New Cube! What do you want?

OK, I dropped the old 3x3x3 kit. I do have a few PCB left and one very nicely built cube if anyone wants them. However due to the fact that I can not program a PIC on Linux I no longer use them. They are a huge hassle to code for. Also there were a few problems with the hardware causing problems with the colors.

I would like to make a new kit with an AVR. I wanted to know how big do you guys want it? I won't make a 4x4x4 kit as Hypno Cube already makes them. I was thinking either a high color 3x3x3, or a 5x5x5. Also I was thinking of making it easily controlled by another micro, so you could use it as a nice display without the overhead of driving the cube.

What do you want? Leave me some feedback if you would like a nice kit. As always you will be able to get the source code for it so you could edit the code.

Thanks,
Justin

6X6X6 RBG or single color?

if it single color, it going to use 216 output ports, RBG = 864 ports. =\
if you manage to make it RBG then y not make a mini display for pictures, if you have enough LEDs and micro-controllers you can make a TV display out of that xD

All of these will be RGB.

I think you underestimate multiplexing. A 5x5x5 RGB cube only takes 20 pins when multiplexed. A single colored 5x5x5 would take only 10!

I am using Eagle Light to make the PCB so I am pretty limited on the board size. A 5x5x5 cube would be pretty dense. I am working on a new 3x3x3 kit that uses an ATmega168 and has better hardware to get the colors better. The current design drives the LED from the PIC IO pins directly, the new one has transistors. The board is packed.

The cool thing with a 5x5x5 is you could display text. It is large enough to get decent letters.

I do think that a 5x5x5 would be pretty expensive, due to that fact of how many RGB LED's you'll need. And have you measured this thing out? How big will this be if it's 5x5x5?

I also like the 3x3x3 idea with AVR. You can get better color sequences done, also, faster speed, 20 MIPS at 20 MHz, that is if you were to do 20 MHz
.

Yep, 20MHz. Ironically the PIC version runs at 40MHz but gets only 10MIPS. Stupid PIC . Also the AVR has a much better instruction set for C coding then the PIC resulting in even faster code. I'm working on it, but it will take some time to have ready, as batchPCB takes forever (ok a month) to get boards but you can't beat their prices and I don't want to shell out a few hundred for something that can cost twenty dollars with shipping.

The 5x5x5 would be about 7cm*7cm*7cm. Small, very dense, because I am limited to board space due to eagle light. And it would cost a lot for the large PCB and all the LED, sticking with 3x3x3 for now.

Here is the schematic for the new 3x3x3 cube. Please report any errors if you see them!

Justin