Parts List USB Features Basic Button Commands
Contents
1. structural strength and also wasn t too expensive to get pre straightened in low quantities Steel holds considerably more heat than the tinned copper you are probably used to and consequently will both take longer to heat up making cold solder joins more likely and longer to cool off the solder will take longer to solidity allowing the wire to move for a couple seconds after removing the iron Because the wire takes longer to heat we have to be careful about not damaging the LED The best technique I ve found is to hold the cross wire down with the iron and letting solder wick around the bottom to the LED lead This ensures that you get the cross wire hot enough for a good join but you don t run the risk of damaging the LED by holding the iron directly on the LED lead for too long while waiting for the cross wire to heat up You can start at one end and work towards the other or start at the middle and work out towards the ends the method I generally prefer Try them both and use the one that works better for you However don t solder the ends first and work to the middle as this can cause the spacing to be off if the wire isn t perfectly straight Again make sure the cross wire is centered We will use the ends to hold the strips in a jig at a later step and you will need wire sticking out equally from both ends Once the all eight LEDs are secure carefully wiggle the strip out of the jig Pulling gently on the grounds that stick2. allows the LED plane wires to poke through Using the standoffs for this purpose is a lot easier and more stable than propping the PCB over a box as our previous instructions had you do Figure 61 PCB with stand offs Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Step 2 Attaching the power switch We will next connect the power switch before proceeding with the LED planes While they may get in the way a bit while attaching the planes having power available will allow us to test each plane as we go This will make it much easier to find and fix any problems in the LED lattice while it is still accessible and not surrounded by other LEDs First cut the wires into approximately 6 15 cm lengths You should have 2 red wires and 4 white wires The colors will distinguish what the wires are used for otherwise they re identical 24 AWG stranded wire The red wires will carry power from the AC adapter and the white wires are signal wires for the two buttons In this step we will use only the red to wire the power switch Figure 62 The power switch We will use two red wires for the power switch The power switch is not polarity sensitive so just connect one of the wires to the middle tab and the other one to one of the side tabs Make sure you use the ON OFF toggle switch and not the ON OFF momentary switch If the switch springs back it s the wrong one The switch will be ON when the toggle is away from the wired
3. follow while bending the other LEDs I recommend bending one LED then double triple and quadruple checking that it is EXACTLY like the above pictures Once you are convinced you have a perfectly bent LED set it aside and use it as a reference when you bend the rest of them to check that all are the same orientation Now we will need to bend 8 more LEDs to make the first strip You can do each LED one at a time by hand or if you are using a wood jig bend the LEDs in place in the jig which can be a little easier and faster as the jig will hold the LED for you and allow you to use both hands to bend the pins If you opt for the cardboard jig then most likely the cardboard won t hold the LED tightly enough to facilitate bending the pins Figure 30 and Figure 31 show the wood jig holding the LEDs before and after bending This can be combined with the step below to make strips while bending the LEDs saving some time Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 30 Unbent LEDs in jig Figure 31 Bent LEDs in jig Another good idea is to draw a picture on the jig showing how the LED sits and how the pins bend as one of our customers has done Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 _ e l l a Figure 32 Wood jig with LED drawing When using this method it is critical that you insert the LED in the hole in the proper way A backwards LED probably won t be noticed until it s in th
4. soldering in this step the yellow cross wires to each gray ground wire connecting 8 LEDs into a single strip 3 Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 The ground wires are soldered on this side leaving space for the red wires later The ground wires are NOT connected by the yellow cross wire on this side Figure 34 The cross wire yellow position Flat of LED Ground wire Figure 35 The cross wire yellow position Now you can solder a wire down as in Figure 34 with the cross wire on the correct side and centered with equal amounts hanging off either ends You want to solder fairly close to the LED at the same distance all the way across and at the same height on ALL eight strips you will make The small flat spot on the LED lead is a good reference point but the exact distance isn t critical the point is to be consistent Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 36 The cross wire atop the LED ground wires Figure 37 Close up of cross wire soldered onto an LED To hold the cardboard jig stable while soldering two books work well as shown Figure 38 Do not let the cross wires touch any leads besides the ground leads from the LEDs Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 38 Soldering the LED strip on a cardboard jig Soldering here can be tricky since the long wires are galvanized steel steel was necessary to provide sufficient
5. straight out is a good strategy Congratulations You should now have one strip and it should look like Figure 39 Take some time to double and triple check it against the instructions Check the orientations of the LEDs the side the ground wire is on and that the cross wire is centered e i Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 b ELNA l Figure 39 Single LED strip Now repeat the process and make 7 more strips On the last strip use your reference LED and save any extra LEDs in their original form since they are easier to store Once you have all eight strips made you should have something like Figure 40 Figure 40 All 8 LED strips Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 As a final spot check go over all 8 strips one LED at a time making sure the orientation of the LED is the same and that the cross wires attach to the ground leads on the correct and same side for each LED Once you are satisfied that everything is correct you can trim off the excess wire from the LED ground leads When clipping short wires it is best to wear protective eyewear since small wire shards sometimes shoot when snipped at the very least point it away from yourself and others Whew that last part was a bit of work Take a break and come back when you are able to concentrate again Step 3 Create an 8x8 grid of LEDs Again read this entire step several times before starting it In this step we w
