hypnocubehypnocube.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/hs8...hypnosquare instructions v 1.3, may 2009 - 2...

HypnoSquare Instructions v 1.3, May 2009

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HYPNOCUBE Things that go blink in the night

Thank you for purchasing a HypnoCube kit. Instructions are online at www.hypnocube.com. Email any

questions to [email protected].

Parts List The following parts make up the 8Square kit and should be in the box:

1. Shadowbox frame

2. Smoked acrylic panel

3. H8S printed circuit board (PCB)

4. Diffuse common-cathode RGB LED x67 (3 are spares)

5. 110VAC to 9VDC 300mA transformer (a.k.a. wall wart)

6. PIC18F4620 microcontroller (40 pins)

7. SN74AHC574 octal D-type flip-flop x4 (20 pins)

8. ULN2803A NPN Darlington transistor array (18 pins)

9. LM2574 5V switching regulator (8 pins)

10. 22 resistor array (16 pins)



13. 47K resistor x3 (yellow-violet-orange-gold)

14. 1K resistor x5 (brown-black-red-gold)

15. 40 pin IC socket

16. 1N4148TR signal diode x24 (red)

17. 511-BAT48 rectifier diode (blue)

18. 330mH inductor

19. 0.1uF ceramic capacitor x5

20. 10uF electrolytic capacitor



23. 2.1mm DC power jack

24. Toggle switch

25. Momentary pushbutton x2

26. ¾” threaded standoff x4

27. ⅜” 4-40 screw x8 28. 32 pin header and 7 pin header (to be

spilt later)

If you purchased the USB version of the kit, you will also get:

29. DLP-UB232R UART-USB bridge module

30. Mini-B USB cable

USB Features If you have the USB interface, we provide a few sample programs to interface with your device and change

settings, play back your own animations, etc. Check around www.HypnoCube.com to get the latest instructions

and/or software for that.

Basic Button Commands The two buttons are named A and B. “A”

denotes A button up, “a” denotes A button

down, etc., for sequences. See the online user

manual for more details.

Sequence while running

Description (Command name in bold)

aA Next visualization.

bB Prev visualization.

abAB Lock current visualization. Gadget shows a brief pause then continues running the visualization. Executing Next or Prev releases lock

baBA Pauses current image, resulting in a still image. Executing Next or Prev releases pause.

abBbBA Removes currently playing visualization from the playlist. Visualization can be reinstated through the console editor or through a Reset. Lock the visualization prior to removal to prevent accidently removing the wrong visualization.

Button(s) Down on reset

Effect

Neither White screen

Button A Blue screen

Button B Green Screen

Buttons A and B Red Screen

Buttons A and B, hold Red Screen, then blinking, then Reset

Gadget

http://www.hypnocube.com/

mailto:[email protected]



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Introduction This is the first part of the instructions for building the 8×8 “8Square” kit.

The three main parts are titled “The Good”, “The Bad” and “The Ugly”.

In “The Good” we will construct the controller board.

In “The Bad” we will construct the LED board.

Finally, in “The Ugly” we will assemble the two halves, test, and finally put it all together in the frame.

Tools

You will need the following minimum set of tools:

1. Soldering iron.

2. Solder.

3. Snips.

4. Small Phillips screwdriver.

Disclaimers!

Before you begin, some items to note:

1. READ EVERYTHING IN THE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE YOU START! You will make a much

nicer square by knowing where steps are leading before constructing items. The instructions attempt to

make the kit foolproof, but we all know that is impossible :) Don‟t become a FAQ entry.

2. One good idea is to print out the instructions and cross off each paragraph as you finish it, to ensure you

don‟t miss a sentence or instruction step. This can save you trouble later.

3. This kit assumes you have built electronic kits before, and are proficient at soldering items to a circuit

board. Chips and other parts can be damaged from too much heat, so be careful and don‟t hold the iron

on the leads too long. Make sure all solder joints connect well.

4. Many of the parts in this kit require correct orientation (rotation). When mentioned there is a right way

and a wrong way to connect something, both of which look similar. Be sure to have them correctly

positioned before soldering.

5. Plan on spending some time constructing the kit. While this kit is not as complicated as the 4Cube kit,

soldering the LEDs can still be tricky. Actual assembly time will vary widely from person to person, but

plan on setting aside at least 3 – 8 hours

For a look at the finished square see Figure 44.

