Under Development
March 26th, 2007 by 
Chris
Here we will list things we are working on as we find time.
To start, here is a video of the 8 cube prototype. It is still pretty basic since we are trying to get another project done first, but we finally have one up and running.
The final version will be RGB, have no flicker, at least 4096 colors, perform to music (as soon as I figure out details on wavelet analysis - I want to see if I can isolate instruments in audio among other things). Lots to do……
Google sometimes plays this video back too fast. If the seconds counter is going too
fast then the cube looks jerky. In this case stop and restart until the counter moves correctly. The animations should move smoothly.
Posted in News | 
March 29th, 2007 at 9:11 am
I suffer from Sami eye and the visual effects from your video causes my strabismus to flare up.
March 29th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
AWESOME!!!! I want one!!!!
It blows the 4×4x4 out of the water!!
You guys just keep getting better and better.
Sure hope you offer the 8×8x8 in kit form ’cause I’m sure I won’t be able to afford the pre-assembled cube.
April 3rd, 2007 at 2:34 am
A beautiful demo. Shouldn’t there be occassional “yellow” colors where the red and green intersect?
Let us know the 8×8 kit pricing, so we can start saving!
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Thanks for the comments guys. We’ve gotten a few requests for an 8cube kit, and plan to offer one once it’s finished. Pricing is TBD, but I expect it’ll be slightly north of $1000 (a lot, yes, but we’re talking 8X basically everything in the 4Cube - 512 LEDs! - plus a gumstix and probably wifi.)
April 4th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
There is no yellow on the demo because the pixel colors are “set” in by the code, not “or’ed”. In other words, one surface is drawn in the demo, and then the other is drawn, and then the frame displayed. Multiple and intersecting colors are easy to do, just not on that particular shot.
April 5th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Ok i’m all over this - I built the 4×4 RGB and can’t wait for the 8×8. Is the north of 1k for kit or finished cube? Continue with the great work guys!
April 5th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Please don’t heed these prices. There are too many variables still unknown for the 8 cube (casing, controls, networking?, more) to say anything. They will contain much more in parts and casing than eight of the 4×4x4 cubes, and there will also likely be significant labor to prepare a case, even for a kit. $1000 for a kit is likely way too low for the level of casing and options we envision. A finished one will likely take us 40-60 hours to build each (depending on cases, testing), and we still need (I guess) another 10,000-30,000 lines of code to be amortized over the cost. Combined with shipping issues I find it very unlikely we can sell a kit at 1K, and certainly not a finished cube.
Now if we can get them mass produced somehow….
April 9th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
the 8x version is really amazing and there is a lot of potential in this project! I hope you can soon offer the 8 x kit for an affordable price
April 27th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Lookin’ good. If you keep the 8×8 south of $2K, then I’m in. I bought a (10×10) LED cube from James Clar and Associates for around the same price, but your cube looks to be much more interesting. Keep up the great work.
April 27th, 2007 at 10:27 am
I’m also looking forward to the 8^3 kit. Consider me a customer if it’s in the $1500 range. I suggest adding a scripting language like Lua (www.lua.org) to allow us creating own animations and perhaps games like a real 3D Tetris!
Great work, guys!
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:15 pm
wow! i´ll start saving.
YEAH! tetris, colours, 4 in a row, reversi, pong , arkanoid, Galaga, so many games could be played.
I would plug it into my 5.1 home theatre or to winamp as a graphic eq.
Have you thought of offering it before having it finished?
July 30th, 2007 at 6:52 am
I’m curious how mechanical support works with the 8^3. With the 4^3, the circuit wires are plenty strong to support the planes of LEDs, but with 8^3, it seems like some sort of mechanical bracing would be necessary. Do you have additional support structures, heavier gage wire, or is it not an issue?
August 18th, 2007 at 1:17 am
Is the 8×3 going to be set like an ornament in the clear plastic resin? The wiring then wouldn’t have to support the weight of all the leds and could be much smaller
August 21st, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Sorry guys, I haven’t been on the ball responding to comments.
The mechanical support actually isn’t an issue on the 8cube. There are a few supports at the top to keep the planes from banging into each other while moving, but otherwise the 22ga steel wire is more than strong enough to support the weight of the structure.
September 12th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
What you need is an 8 cube guitar amp! awsome stage effects and it could perform to music.
November 17th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
This is so cool!
I have bought my share of light themed kits, and this by far is the best one. I haven’t gotten one yet, but will very soon. It’s like a video game, but so simple that it is addicting. It’s the the closest thing to real 3D animation that I’ve ever seen. Depending on the price, I’d definitely buy the 8^3 cube. Awesome invention guys!
ps have you thought of a forum for the hackers to bounce ideas off each other?
March 23rd, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Damn this 8×8x8 cube is really awsome. Keep the kit price at 1000$ and i definetely buy one!
April 21st, 2008 at 8:38 pm
How soon to get these. How much. I want to use these in my room designs for events in LA. Cool shit mang… keep it comming
-Travis
April 21st, 2008 at 9:54 pm
This work is the beginning of something HUGE. You all have invented the precursor to holographic projectors. Imagine a 1000*1000*1000 and you’ll “see” what I mean.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
[to fishtank]
Unfortunately it will not scale. After you get much larger than the 8×8x8 the front wiring and LEDs block the deeper ones, and you don’t see them. Spacing out the LEDs to try to fix this causes close images to be spread out too much, and you don’t get good visual continuity.
I simulated a lot of sizes, spacing, and we built a lot of prototypes to find out optimal visually pleasing configurations.
We do have other ideas for 3D display, but they mostly consist of things we cannot yet afford