6. the chip is oriented properly you really don t want to be trying to extract one after it s all soldered in gt 3aNDvONdAH 7n S3 AS0NdAH age a ES a BB oe e 6S w re oar s 2 HR Spe ee ee Sosa i Sp 5 apie a ead FHA Figure 13 SN74AHC574Ns in place Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Next do the ULN2803A Figure 14 Again note the orientation it s the opposite of the other ICs on that side of the board so it s particularly easy to get wrong Here s the board with the first set of chips in place JENIvONdAH wes SaIONGAY Tees we pu 7 E p B a S E MSI esd 7 ha i z a j Es a R Figure 14 ULN2803A x fs hs ra no or i oe ym Ue Wyflyp 2 5 Figure 15 ULN2803As in place Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Step 6 Resistor arrays These are just an array of resistors packaged into a chip which we decided to use over discrete resistors for convenience Note that the footprints on the PCB still show the individual resistors Since these are just resistors in a fancy package the orientation does not matter Each package is labeled with their resistance value make sure you place each one in the correct spot RO R7 the green resistors and marked G on the PCB is 47 R8 R15 red R is 68Q and R16 R23 blue B is 22Q The resistor array
7. when you re actually pressing them Solder the white wires to the middle tab and the tab on the same side as the lever in its rest position We will then attach the buttons to the two button pads on the front side of the PCB Figure 73 shows a close up of the area the button pads are marked on the underside Since the buttons are just making a Figure 71 Momentary toggle switch in connection polarity does not matter this picture you would use the bottom E eee Figure 72 Wired momentary toggle switch Q UB m Figure 73 Button footprints on PCB Step 6 Mounting in the case Alright one last step At this point you should have a fully functioning cube so it s just a matter of mounting it in the case for presentation and protection First remove the nuts and washers from the switches and power jack if you have not already Next place the cube on its side with the LED planes aligned vertically as shown in the Figure 74 The USB jack should be toward the side of the case with the large hole Now place the power switch through the nearest hole on the front of the case the leftmost hole as viewed from the front of the case and secure in place with its nut We like to place the power switch oriented so that it is up in the off position and down when on but you can do differently if you prefer We Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 yy Ses Figure 74 Power switch mounted in place i
8. Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 WAZ 39 HYPNOCUBE I Things that go blink in the night Thank you for purchasing the Hypnocube 4Cube kit Kit instructions and a user manual are online at www hypnocube com You can email any questions to contact hypnocube com Parts List The following parts make up the 4Cube kit and should be in the box 1 5 x 5 x 7 acrylic case in two pieces 16 1KQ resistor x2 brown black red gold 2 H4C printed circuit board PCB 17 IN4148TR signal diode x24 red 3 LOOVAC 240VAC USB power adapter 18 22pF ceramic capacitor x2 4 22 AWG straightened galvanized soft steel wire x40 19 O 1uF ceramic capacitor x6 5 Diffuse common cathode RGB LED x67 3 spares 20 0 47uF ceramic capacitor blue 6 PIC18F4620 microcontroller 40 pins 21 10uF electrolytic capacitor 7 PIC18F14K50 microcontroller 20 pins 22 12Mhz crystal oscillator 8 SN74AHCT574 octal D type flip flop x4 20 pins 23 Mini B USB cable 9 ULN2803A Darlington transistor array 18 pins 24 12 red wire 10 Mini B USB jack 25 24 white wire 11 22 resistor array 16 pins 26 Toggle switch 12 47Q resistor array 16 pins 27 Momentary toggle switch x2 13 68Q resistor array 16 pins 28 1 threaded standoff x4 14 OQ resistor single black stripe 29 3 8 4 40 screw x8 15 47KQ resistor x4 yellow violet orange gold 30 Rubber feet x4 USB Features We provide a few sample programs to interface with your device and chan
9. ce you will need to solder drop wires across those leads see the following steps if you are concerned if you are leaving sufficient lead length though 3 8 inch or 1 cm should do Before starting to solder double check that all LED flat sides are oriented the same way If you solder one in backwards it can be very difficult to correct once in the lattice We will be doing the red drop wire first by laying a vertical wire along the red leads Position the wire so that the one end of the wire is aligned with the top LED and all of the extra length of wire hangs off the bottom as shown below I Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 44 Placing the first wire Note that the extra length is entirely at the bottom Solder the drop wire at about the flat spot on the red lead Figure 46 shows the correct spacing W l M T Figure 45 Close up of spacing for drop wire Like when soldering the strips you can start at one end and work to the other or start in the middle and work to the ends whichever you find easter Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Once you have the first wire done you can continue on and do the rest of the red drop wires 8 in all While soldering try to make sure that the LEDs remain lined up in a nice lattice This is most important for the first set of drop wires when you do the later wires the LEDs will already be pretty firmly in place Figure 46
10. ceramic capacitors are not orientation dependent Figure 5 0 1uF ceramic capacitor Figure 6 22pF ceramic capacitors A BENDVONdAH SENIONdAH f JANIVONdAH 3aN3ONdAH z H iE ai Hae e EL ERE ESE F fot 2 a aSa i l Sii gt SSE RES Nt A ae IA aN E eg Pee ia 2 gt 70 m a R e ER 3 A s heed es ola he He a 2 mien ass 3 Gie o ES a a rai Ei 8 is ig E Figure 8 0 1uF ceramic capacitors in place Figure 7 22pF ceramic capacitors in place es Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Step 4 Crystal and USB jack The mini USB jack and the crystal both have similar heights so we ll do them together next The USB jack might be a bit tricky since it has a smaller pin spacing a then any of the other components and the leads are barely long enough to go through the PCB it was however the only through hole mini USB jack I could find and I figured many of you would prefer it to the common surface mount variety Solder one of the large support legs first and make sure that the jack is reasonably well aligned as there is a bit of wiggle room in placement Make sure that the solder flows into the holes to make good contact with the USB pins Also make sure to solder the other support leg to give the jack extra support during insert removal of the plug Figure 9 USB jack The crystal on the other hand is a simple affair and goes
