Considering NEOPIXEL 8x8x8 Suggestions?

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Funman1
 
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Considering NEOPIXEL 8x8x8 Suggestions?

Post by Funman1 »

After doing some extensive research I can not find anyone who has attempted this with a neopixel though hole setup.
Yes, the LED's would be CONSIDERABLY more expensive then RGB, BUT the creation and cube would be MUCH less complex and difficult.
You would no longer need anode and cathode rails and just simple 5volt rails and each led in and out strung together.
What is stopping me from attempting this would be the programming.
Since it seems no one else has tackled this before there does not seem to be much out there.

There are some pretty complex animations for the current 8x8x8 driven via multiplexers and such
I would have no idea how to convert those animations written for anode and cathode rails to neopixel commands.

What do you guys think? would the coding be too hard to do for neopixels?
I'm an intermediate Arduino programmer. I can always program what I need pretty well.
But 3D animations are just outside my comfort level in programming.

But man the thought of a simple build and system control via 1 pin or perhaps 8 pins (1 pin per slice to make programming easier?)

Thoughts anyone?
Am I nuts for considering to attempt this? :
~Steve~

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Considering NEOPIXEL 8x8x8 Suggestions?

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

I don't think you're nuts.
If I were doing it, I don't know if I would go with the one-pin or 8-slice approach. I don't think it actually makes much difference.

What I would consider is using a FadeCandy. You should research that a bit to see if it helps you with the programming issue:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1689

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Funman1
 
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Re: Considering NEOPIXEL 8x8x8 Suggestions?

Post by Funman1 »

Hmm yeah I'm aware of them and didn't even think of using a FadeCandy..
Hmmm.... I may need to order one soon, and begin playing hahah.
Want to make sure I can make an 8x8x8 look DANG GOOD before a spend a single minute building one.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Considering NEOPIXEL 8x8x8 Suggestions?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

The biggest disadvantage NeoPixels have is their orientation.. they're meant to be viewed from the front, and don't have much side visibility.

You can solve that by mounting something like a frosted/translucent glass marble on each pixel. That would catch and diffuse the light in almost all directions. If you mount the units so the NeoPixel is toward the base (where you won't have a view line anyway) you can minimize the loss of visibility.

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Considering NEOPIXEL 8x8x8 Suggestions?

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

We also have diffused through-hole NeoPixels, which aren't as directional:
8mm: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1734
5mm: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1938

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Funman1
 
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Re: Considering NEOPIXEL 8x8x8 Suggestions?

Post by Funman1 »

Yep Mike that's what I was looking at was the through hole (said in my first post ;) )
However it looks like someone has already thought of this and have a working 8x8x8 based on strip neopixels.
If it was the though hole I would have bought this cube on sight!!!
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- ... LED-cubes/

Thanks to your show and tell last week I saw a kickstarter for neopixel cube, I'm shattered it's "strip-ed" though and not through hole...
But at least now I know if I decide to tackle this beast there is some insanely good looking code already written for it!!
I almost wonder if there is enough room to add a frosted marble to the strips and make that kickstarter work for me.

Wonder if I could turn all the strips horizontal and glue frosted marbles to them.. Now that would be cool!!

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