Good luck :)


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Part 1: The Good

Part one is assembling the controller PCB. This should be straightforward for anyone who has done PCB work;

there's nothing exotic here.

Estimated completion time: 1 - 3 hours.

We will start with the lowest-profile parts and work our way up, as that allows your working surface to hold the

parts in place while we solder the bottom. Besides that, there is no particular requirement for assembly order.

Step 1: Splitting the PCB

There are two parts to the 8Square PCB, joined together by a small tab. separate the two parts by snapping them

apart (Figure 2).

You can clean up the edge with some snips or a file if you choose, but this is not really necessary.

Figure 2: Separated PCB

Step 2: Diodes

The first parts we will place are the 24 signal diodes and single power

rectifier diode. Orientation is important here; make sure the black

stripe on the diode aligns with the stripe on the part outline. The red

signal diodes go in the three banks marked D0-D7, D8-D15 and D16-

D23. The blue power diode goes in D24.

Figure 1: Diodes.


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Note that for the blue diode the holes on the PCB are spaced a bit wider than the length of the diode, so you will

want to bend the pins accordingly. The 24 signal diodes can have their pins bent against the body of the diode.

Figure 3: Diodes in place.

Step 3: Resistors

Next we will place the individual resistors. We have two resistor values

here, 1K (Brown-Black-Red) and 47K (Yellow-Violet-Orange).

The 47K resistors go in R24, R28 and R29. The 1K resistors go in

R25, R26 and R27. Resistor orientation does not matter.

Figure 5: Resistors in place.

Figure 4: 47K (left) and 1K (right)

resistors.


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Step 4: Small capacitors

Next solder the 5 small 0.1uf ceramic capacitors, shown in Figure 6, to

the board in spots C4, C5, C6, C7, and C8. These are the decoupling

caps for each IC.

These ceramic capacitors are not orientation dependent - either wire can

go in either hole.

Figure 7: Ceramic capacitors in place.

Step 5: Chips, dips, chains, whips...

It's time to place some chips. When the chips are down....

ICs can be damaged by static from your fingers, so ground yourself as usual when working with static-sensitive

electronics.

The chips can be difficult to fit since their pins are usually splayed out a bit. It might help to bend the pins

slightly before inserting. I used a book and the table to provide a straight, flat right-angle surface to bend them

all slightly and at once.

We will start with the 4 SN74AHC574N chips (Figure 8)

Be sure to orient the chips properly! There is a notch on one end of the

chip (left side on Figure 8,) and this should align with a notch drawn

on the PCB footprint.

It can be helpful to tack the chip by soldering just 2 corner pins in

place, and making sure that the chip is properly seated before soldering

the rest. Uneven seating won't harm anything, but may not look very

good either. It's also good to double-check that the chip is oriented

properly - you really don't want to be trying to extract one after it's all

soldered in.

Figure 6: 0.1uF ceramic capacitor.

Figure 8: SN74AHC574N


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Figure 10: SN74AHC574Ns in place.

Next we will do the ULN2803A (Figure 9) and the LM2574 (Figure

11). Again, note the orientation – in particular, the LM2574 faces the

opposite direction of the other ICs so it‟s easy to get wrong.

Here‟s the board with the first set of chips in place.

Figure 12: ULN2803As and LM2574 in place.

Step 6: The PIC Socket

A socket for the PIC isn‟t strictly required, but we included one since it fits, is cheap, and will leave open the

possibility of upgrading the software by replacing the PIC with a newer version in the future. If you might be

swapping PICs often, perhaps because you plan on programming your own software, I suggest using a low-

profile ZIF socket instead. I have found that the Aries Series 526 low profile ZIF socket works well.

The orientation of the socket doesn‟t matter in terms of function, but most sockets have an indicator towards pin

1 (the white dot in the picture below), and it‟s a good idea to match that with the PCB markings to minimize the

chance that you will insert the chip wrong.

Figure 9: ULN2803A

Figure 11: LM2574


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Figure 14: The PIC socket in place

Step 7: Resistor arrays

These are just an array of resistors packaged into a chip which we

decided to use over discrete resistors for convenience. Note that the

footprints on the PCB still show the individual resistors. Since these are

just resistors in a fancy package, the orientation does not matter. Each

package is labeled with their resistance value; make sure you place

each one in the correct spot. R0 – R7 (the green resistors, and marked

„G‟ on the PCB) is 47 , R8 – R15 (red, „R‟) is 68 , and R16 – R23

(blue, „B‟) is 22 . Currently the 22 and 47 resistors arrays are

yellow, although this is likely to change in the future.