11. e make sure the black stripe on the diode aligns with the stripe on the part outline The diodes go in the three banks marked DO D7 D8 D15 and D16 D23 Figure 2 shows the board with all diodes in place 3EN3vONdAH 3aNQONGAH Figure 1 Diode bitidi oben bbe eRnE Figure 2 Diodes in place Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Step 2 Resistors Next we will place the resistors and a jumper masquerading as a resistor We have three resistor values here 1K 2 brown black red 47KQ yellow violet orange and OQ single black stripe The 47KQ resistors go in R24 R26 R27 and R28 The 1KQ resistors goes in R25 and R29 Finally the OQ resistor goes across J1 Resistor orientations do not matter SENDvONdAH 7S SEMNSONdAH alas Rae TO ON Figure 3 47KQ left and 1KQ right si Eiis sean oiis resistors n EEEN 8609 iE G z Br sen ve je CF a gt B ce zZ amp Sr r S 0 lie _ Figure 4 Resistors in place Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Step 3 Small capacitors Next solder the six 0 luF and two 22pF ceramic capacitors shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6 22pF ceramic capacitors The two look very similar so take care to not mix them up The O 1uF capacitors go in C4 through C9 Shown if Figure 8 0 1uF ceramic capacitors in place The 22pF capacitors go in C11 and C12 as shown in Figure 7 22pF ceramic capacitors in place These
12. e cube and you find that a LED doesn t light or a column of LEDs lights erratically Step 2 Create LED strips If you haven t already created a wood jig for the previous step you will need to make one to solder the LEDs in to strips You have two options the cardboard jig and the wood jig The wood jig is more stable and makes it easier to build the cube and is recommended The cardboard jig also works but is more flimsy One of our customers Rob Sheldon designed a much better jig and provided us with instructions for making it If you can handle a hand drill you should make this jig Check out the Appendix 2 for instructions on constructing this jig The jig requires 8 holes to hold 8 LEDs evenly spaced in a straight line The spacing between each LED should be 1 25 inches or 3 17cm to you civilized folks overseas To confirm that you have the proper spacing you can compare it against the PCB it should match the spacing between each GND hole on the LED footprints on the PCB For a cardboard jig you will want a piece of cardboard stiffer the cardboard 1s better about 12 inches 30cm long and 3 4 inches 6 10cm wide The extra width is so that the cardboard can be held vertically between two sturdy objects such as books Wood is thicker and sturdier and can provide its own base so for a wood jig a 12 x 1 30cm x 3 cm is sufficient although it can of course be bigger no need go through the trouble of cutti
13. e first two because you can lay it flat and you no longer have to worry about keeping the LEDs carefully aligned Just follow the same techniques as above and lay the wire down with the same spacing from the LED as before Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 51 Lattice with all drop wires soldered Once you have all three sets of drop wires soldered in place we can clip the excess length off of all of the LED leads Trimming the ground wires and drop wires takes a bit of caution as it is important to keep some of them You must leave all of the drop wire at the bottom and the 4th and 8th ground wire on the left side on the side of the red drop wire and opposite side from the blue and green drop wires as shown below 4 oN yA F FA IRR 5 pe 1 lt lt ld lt le pimi lt Wl ll q Figure 52 Finished 8x8 grid Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Congratulations again You have completed the hardest part of the cube The rest is being careful and perhaps some troubleshooting if needed Step 4 Cutting the grid We will now cut the 8x8 grid into 4 separate 4x4 grids Be very careful when cutting as cutting in the wrong spot will entail some very tricky soldering to fix You will need to cut the 3 vertical wires in each column just above the LEDs in row 5 Likewise cut the horizontal ground wire just to the right of the LEDs in column 6 Remember we re making 4x4 g
14. ectrolytic capacitor Electrolytic capacitors are orientation dependent you will see a symbol on the PCB for the positive wire which is the longer of the capacitor leads The negative lead is also marked on the body of the capacitor Figure 23 0 47uF capacitor The 10uF capacitor goes in C3 Figure 25 10uF electrolytic capacitor Figure 26 All PCB components in place Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Part 2 The Bad In The Bad we will construct the LED lattice This will consist of four steps bending the LED leads into the required shape soldering the LEDs into eight strips of eight LEDs each then soldering the strips into an 8x8 grid and finally cutting this grid CAREFULLY into four separate 4x4 grids Along the way we will need to construct a couple of jigs to hold the LEDs as we work This is the most challenging part of constructing the cube We recommend that you read this section thoroughly to understand what is going to happen Your cube will be much easier to make less likely to have mistakes and will cause you less grief if you understand this entire section before starting it Plus doing this part very carefully will make your LEDs line up nicely improving the aesthetic appeal Estimated completion time 2 5 5 hours Step 1 Bend the LEDs Look at the 3 channel RGB LED in Figure 27 There is a flat side next to the red pin The ground pin is longest and is next to the red pin No
15. erting the planes into the PCB considerably easier Unfortunately you can only do this on two of the four planes as the leads on the other two are too short but two 1s still better than none is Figure 59 Cascading the drop wires for easier insertion Figure 58 Close up of bending the bottom ground drop wire Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 a a oA arn i NN VEE ME t ELi r ie lt y Q aih mi 1 es i s i did W i i a W ae la p g A i ee y Dpi f it i Q Figure 60 The 4 completed 4x4 planes Congratulations you have completed the second part of three We would like to hear how long it took you to do this part and other useful details in order to make this exposition better Part 2 is finished Take a break and then go on to the final part Part 3 The Ugly Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Part 3 The Ugly Actually The Ugly is nowhere near as ugly as it once was due to some improved techniques But The Somewhat Unpleasent just doesn t have the same ring to it In The Ugly we will put everything together attaching the LED planes to the PCB and then mounting the whole thing into the case Estimated completion time 2 4 hours Step 1 Attach standoffs First attach the 4 standoffs to the PCB as shown in Figure 61 with the provided screws This lifts the board off your working surface and
