcecode)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC_xqA5irLA [Video 1]
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed9FURoNZ6M [Video 2]

http://0.gvt0.com/vi/cC_xqA5irLA/0.jpg

Support

If you have questions or other better design ideas, you can go to our forum or wish to discuss.

Version Tracker

Revision	Descriptions	Release
v1.0	Initial public release

Resources

Rainbow Cube:

Data-sheets
- MY9221 Datasheet
- 8mm RGB LED
Android Apk
- RainbowBluetooth Apk

Rainbowduino Control Software
- Rainbowduino Semi - Automater installtion Package Beta (For Windows)
- mtXcontrol by rngtng Beta(For MAC)

Related Projects

If you want to make some awesome projects by Rainbow Cube, here's some projects for reference.

Automatic Water Level Controller

The Rainbow Cubes do not have a standard for controlling them or chaining them together. You can look to change that.

I want to make it.

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Get more information about Core User please email to: recipe@seeed.cc

Rainbow Cube

Rainbow Cube Kit (Assembled)

Features

Application Ideas

Schematic

Specification

Pin definition and Rating

Mechanical Dimensions

Understanding the Schematic

Rainbowduino v3.0

Features

Application Ideas

Specifications

Power Adapter

Mini USB Cable

Usage

Hardware Installation

Programming

Application Programming Interfaces

init()

setPixelZXY(Z,X,Y,R,G,B)

setPixelZXY(Z,X,Y,24bRGB)

blankDisplay(void)

Demos

setPixelZXY() Demo

setPixelZXY() Random Colors Demo

Night Lamp / Mood Lamp Demo

Plasma Cube

Third-party Demos

Support

Version Tracker

Resources

Related Projects

Automatic Water Level Controller

Share Your Awesome Projects with Us

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