First 3x3x3 LED cube test

This is the first working test I've done with my own designed LED cube hardware.

It uses a Microchip PIC16F687 MCU, programmed with HI-TECH PICC Lite, configured as PIC16F690.

I'll switch back to Microchip Assembly because pointers are too slow in C. I prefer hand-writing my own macros to jump inside the pattern tables. in fact, what you can see is the program without any delay function, just plain C with optimisations, but are not enough for pointer casting...

Despite this, my LED cube has hardware support for serial communication (MIDI), plus an analog input (maybe useful for audio) and two general purpose I/O ports.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• led
• cube
• 3x3x3
• test
• pic
• microchip
• pattern
• christmas
• tree

[sspoke]

haha cool but boring.. should of made i t do very cool effects like a snake effect lighting up every blub from top to bototm 1 by 1.. but this is just lame.. :S

[TexZK]

Why don't you read the description? It's so slow because I programmed it in HI-Tech PICC with lookup tables, which are damned slow. And that's not all: pointers in PICC are shit, because it draws frames which don't exist (page wrapping?).

I'm rewriting it in MPASM, and trust me I'm making it very well optimised. It will also support MIDI commands, audio input and other things.

Very cool things could be done with at least a 8x8x8 cube... not 3x3x3 :(

[sspoke]

No Lol with 3x3x3 you could do cool things if you wire it a little better like don't like the led leads touch other leads or it would make both of em go on.. Yah get a better programmable card then why are pointers slow lol they dont copy data they use it from another stack frame.

But yah good luck keep doing shit like this..

[TexZK]

There's no problem with my wiring: all LEDs are virtually indipendent :-)

Pointers on midrange PICs are still slow because constant data (patterns) is stored as consequent return values, so each byte needs a long jump to preserve program memory space. High level languages on such simple and slow MCUs are VERY inefficient. Programming MCUs needs WAY more care than with general purpose computers!!!

[sspoke]

Now for music wave recognition

I would think this would be the best effect. the leds in the deep inner inside for the low sound waves as they get louder the leds light up more from the inner-inside and the loudest of the song would light them all on.. like a mini.. you know how that shit is called.

and it should light up not by 1 light but by.. pairs of 4 at once I belive otherwise it wont look nice

--- xxx -x- -x- x-x xxx xxx

-x- -x- x-x xxx -x- -x- xxx

--- xxx -x- -x- x-x xxx xxx

[TexZK]

I'll keep that in mind to see which is the best solution. Anyway, due to the low powerfulness of that MCU configuration, I think some kind of serial protocol (MIDI) would fit the best. This cube was just a test for a bigger project (which I think I'll never make) involving 220V lamps with TRIACs.

[sspoke]

Oh but if I programmed that I would worry about storing patterns I would code my own

very basic trigger to light up 1 turn off 1 in a loop until all the lights go in my order.. then start going reverse.. thats what I want to see in these led cubes.. like a snake moving from lights themselfs from top to bottom, then bottom to top.. haha