16. ge settings control the Cube from your own application etc Check around www hypnocube com to get the latest instructions and or software for that Basic Button Commands Sequence Description Command name in bold The two buttons are named A and B A while running denotes A button up a denotes A button aA Next visualization down etc for sequences See the online user bB Prev visualization O manual for more details abAB Lock current visualization Gadget shows a brief pause then continues running the visualization Executing Next or Prev releases lock reset baBA Pauses current image resulting in a still image Executing Next or Prev releases pause Removes currently playing visualization from the Button B Buttons A and B Buttons A and B hold Red Screen then blinking then Reset Gadget playlist Visualization can be reinstated through the console editor or through a Reset Lock the visualization prior to removal to prevent accidently removing the wrong visualization Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Introduction This is the first part of the instructions for building the 4x44 4Cube kit The three main parts are titled The Good The Bad and The Ugly In The Good we lay down rules review parts in the kit construct the circuit board and start the case layout In The Bad we will construct four planes of LEDs each being a 4x4 grid This is
17. ged defective LED or a backwards LED in the lattice Usually this is accompanied by the offending LED also not lighting properly Check for shorts in the lattice particularly between the offending row s ground cross wire and a column wire The cube goes through the test sequence fine but then acts erratically Make sure that the USB module is soldered properly Make sure that PIC is soldered properly Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Appendix 4 Programming your cube You can find detailed information on drawing to the cube from a PC program via the USB module in a companion manual available on the Hypnocube website We released detailed specs on the protocol to talk to the PIC sample C source code and a sample program to fiddle with the Hypnocube settings But for those who really want to get their hands dirty and reprogram the PIC microcontroller with their own code here are some things to get you started DISCLAIMER REPROGRAMMING THE PIC IS NOT SUPPORTED YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK WE WILL NOT RELEASE OUR SOURCE CODE OR THE HEX FILE FOR THE CUBE SO IF YOU ERASE YOUR PIC IT CANNOT BE RESTORED WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND SOCKETING THE PIC AND USING A SPARE PIC LEAVING THE ORIGINAL PREPROGRAMMED PIC UNTOUCHED We have found that the Aries Series 526 low profile ZIF socket fits on the PCB as allows enough clearance to insert and remove the PIC from underneath the LED lattice with a bit of care Another approach made by o
18. gnore the power jack since that s no longer used Next attach the remaining two switches to the case To be consistent with our other documentation you should place the switch labeled BTN1 on the PCB in the middle and the switch labeled BTN2 in the remaining spot as shown in Figure 75 Secure the switches with the proper nuts We recommend these switches be up in the rest position so they are easy to press but you can of course orient them any way you please a Figure 75 Mounting the buttons Once all of the switches are secure position the standoffs over the four mounting holes on the bottom Insert the remaining screws through the rubber feet and screw the case to the spacers Start all four screws before tightening any of the screws Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 gt 7 See gt gt io gt gt A P Figure 76 Mounting hardware as seen from below Place the top of the case on and voila You have constructed a difficult yet beautiful kit Be careful when picking it up that you do not grab the top half of the case and accidentally drop the bottom half If you want to attach the top more securely we suggest clear tape one strip per edge along the bottom which works pretty well We don t suggest anything too permanent however if you close the kit permanently you will not be able to access the lattice for repairs in case anything gets shaken
19. hing is wrong with the power jack or switch If you are getting 5V then odds are there are one or more shorts on the PCB or lattice wires particularly with the Darlington IC and the ground wires A particular LED doesn t light Make sure that the LEDs leads are soldered properly One color not lighting suggests that that color lead 1s not connected If none of the colors light it s likely the ground lead It is also possible that the LED was either damaged defective or oriented improperly the last one you can definitively check by looking for the flat spot on the side of the LED If all other LEDs look fine and the solder connections are good the LED may need to be replaced An entire row of LEDs doesn t light Make sure the row s ground wire is not shorted to another wire in the lattice Make sure that the ground drop wire for that row is soldered properly both at the cross wire and at the PCB Make sure that the Darlington IC is soldered properly Make sure that PIC is soldered properly An entire column of colors doesn t light Make sure that the column s drop wires are not shorted to another wire in the lattice Make sure that the drop wire for that color is soldered onto the PCB properly Make sure that the register IC the resistor chip and the diodes for that color are all soldered properly Make sure that PIC is soldered properly A row of LEDs is lighting when it shouldn t be This can be caused by a dama