The label on the 68 package is impossible to read on the picture

below, but it‟s there. Also, it‟s the only black package with 16 pins.

Figure 17: Resistor arrays in place.

Figure 13: 22 resistor array.

Figure 15: 47 resistor array

Figure 16: 68 resistor array.


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Step 8: Large capacitors and inductor

There are 3 electrolytic capacitors to place. These are all orientation

dependent - you will see a + symbol on the PCB for the positive wire,

which is the longer of the capacitor leads. The negative lead is also

marked on the body of the capacitor.

Both the 22uF and 220uF caps will need to be bent to keep them from

protruding too high, as seen in Figure 19.

The 22uF capacitor goes in C1, the 220uF in C3, and the 10uF in C9.

The inductor (Figure 22) goes in the large round footprint marked

„167‟ as seen below. The orientation does not matter for the inductor.

Figure 21: Electrolytic capacitors and inductor in place.

Figure 18: 10uF electrolytic capacitor.



Figure 22: 330uH inductor.


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Step 9: Buttons

There are two buttons to place above the capacitors and inductor. Note that the buttons have an interlocking set

of nubs on their sides. Snap the two together, and insert as one into the PCB. Because the board won‟t lie flat

with the buttons when turned upside down for soldering, first solder one pin on each buttons and ensure that the

buttons are completely seated before soldering the other pins.

Figure 24: The buttons in place.

Step 10: The PIC

One last bit. Since you‟ve already soldered the socket in, it‟s just a

matter of plugging the PIC in. Just make sure you insert in the correct

orientation. The tab goes towards the edge of the PCB.

Alright, the square controller‟s finished!

Figure 25: PIC18F4620

Figure 25: PIC18F4620.

Figure 23: Momentary pushbutton.


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Part 2: The Bad

In "The Bad" we will solder all of the LEDs into place. Admittedly this isn‟t so bad, but the 4-pin LEDs with

their tight pitch can be quite a bit trickier to solder than you might expect. And there are a lot of them to do!

Estimated completion time: 1 - 3 hours.

Step 1 (Optional): Practice

There‟s a footprint for a practice LED on the controller PCB, next the PIC in the middle of the alternate USB

footprint. This isn‟t required of course, but I suggest you use it to practice. The tight spacing on the LED leads

can be trickier then you might first expect and cleaning out a botched pad can be a pain; better to mess up here.

But before you do anything read the rest of the steps so you know what you‟re practicing…

Step 2: The LEDs

LEDs are orientation dependent, and because it is quite difficult to extract an LED once soldered in and to clean

out the holes, you should take care to get it right the first time. It‟s easy to get lax though, since there‟s so many

to do.

The LEDs have a flat side along the base. Align this side with the flat side as drawn on the PCB (on the left side

in Figure 26).

Do the LEDs on the corners first, so that the board will be stable as you work on the rest of the LEDs.

Figure 26: LED PCB with corner LEDs

While you could certainly do more, I recommend you solder one row of LEDs at a time. This keeps the leads

from adjacent rows getting in your way.


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Figure 27: A row of LEDs ready to be soldered. Note the lead lengths.

Chances are you will bridge some of the LED pins with solder. I‟ve done a dozen or so in prototypes and early

builds, and I still get one or two per board. With a narrow soldering iron tip this can usually be cleaned up

simply by running the tip between the pins, breaking and picking up the excess solder. Otherwise you may need

to use soldering wick (the use of which is beyond the scope of instructions here, but I‟m sure you can look it up

if you don‟t know how to use it.)

Optional LED Soldering Strategy

I find soldering the LEDs as pictured in Figure 27 to be quite hard on the eyes. Also the long leads can

get in the way of the iron, making it harder to get good iron/solder placement and generally slowing

things down. The solution I‟ve come up with is as follows; I recommend you try it out on a couple LEDs

to see which method you prefer.

The idea is to cut down the LED leads to a length comparable to, say, the IC leads before soldering. But

you don‟t want them to fall off the PCB, so first solder just one edge lead on each LED. The edges

should be the easiest to solder anyway, it‟s the middle ones that are most problematic. Once the LEDs

are secured, clip the leads down, and then resume soldering the rest. I find this technique to be easier and

less error prone, but you should decide which method suits you best.

