This is my third attempt at making a LED cube.

First version was your simple 4x4x4 LED cube, using the 5mm LED leads to connect them in a matrix. Powered by an barebone ATMega328P and Arduino software, there was a lot of wires, and code was really annoying to write. This project established my soldering skills, and passion for all things LED related.

Fast forward, the second attempt introduced WS2182b LEDS, with PCBs as the layers and connecting columns. The baseboard was made on a veroboard, connected to a Arduino Nano. Although looking slick, baseboard being a veroboard didn't look that good. It was also pretty difficult to assemble; you had to hold the columns and layers together while soldering to connect them. WS2812b LEDs are great, as you only need 3 wires (power, gnd and signal) to daisy chain LEDs together, making the circuit fairly simple. The layers wind the signal in a snake pattern, meaning example code for WS2812B LED strips (which are really common) could be used without much effort.

Finally the third version. It was envisioned that this would be a 10x10x10 cube (1000 LEDs). As such, the design was made using alternating brass (conductive) and polymide (non-conductive) 2mm-long hex standoffs to add more layers when necessary. Thickness was added to improve the durability of the layers. Only limiting factor is the power supply; we require 5V 5A per column of 10 layers. That's enough power to charge a decent sized laptop. Plus, each layer increases the overall cost.

Project files are at the GitLab link. Software is not yet finished, still deciding what features to work on.

License for hardware and software is MIT.