20. ill combine the 8 LED strips made in the previous step into one 8x8 grid of LEDs We will need another jig this time to hold the LED strips in place while we solder wires across them See Appendix 1 A cheap jig for detailed instructions on making cardboard jig See Appendix 2 A nice jig for detailed instruction on making wooden jig The jig needs to be about 12 inches square 30 cm square with either two raised edges along either side or a opening in the center across which the LED strips will be suspended Incidentally this design was suggested by one of our customers We originally used a U shaped jig but this one is a lot simpler to construct more rigid and works just as well Thanks we appreciate your feedback Figure 41 shows the wood jig we use It has thumbscrews to hold the LED strips in place which 1s great for repeated use but would probably be overkill for your purposes One customer reports having used thumb tacks with success Tape can also work though it may not be quite as secure You can use anything you want the goal is to hold the strips securely in place while we solder them into a grid The spacing between each strip should be 1 25 inches 3 17 cm Note that our jig has the holes for making the strips along the bottom but there s really no reason the two jigs have to be integrated actually it s probably easier to use separate it just didn t occur to me when building this jig and we won t be using the holes
21. in the spot marked XTAL It is not orientation sensitive 3ENDevONdAH 3aN3ONdAH i ee es NON E mB ely bes Figure 10 Crystal BARR m E 2 le 6S wun ESSE Jj e p hy r gt t sr AE NN EE DZOA r ls f ier Se i 7 Oy oe Figure 11 USB jack and crystal in place Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Step 5 Chips dips chains whips It s time to place some chips When the chips are down ICs can be damaged by static from your fingers so ground yourself as usual when working with static sensitive electronics The chips usually don t quite fit since their pins are splayed a little wider than the PCB slots It might help to bend the pins slightly before inserting Use a flat right angle surface to bend them all slightly and at once We will start with the 4 SN74AHC574N chips Figure 12 Be sure to orient the chip properly There is a notch on one end of the chip to the left in the picture above and this should align with a notch drawn on the PCB footprint Note that two of the SN74s face the opposite direction as the other two SN74s make sure they are all oriented properly It can be helpful to tack the chip by soldering just 2 corner pins in place and making sure that the chip is properly seated before soldering the rest Uneven seating won t harm anything but may not look very Figure 12 SN74AHC574N good either It s also good to double check that
22. in this step Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 42 Wooden jig with thumbtacks made by a customer You will attach the strips to the grid as follows Place a strip across the top LEDs pointing straight to the top of the jig the cross section Make the diagonal blue leads point away from the table Secure with screws tape or however you want to secure it Then clip the ground wires that are sticking down past the cross connectors you could clip them before attaching to the jig if you desire a _ _ Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Don t allow the LEDs to be rotated they should all be parallel Make the strip as straight across as possible Once the strips are soldered together you cannot reorient them easily so do it correctly now Next attach the second strip right below the first so the LEDs are in line with the previous row and repeat until all 8 strips are arranged oriented the same spaced nicely centered and bound to the jig Figure 43 shows the loaded jig For the cardboard jig using electrical duct or even scotch tape to hold the wires in place is acceptable The cardboard jig however is more wobbly than the wood one making it more important to be careful that things are lined up well before each solder joint Figure 43 Loaded jig Note that you may need to clip the leads on the edge LEDs to fit the jig Do not cut them shorter than necessary sin
23. loose Congratulations you have completed the final part of three We would like to hear how long it took you to do this part and other useful details in order to make this exposition better Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 77 The finished cube Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Appendices Appendix 1 A cheap jig I can t recommend anyone use this jig since improvements have been made that make a nice jig much more accessible to those without woodworking tools or skills See Appendix 2 below for more details The cheap jig requires only cardboard plus basic tools such as scissors and tape and anybody should be able to make it It won t be as easy to use as the nice jig but you should still be able to get good results with care and patience Cut a piece of cardboard the heavier and stiffer the cardboard the better approximately 12 inches 30 cm square Cut a number of 1 x12 strips and stack them on opposite sides to build up enough clearance for the LEDs Depending on the thickness of the cardboard it will probably take 1 3 pieces on each side Glue tape or otherwise secure the cardboard together and mark off the spacing every 1 25 or 3 17cm for the LED strips You might note that it 1s impossible to reach the backside that s OK by the time we re finished with the front the grid will be strong enough to hold itself together allowing you to remove it safely fr
24. ne customer was to place a socket on the bottom of the PCB and bend all of the PICs pins up to maintain the proper connections We can t be responsible for broken pins but it worked for him The pins for the low voltage in circuit programmer are broken out on the PCB labeled LV ICP To connect a programmer you will need to look up the PIC18F4620 docs and see how the pins are exported from our PCB Don t ask us for help beyond this though perhaps eventually we will have forums with questions and answers for hackers working on these items The PIC programmer we used is the simple circuit and PicPGM software freely available from http www members aon at electronics pic picpgm The UART is available and broken out on a header and you can also re appropriate the 2 GPIO pins used for the buttons for other purposes if you wish This PCB circuit and PIC controller can give you a nice platform for a whole host of LED related projects Basically you can use it to drive 64 3 color LEDs in any configuration you like or 192 single color LEDs in any pattern you desire The hardware allows individual pixel and color access and with time multiplexing you can even get many levels of color