Repeat for every LED, and Part 2 is finished! Take a break, and then go on to the final part, Part 3: The Ugly.


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Part 3: The Ugly

In “The Ugly” we will put everything together – the remaining power bits, connecting the LED board to the

controller board, and putting the whole enchilada into the shadow box.

Estimated completion time: 1 – 3 hours (half that if there are no problems in testing.)

Step 1: The PCB Interconnects

We use a row of headers and sockets to connect the LED board to the

controller board. We do this rather than permanently soldering together

the two boards so that you can fix any LED solder problems that might

otherwise be blocked by the board.

You will need to break apart the headers and sockets so you have one

32-pin piece, one 3-pin piece, and two 2-pin pieces.

In order to eliminate alignment issues from the sockets or the headers

not being perfectly seated and perpendicular to the board, I suggest

soldering them in with both halves together. To do this, first plug the

headers into their respective sockets as seen in Figure 30. Note that the

short side of the headers will be used to plug into the low profile

sockets.

Place the plugs on the backside of the LED board (Figure 31). Put the

sockets on the bottom, since the pins will show less in the front.

Figure 31: PCB with plugs.

Figure 28: Sockets

Figure 29: Headers

Figure 30:Sockets and headers connected


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Next place the controller board on top, lining up the header pins to their spots on the controller board. Secure

the headers into place by soldering one pin on each one to the controller board, and then flip over and do the

same to the sockets on the LED board. Double check that everything is snug and seated well, and then proceed

to solder the rest of the pins.

Your assembly should look something like the picture below.

Figure 32: Controller and LED boards plugged together.

Step 2: The Power Jack

We‟ve got a couple more things to attach to the LED board and we‟re

done with soldering. Separate the LED board from the controller, and

place it LED-face down.

You may have noticed that there are a couple footprints for the power

jack (there‟s also one on the controller board, though we‟ve partially

covered it with the capacitors.) This was done to allow maximum

flexibility, and if your purposes call for it, the alternative placements

are functional. But for the standard build, we will use the footprint in

the middle of the PCB.

So solder that baby in. Your board should now look like the picture

below.

Figure 33: Power jack


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Figure 34: Power jack in place.

Step 3 (Optional): The USB Module

If you bought the kit with the USB module, we will attach it now. Otherwise, you can skip to the next step.

Similar to the power jack, there are a number of alternate footprints for the USB module. The basic build will

use the one in the middle of the LED PCB, next to the power jack, labeled UB232R.

Figure 35: USB module footprint on the underside of PCB.

Before you solder the USB module in, triple check the LED underneath it to ensure that it is soldered correctly.

Once the USB is place, that LED is pretty much going to be inaccessible.


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Because the module does not lie flat when placed upside down for soldering, it can be difficult to mount straight

on the first try. Solder just one corner pin and make sure that it is level and seated all the way before doing the

rest.

Figure 36: USB module in place.

Step 4: The Power Switch

Next, we will attach the power switch. This too goes on the back of the

LED board, although the neat trick here is that it will slot through a

notch cut in the controller board to line up next to the buttons.

Orientation does not matter here, but it is important to make sure that it

is seated properly. You know what I‟m going to say next by now -

solder just one pin down and make sure it‟s seated all the way before

doing the other two.

Figure 37: Power switch.


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Figure 38: Power switch in place.

Step 5: Test!

Now that you‟ve got power in place, you can test everything out. Plug the controller in to the LED board, plug

the power cord in, and throw the switch.

You should see the power-on test sequence, which lights up all of the LEDs in each separate color, and then all

in white, and then lights each individual LED in sequence. This should help you identify any problems (see the

troubleshooting section at the end for further info on finding the source of any problems.) In my experience, by

far the most common is simply forgetting to solder some LED, IC, or diode lead. I probably average at least at

least one per build.

Once you‟ve got everything working, now‟s a good time to take a break, turn off the task lamp, and watch the

square go for a bit

Step 6: Mounting

With the electronics all up and going, all that‟s left is to mount the

whole thing into the shadowbox frame.

The LED board will be mounted to the back panel of the shadowbox

by way of four standoffs. First attach them to the PCB using 4 screws.

Figure 39: Standoff


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Figure 40: PCB with standoffs.

I recommend plugging in the power plug (and USB cable if applicable/desired) at this point because it‟s about

to get less accessible.

