Hobby Components 8x8x8 Cube Kit (HCKITS0050)

Hobby Component self build kits
andrew
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Re: Hobby Components 8x8x8 Cube Kit (HCKITS0050)

Post by andrew » Thu Oct 19, 2017 11:23 am

If it has a ~5V DC output with 500mA/0.5A or greater current capacity then it should work fine (this also assumes that iPhone chargers don't have any special built-in sensing that shuts down the adapter if anything other than an iPhone is connected).
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motorwrists
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Re: Hobby Components 8x8x8 Cube Kit (HCKITS0050)

Post by motorwrists » Thu Oct 19, 2017 1:19 pm

The iphone charger I found has DC 5.1 v @ 2.1A

andrew
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Re: Hobby Components 8x8x8 Cube Kit (HCKITS0050)

Post by andrew » Thu Oct 19, 2017 1:26 pm

Yeah that's more than sufficient.
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motorwrists
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Re: Hobby Components 8x8x8 Cube Kit (HCKITS0050)

Post by motorwrists » Thu Oct 19, 2017 1:49 pm

same results on grid illumination same 4 failing. Faster to display animation though.

andrew
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Re: Hobby Components 8x8x8 Cube Kit (HCKITS0050)

Post by andrew » Thu Oct 19, 2017 3:49 pm

Ok, I think I may have run out of things to check! The circuit isn't really that complicated so theirs only a limited amount of things that can go wrong. I can't connect your forum account to an actual order. Could you possibly email me at support (at) hobbycomponents.com with some sort of order information such as an order number or email address etc and we'll take it from there.
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Scarebird
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Re: Hobby Components 8x8x8 Cube Kit (HCKITS0050)

Post by Scarebird » Fri Jan 12, 2018 6:25 pm

I've just finished putting this kit together and am really pleased with it. The base went together without any problems, and after the first two layers of LEDs I developed a system that made the last 6 a lot easier.

Fitting the LEDs to the base was just a matter of taking things steadily, and a simple wooden jig assisted with keeping all the layers square when soldering them together.

Switching on for the first time it was fingers crossed, but everything seemed to work first time. However, I did discover a joint that wasn't soldered properly and connection was only being made by tension of the LED leg keeping it pressed against it's neighbor. Fortunately it was on an outside edge, so simple enough to rectify with a quick dab of the soldering iron.

This has been a fun project to put together and the finished article easily matches the demo videos posted on Youtube. I guess the next step will be to learn how to program it to make my own custom patterns.

Scarebird
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Re: Hobby Components 8x8x8 Cube Kit (HCKITS0050)

Post by Scarebird » Mon Jan 22, 2018 1:10 pm

A small update to my post above.

I've already stated that I had fun putting the cube together, and apart from one small joint problem, everything is working as advertised.

Hoping to take the next step of possibly adding some of my own patterns, I connected the cube to my PC with the supplied serial cable, and that's where my problems began.

As I am running Windows 10, the cube was unrecognised on the com port, but the fix listed in this thread solved that with the installation of a new driver. So that's not the problem that is stopping me from achieving my goal.

The problem now is that my Arduino IDE is reporting compiling errors with the sketch supplied by Hobby Components (this is before I have made any changes), and if it does get through the compiling process, even with errors being reported, nothing uploads to the cube.

I have made sure that the IDE is set for compiling and uploading to a Nano, so I have no idea what to do next.

andrew
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Re: Hobby Components 8x8x8 Cube Kit (HCKITS0050)

Post by andrew » Mon Jan 22, 2018 3:41 pm

If there are any errors the sketch will not compile so there will be nothing to upload. Did you install the library? If not you can find it at the bottom of the first post in this forum thread:

http://forum.hobbycomponents.com/viewto ... =58&t=1968

Just download the Zip file and in the Arduino IDE select Sketch->Include Library->Add .Zip Library... Then select the library Zip file you just downloaded.

If this doesn't fix your problem could you post the error message(s) your seeing thanks.
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Scarebird
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Re: Hobby Components 8x8x8 Cube Kit (HCKITS0050)

Post by Scarebird » Mon Jan 22, 2018 4:40 pm

The library is installed, but I will try downloading again to make sure it is up to date and not corrupted.

Scarebird
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Re: Hobby Components 8x8x8 Cube Kit (HCKITS0050)

Post by Scarebird » Mon Jan 22, 2018 6:29 pm

These are the first few lines of error messages, which go on for several pages :

In file included from E:\Arduino\arduino-1.8.5\libraries\HC8x8x8Cube\Examples\HC8x8x8_Play_Patterns\HC8x8x8_Play_Patterns.ino:26:0:

E:\Arduino\arduino-1.8.5\libraries\HC8x8x8Cube/HC8x8x8Cube.h:193:1: warning: narrowing conversion of '242' from 'int' to 'const char' inside { } [-Wnarrowing]

};

^

E:\Arduino\arduino-1.8.5\libraries\HC8x8x8Cube/HC8x8x8Cube.h:193:1: warning: narrowing conversion of '242' from 'int' to 'const char' inside { } [-Wnarrowing]

E:\Arduino\arduino-1.8.5\libraries\HC8x8x8Cube/HC8x8x8Cube.h:193:1: warning: narrowing conversion of '224' from 'int' to 'const char' inside { } [-Wnarrowing]

E:\Arduino\arduino-1.8.5\libraries\HC8x8x8Cube/HC8x8x8Cube.h:193:1: warning: narrowing conversion of '224' from 'int' to 'const char' inside { } [-Wnarrowing]

E:\Arduino\arduino-1.8.5\libraries\HC8x8x8Cube/HC8x8x8Cube.h:193:1: warning: narrowing conversion of '224' from 'int' to 'const char' inside { } [-Wnarrowing]


Towards the end of the error messages I also get several lines like this :

E:\Arduino\arduino-1.8.5\libraries\HC8x8x8Cube\HC8x8x8_Cube_Patterns.cpp: In function 'void Pattern_Text3D(unsigned int, unsigned int)':

E:\Arduino\arduino-1.8.5\libraries\HC8x8x8Cube\HC8x8x8_Cube_Patterns.cpp:860:57: warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to 'char*' [-Wwrite-strings]

printString("8x8x8LEDCube", Index, X_Axis, 2, FORWARD);

^

E:\Arduino\arduino-1.8.5\libraries\HC8x8x8Cube\HC8x8x8_Cube_Patterns.cpp:861:57: warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to 'char*' [-Wwrite-strings]

printString("8x8x8LEDCube", Index, X_Axis, 3, FORWARD);


This is all from the downloaded file you linked to, which was installed in my Library folder, and the cube sketch was opened and then verified without making any changes.

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