25. ng down a piece you already have Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Make 8 equally spaced marks on the jig and then make 8 holes of LED diameter A pen punches holes fine in cardboard and a drill works for the wood jig shown above Next place 8 LEDs in the jig as in Figure 33 and Figure 36 The LEDs must all be rotated in the same orientation with the red and green leads pointing parallel to the axis of the jig holes On the cardboard jig the green wires should be on the edge with the blue angled wire pointing towards the center Figure 33 A cardboard jig with LEDs Next we will be soldering a wire across the LEDs First a note on solder We re about to solder to galvanized steel which some people will tell you is insane Well it s a bit loopy but works well given the right solder I use 63 37 Sn Pb solder which works quite well I believe 60 40 works as well 50 50 may not work and I know the lead free solders I ve tried were miserable Before attaching the cross wires note there is a correct and incorrect side for the cross wire as shown below The reason to lay them on this side is to provide more room to connect the red drop wires later Note in these computer rendered images exaggerate the proximity of the LEDs and show the red and blue leads intersecting in real life they may be just touching but this is not a concern as they will be trimmed down at a later step All that we will be
26. om the jig To hold each LED strip in place use pieces of tape Thumbtacks may also work if the cardboard provides enough friction to keep them from popping loose Appendix 2 A nice jig One of our customers Rob Sheldon designed a much better jig If you can handle a drill you should make this jig You can download the excellent instructions Rob was kind enough to write up from http hypnocube com downloads instructions Figure 78 Rob s improved jig Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 The following wood jig is obsolete though the canvas frame suggestion might still be useful for some Tip One of our customers suggested using the frame from an art canvas I haven t tried it but it looks like you can get such canvases quite cheap several dollars and requires no carpentry tools or skills Seems like an excellent idea thanks Mark J The nice jig requires some wood appropriate woodworking tools and some basic woodworking knowledge Nothing fancy but it s not for everyone either Take a board approximately 12 inches 30 cm square and attach two strips down either side as shown Figure 79 There will be no stress applied to the pieces except for the weight of the wood itself so nails screws or glue will work equally well Each of the side pieces should be at least 4 inch thick or 1 cm no 1 4 inches doesn t equal cm but who s counting in order to give the LEDs ample clearance You might n
27. om too much heat so be careful and don t hold the iron on the leads too long Make sure all solder joints connect well 4 Many of the parts in this kit require correct orientation rotation When mentioned there is a right way and a wrong way to connect something both of which look similar Be sure to have them correctly positioned before soldering 5 The LEDs are difficult to bend correctly Make sure you are EXTREMELY diligent in bending them correctly 6 Plan on spending some time constructing the kit Chris s first and only kit build took him about 10 hours over three nights Gene with much experience having constructed all others can build one in about four hours We have heard from a number of first time builders who report from 6 12 hours Plan on setting aside at least that much time For a look at the finished cube see Figure 77 Good luck TT Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Part 1 The Good Part one is assembling the controller PCB This should be straightforward for anyone who has done PCB work there s nothing exotic here Estimated completion time 1 5 3 hours We will start with the lowest profile parts and work our way up as that allows your working surface to hold the parts in place while we solder the bottom Besides that there is no particular requirement for assembly order Step 1 Diodes The first parts we will place are the 24 signal diodes Orientation is important her
28. ote that it is impossible to reach the backside that s OK by the time we re finished with the front the grid will be strong enough to hold itself together allowing you to remove it safely from the jig To hold each LED strip I have used a row of thumbscrews This makes it really easy to use many times over but probably overkill for a single use jig One customer used thumbtacks to hold the strips in place and this should work equally well at least for the first one or two times Tape can also work but probably will not hold the strips as securely Whatever method you use the spacing should be 1 25 3 17cm between each strip Figure 79 Wooden jig Spacing between the holes and between the thumbscrews is 1 25 3 17cm I Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Appendix 3 Troubleshooting With just about every problem you should first make sure that the lattice wires are not shorting There s even been a case of a completely non responsive cube power problem right that s what we thought too because every ground wire was shorted Nothing happens when the cube is powered on Make sure that the power jack is connected with the proper polarity Make sure that the power switch is properly soldered Make sure that PIC is soldered properly If you have a voltmeter check to see if you are getting 5V out of the regulator one of the big capacitors is a good place to check Lack of power suggests somet
29. ound wires lowest to highest should match previous planes Run the testing code to make sure all LEDs are functioning properly and that you have them ordered correctly If there is anything out of order you fix it before adding more planes in order to have easy access to the internal wiring oo ee ae a At this point you should have a working cube just yet in the case Relax and let it run a while to make sure it looks good It is designed to hypnotize you into buying a few dozen for all your friends family and neighbors Mmmmm pretty shiny blinky things Now you should have a working LED cube that properly passes the testing routines and then starts running visualizations The testing routines always run on power up and are useful if you ever jiggle a lead loose and need to fix it you can skip the test routines in the future by pressing either of the buttons we are about to do in the next step There are also other testing possibilities described in the User Manual based on switch settings on power up Locate the User Manual on the Hypnocube site for further details Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Step 5 Attaching the buttons Well we re calling them buttons to differentiate from the power switch but they are actually momentary toggle switches Because these switches have a defined rest position it is important to wire them properly otherwise they will be pressed except
