DIY 8x8x8 LED Cube Build - Part 2 - Assembling the LED Panels

This is a 3 part set of videos in which I show the construction and operation of a DIY 8x8x8 3D LED cube kit I bought from Banggood. This DIY kit comes as a bare PCB and components which you need to solder and construct yourself. This 3D LED cube look really neat, however the kit does not come with any build instructions. There are some other videos online but they either document other cube designs or skip over some of the build steps, hence I've tried to document the entire build and any hints and tips I found as I went along. As a result some parts are quite long, even with editing down and speeding some sections up, so feel free to skip forward.

This second video shows the assembly of the LED panels making up the cube, describing the LED arrangement, how to bend the LED leads and how to use the assembly guide. The LEDs are first assembled as single row of 8 LEDs with all the positive leads soldered together. 8 sets of these 8 LED rows then form an 8x8 vertical LED panel by soldering the negative leads of one row to the next. Finally 8 LED panels are assembled into the pins on the PCB and the horizontal planes of each of the vertical 8x8 panel are soldered together. Finally I test the cube and fix a problem.

NOTE: This video is quite long as I try and explain the process I used to get a neat and aligned 3D cube of LEDs, so skip forward if you want.

This particular cube features 512 (8x8x8) blue 5mm round LEDs, although a lot of kits currently listed use the rectangular ones. The cube runs off a 5V USB supply, has a power switch, a mode switch and two 3.5mm jacks (line in and out) which allow you to feed in audio and have the cube react to. Some cubes come with a speaker and MP3 playback module but not this one.

The kit comes pre-programmed with 45 offline animations and 15 dynamic audio effects. The kit also includes a WiFi module which you can use to control the cube through an Android app and an infrared remote control. A USB-Serial debug adapter is also included and allows you to control the cube from a Windows PC using some custom software. If you are feeling adventurous you can also use the debug adapter, and some additional software, to change the pre-programmed software to add additional effects or completely change its operation. For a full list of features see the listing description.

The kit itself can be found here: https://uk.banggood.com/DIY-WIFI-APP-...
An acrylic case can be found here: https://uk.banggood.com/Transparent-A...
The software bundle can be found here: http://files.banggood.com/2018/01/888...

Chapters:
00:00 Start
00:11 Using the LED soldering jig
03:52 LED lead arrangement for a single row
06:02 Issue with soldering jig spacing
07:02 Alternative LED spacing paper grid
08:46 Bending the LEDs for a single row
11:34 Soldering a single row of LEDs
17:06 Bending LEDs leads of one row to join to the row below
21:09 Testing LED rows
21:40 Soldering two rows together (with jig and paper grid)
31:22 Soldering the rows into a complete panel
32:48 Testing the LED panels
35:50 Mounting panels to PCB
41:41 Soldering the common positive wires across all horizontal planes
46:58 Aligning LED planes
48:00 Connecting the positive common planes to the PCB
51:25 Initial power on test and fix
54:06 Finished cube, checking alignment
55:43 All done and in its case

For part 1 Assembling the PCB see here:    • DIY 8x8x8 LED Cube Build - Part 1 - A...  
For part 3 Operating the LED Cube see here:    • DIY 8x8x8 LED Cube Build - Part 3 - O...  

Music by Scott Holmes, tracks used include Reflections and Dream Come True.