arduino-cube-preview

Arduino RGB Cube

Project Type: High School / Group Project (3 people)

Technology Stack: C++ (Arduino)

Role: Programmer

GitHub: Arduino Cube


Short Description

The project itself was a part of the High School Robotics course final project.

The project idea was to develop an RGB cube, which lighting might be based on music, be controlled manually or remotely using Bluetooth.

Descriptive Detail

The team has created a 3D model using FreeCAD with accurate measurements and hardware requirements. After the prototyping phase, the team started to brainstorm the software ideas such as different sleep, lighting modes and brightness adjustment.

After successful planning, the team started to create the initial prototype using carton box as cube walls, Arduino controller, LED strip (WS2813B) and power supply.

It was the point where the team faced a miscalculation of LED distance on the strip. Because of this, the team has decided to cut it and connect LEDs by soldering wires.

In total team had 4 walls of the cube and around 80 LEDs connected. Initially, the top face of the cube was planned empty and removable. After some concept proof, the team decided to install their laser diodes for more interactivity. As the deadline was coming, the team decided to separate tasks.

My task was to develop an Arduino code that runs modes based on terminal input. As I did not have any experience writing such behaviour, it took much more time than planned. Moreover, hardware such as the Bluetooth module broke and as the result, the team decided to remove the remote access possibility. Furthermore, the official deadline was coming and the team decided to create a demo project, without any diodes or scattering material on cube faces.

Presentation day come and the resulting team presented the music-based RGB cube with terminal software only. Unfortunately, after getting marks, the team decided to stop project development.

Testing initial prototype
Prototype live presentation