30. rids so a good sanity check is to make sure that 4 LEDs are to either side of your cut Figure 53 Cutting points Figure 54 shows a close up of the cutting points Cut the wires in between row 4 and row 5 immediately above the row 5 LEDs Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 54 Cutting points for vertical wires Figure 55 shows another close up Cut the wires between column D and column E immediately to the right of the column D LEDs er Figure 55 Cutting point for horizontal wires After cutting you should have 4 planes that look like the following Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 56 The four separated 4x4 planes Trim off the top 3 ground wires on two of the newly created planes to match the other two Make sure you leave the bottom one Your planes should now look like Figure 54 Figure 57 4x4 planes after trimming Now use a pair of needle nose pliers to bend the bottom ground wire of each plane into a drop wire The ground drop wire should be roughly aligned with the 2 other dr ps next to it forming the fourth corner of a rectangle Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 This saves us a bit of hassle in Part 3 taking what would be the trickiest ground drop and making it the easiest 4 e J Finally take the two planes with the excess drop wire lead lengths and trim them as shown in Figure 59 This will make ins
31. rying to get them to all align simultaneously which is a recipe for madness Make sure that all drop wires go straight down to the proper hole The bottom o IN Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 ground wire should slot into the GND hole on the side marked Lowest on the PCB Otherwise all of the GND holes should be open Do not solder yet je Taf Figure 67 Close up of the LED holes First double check that all of the wires are in the proper holes Next adjust the plane so that the height of the LEDs from the PCB looks good to you and that the LEDs are level to your satisfaction Now solder only one wire at each end of the PCB This will allow you to check that the alignment wasn t disturbed and allow you to make any fine adjustments before continuing Once you have everything positioned to your satisfaction grid is square aligned even etc you can solder all of the remaining the leads You can do all of the solder from the top there s no need to turn the cube upside down Then clip off extra leads below the PCB Figure 68 shows the PCB with the first grid soldered on Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 68 First grid attached Now we will attach the ground drop wires Take one drop wire of each length that we made in Step 1 and insert them into the GND holes in the PCB hooking them on to the horizontal ground wires as shown below The wire
32. s go from the shortest on the left to the tallest on the right there are also labels lowest and highest written on the PCB at the two extremes i a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ ____ i Figure 69 Hanging ground drop wires Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Make sure that there are no shorts and the drop wire only touches the PCB and cross wire from which it s hanging You can then solder the tops of the wires at the hook How carefully you align the drop wire when soldering is a matter of personal preference and patience Figure 70 Ground drops soldered in place Once the tops of the drop wires are soldered that will hold the wire in place and allow you to solder the bottom of the wires to the PCB You can then clip off the excess wire Congratulations You have one plane made and you can test some diagnostic stuff before adding more planes Testing the Plane Read this paragraph before starting it First double check the plane you just added to make sure that everything looks good that all drop wires are in the proper holes and that none of the wires in the grid are touching any other wires than what they are soldered to You will then power the cube up and see how the first grid functions Plug the AC adapter in and throw the power switch If after turning it on you do not immediately see LEDs light turn it off There is something amiss with your power connections and suppl
33. s have been transitioning from a yellow package to black The 22 and 47Q shown here are yellow but chances are good yours will be all black The markings should be the same however The label on the 68Q package is impossible to read on the picture here but it s there vr seeperevevpeaneaer Figure 19 Resistor arrays in place Figure 16 22Q resistor array Figure 17 47Q resistor array Figure 18 68Q resistor array Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Step 7 The PICs We have two PIC microcontrollers one running the main firmware and the second handling USB duties The Big Kahuna is the PIC18F4620 Just make sure you put it in the correct orientation The tab goes towards the edge of the board If you plan to reprogram your PIC be sure to read the Appendices and use a socket before soldering down the PIC TREE EP ERE RE EES The second PIC is the PIC18F14K50 and goes at the bottom of the Figure 20 PIC18F4620 board It has the same orientation as the 18F4620 Figure 22 shows the PCB with all of the chips in place T BANSUONSARS ce 8 Figure 21 PIC18F14K50 Figure 22 PIC18F4620 in place Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Step 8 Large capacitors Lastly there are two capacitors that sit the highest One is the blue 0 47uF capacitor It goes in C10 next to the bottom PIC It is not orientation sensitive The second is the 10uF el
34. shows all of the red drop wires in place i P si i Wya Bii Figure 46 First set of drop wires in place Double check that all of the solder joints look good then clip off the excess from the LED red leads as they can be in the way when soldering the blue drop wires Do not trim any of the other wires as some like the extra wire at the bottom is very important for later steps Now the next set of drop wires is tricky Because the blue leads are on a diagonal the drop wires do not readily stay in place while soldering To alleviate this elevate one side of the jig so that the diagonal leads are level Books work well for this I used the stack of PCBs I had sitting next to me Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 __ E pi _ 7 ed gt G i Figure 47 Soldering blue drop wires The blue drop wire should be about level with the red drop wire already in place and about the same distance from the LED gt a ey Figure 48 Close up of two drop wires soldered in place Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 49 Another view of the blue drop wire ery l l J d 7 a A y h p A ME mi Figure 50 Second set of drop wires in place Once the two sets of drop wires 16 wires in all have been soldered in the lattice is strong enough that you can remove it from the jig to do the other side The last set of wires will be easier than th