Next, place the back panel from the frame over the controller board, aligning it so the buttons and power switch

are accessible through the slot cut into the panel, and screw it down using the remaining screws.

Figure 42: Back panel attached

Figure 41: Screws


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Step 7: Final Assembly

Before you assemble the square into its final glorious form, you need to make a decision: clear or smoked? We

like the smoked acrylic front, but you can go with the original glass if you prefer. Of course you can try them

both and compare them yourself.

Put the power and USB (if applicable) cables through the notch cut into the bottom of the back pane, and place

the whole assembly into frame. Bend the tabs down to hold everything in place, and you‟re done!

Figure 43: Fully assembled

Plug it in and enjoy!

Unfortunately this means that you will need to open up the frame to plug/unplug the USB and power cables.

This was a design compromise we made, so that nothing protrudes out the back allowing the square to be

mounted on a wall. We figured most people won‟t be plugging and unplugging the cables very often –

hopefully it won‟t be too bothersome in use.


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Figure 44: The finished square (with acrylic front.)


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Appendices

Appendix 1: Troubleshooting

Nothing happens when the square is powered on:

Make sure that the power jack and power switch is properly soldered.

Make sure that PIC is soldered properly.

If you have a voltmeter, check to see if you are getting 5V out of the regulator (one of the big capacitors is a

good place to check.) Lack of power suggests something is wrong with the power jack or switch. If you are

getting 5V, then odds are there are one or more shorts on the PCB (particularly with the flip-flop and Darlington

ICs.)

A particular LED doesn’t light:

Make sure that the LEDs leads are soldered properly. One color not lighting suggests that that color lead is not

connected. If none of the colors light, it‟s likely the ground lead.

It is also possible that the LED was either damaged, defective, or oriented improperly (the last one you can

definitively check by looking for the flat spot on the side of the LED.) If all other LEDs look fine, and the

solder connections are good, the LED may need to be replaced.

An entire row of LEDs doesn’t light:

Make sure that the Darlington IC is soldered properly.


An entire column of colors doesn’t light:

Make sure that the register IC, the resistor chip, and the diodes for that color are all soldered properly.


A row of LEDs is lighting when it shouldn’t be:

This can be caused by a damaged/defective LED or a backwards LED. Usually this is accompanied by the

offending LED also not lighting properly.

The square goes through the test sequence fine, but then acts erratically:

Make sure that the USB module is soldered properly.


Appendix 2: Programming your square

You can find detailed information on drawing to the square from a PC program via the USB module in a

companion manual available on the HypnoCube website. We released detailed specs on the protocol to talk to

the PIC, sample C++ source code, and a sample program to fiddle with the HypnoCube settings.

But for those who really want to get their hands dirty and reprogram the PIC microcontroller with their own

code, here are some things to get you started.

DISCLAIMER: REPROGRAMMING THE PIC IS NOT SUPPORTED. YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN

RISK! WE WILL NOT RELEASE OUR SOURCE CODE OR THE HEX FILE FOR THE SQUARE, SO IF

YOU ERASE YOUR PIC IT CANNOT BE RESTORED. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND SOCKETING THE

PIC AND USING A SPARE PIC, LEAVING THE ORIGINAL PREPROGRAMMED PIC UNTOUCHED.



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If you might be swapping the PIC out a lot, we recommend the use of a ZIF (zero insertion force) socket. We

have found that the Aries Series 526 low profile ZIF socket works well.

The pins for the low voltage in-circuit programmer are broken out on the PCB (labeled LV-ICP). To connect a

programmer you will need to look up the PIC18F4620 docs and see how the pins are exported from our PCB.

Don‟t ask us for help beyond this – though perhaps eventually we will have forums with questions and answers

for hackers working on these items.

The PIC programmer we used is the simple circuit and PicPGM software freely available from

http://www.members.aon.at/electronics/pic/picpgm/.

The UART is available and broken out on a header, and you can also re-appropriate the 2 GPIO pins used for

the buttons for other purposes if you wish.

This PCB, circuit, and PIC controller can give you a nice platform for a whole host of LED related projects.

Basically you can use it to drive 64 3-color LEDs in any configuration you like, or 192 single color LEDs in any

pattern you desire. The hardware allows individual pixel and color access, and with time multiplexing, you can

even get many levels of color.

http://www.members.aon.at/electronics/pic/picpgm/

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