35. side something to keep in mind when mounting the switch to the case later In Figure 62 The power switch the switch is OFF Figure 63 shows the connection points for the power switch on the PCB Tinning the wire can help if you have difficulty getting the stranded wire cleanly through the holes Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 oe ats e Ey w 4 03 rs a o 391 o m w a a PWR Switch od tor a ee vic e e o els LZ TA Figure 63 Power switch connection point e kat H A E 03 s o 391 o a v a n WR 6 o KJ e P Figure 64 Power switch attached Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Step 3 Making the ground drop wires To connect the ground wires from each row to the PCB you will need 12 drop wires 4 each of 3 lengths the fourth drop wire is already built in to the plane Take 4 full length pieces of wire and cut each one into 3 lengths 5 25 4 and 2 75 or approximately 13 5cm 10cm and 7cm Figure 65 shows the cut wires next to one of the 4x4 planes as reference Figure 65 Ground drop wire lengths Next use a pair of needle nosed pliers to bend the ends of each drop wire into a small hook It doesn t need to look exactly like the hooks I made just so long as it will keep the drop wire from slipping off the cross wire while you solder it Hypnocube 4Cube Instr
36. te the kit has extra LEDs besides the 64 needed to complete the kit Green lead Red lead Blue lead Ground lead Figure 27 Unbent LED This part is tricky so pay close attention The leads from each of the 64 LEDs must be bent as in Figure 28 and Figure 29 Do not bend any yet Read this section very carefully several times before starting to bend LEDs Bending the leads back and forth too many times will break the leads In all the cubes we have built we have broken none yet but just in case we shipped you at least one extra LED _ Tr N Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 The pins are bent as follows 1 The first lead the red lead next to the flat spot is bent as close to the base as possible and MUST GO IN THE DIRECTION INDICATED Make sure you do not bend in the opposite direction 2 Lead number 2 the ground is left alone and sticks straight out 3 Next bend lead number 4 the green lead to go in the opposite direction of the red lead 4 Lead number 3 the blue lead is bent at about a 30 degree angle from the green lead Wires will be dropped from the red green and blue leads down to the PCB and into the holes labeled R G B Figure 28 is what the LEDs look like once bent Figure 28 Properly bent LED Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 29 Rendering of a properly bent LED Now bend one LED which will be your template to
37. the hardest part of the kit lin The Ugly we will attach the LEDs to the PCB testing as you go and finally put it all together in the case Tools You will need the following minimum set of tools 1 Soldering iron Any iron can work but a nicer one will make the job a lot easier 2 Solder we recommend 63 37 Sn Pb rosin core All normal electronics solders should work fine for the PCB but the wire lattice can be quite particular see page 17 for more details 3 Hardened wire cutter Take care not to damage a delicate pair on the steel lattice wire 4 Wire strippers for 24 AWG wire 5 Needle nose pliers 6 Small Phillips screwdriver To make the jig you ll also need one of the following 1 Cardboard for making a poor jig 2 Wood and wood tools for making a good jig Disclaimers Before you begin some items to note 1 READ EVERYTHING IN THE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE YOU START You will make a much nicer cube by knowing where steps are leading before constructing items The instructions attempt to make the kit foolproof but we all know that is impossible Don t become a FAQ entry 2 One good idea is to print out the instructions and cross off each paragraph as you finish it to ensure you don t miss a sentence or instruction step This can save you trouble later 3 This kit assumes you have built electronic kits before and are proficient at soldering items to a circuit board Chips and other parts can be damaged fr
38. uctions v 6 4 September 2013 Figure 66 Close up of hooks on the ground drop wires Step 4 Attaching planes Please note that many of the following pictures are from an older revision of the board so may look slightly different from yours the instructions all still apply however We will add one plane at a time to the circuit board by first slotting it into the LED holes on the PCB and then adding the drop wires For the first plane select one of the planes with the shortest wires the ones that came from the top half of the 8x8 grid If you place one of the long lead planes first you might not have enough length on later planes to align them With the two planes with longer wires you will need to trim them down to fit within the clearance provided by the standoffs We will start from the back the side with the USB jack and work forward as this will give us the best access to the drop wires The wires should align with the R G and B holes as shown in Figure 67 If the ends of the wires have any burrs you made need to trim it slightly to get them to fit through the holes in the PCB A good sharp pair of cutters helps here Also if you happened to get any solder on the wires while constructing the grid you may need to clean it off It can be tricky getting all of the wires in the proper holes I find it helps to approach it at an angle so that you start with the wires on one end and insert one at a time rather than t
39. y If you have problems see troubleshooting This is what you should see first all LEDs will go completely white and then red then green then blue and then a single white dot will scroll through the LEDs It may take a moment for the scrolling LED to reach the plane you inserted depending on which plane our code starts with Currently we start with the far plane causing a delay but we plan to change this on the next code pass to make the scrolling start on the plane inserted in these instructions If you think something may be wrong take a look at the Troubleshooting section located in Hypnocube 4Cube Instructions v 6 4 September 2013 Appendix 3 Troubleshooting If this part passes on the first try then you are doing great Quite often you need to find a loose solder joint fix shorted wires or find some other missing or poor connection to get the cube flawless Congratulations You have one plane attached and have passed initial testing For each of the next three grid planes follow these steps rereading the above as necessary Select the remaining grid with the shortest drop wires Place it adjacent to the previous grid IN THE SAME ORIENTATION Make sure it is aligned nicely relative to previous grids LEDs level in a nice cubical lattice Insert all drop wires through the proper holes Only solder the two end wires Check placement If correct solder rest of leads and clip Do ground wires The order of the gr
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