iCubeSmart 3D LED Cube DIY Electronics Kit 8x8x8 - Soldering Project and Learning Kit (3D8S-MULTI)

This soldering project takes a little bit of patience, but it's a great learning tool with a cool outcome. I love that it allows you to practice. It makes a great gift for older kids. I got this as a gift for my nephew along with a soldering gun and it was a great buy. It looks simple when you open the package but it's a patience builder for sure.

The media could not be loaded. I bought my Icubesmart 3D8S RGB Nov of 2018 and it sat on my office desk until last week (mid Feb 2020). The soldering is pretty simple but tedious. Connecting each panel to each other properly takes some patience.The documentation, as people mentioned is seriously lacking, especially with the Windows based applications. I had OCX discrepancies and trying to follow the "non english" picture directions (which didn't match what the installation program was even doing) drove me batty for 2 days. I tried on an HP Win10 laptop and an HP WinXP laptop. The programming application would not load on the XP, but it ran when I extracted the cab files to the same directory as the executable, which was a shock to me. I was able to locate the proper XP driver for USB programmer too. I never got either to work on my Win10 laptop.After 10 different solder repairs (I fancy myself a pretty decent solderer, I don't know why the thing doesn't stay together), the cube worked, and I was pretty happy with the different pre-loaded displays. But, no rain. I wanted a cube just for the rain effect. Ok, time to learn the "Make your own Displays" program". Wow, how horrible. But, I was able to open the existing example files and reverse engineer how the application does what it does.Now to the programmer. What a POS. I have to keep hitting the program button in the app and quickly attach the 5v wire before it times out and fails.... lather, rinse, repeat, over and over. Just frustrating. I even bumped the baud down to 9600. I can always eventually get it to work and I am able to upload my own written displays. I will probably modify the connector with a small toggle switch on the 5v wire.You have to seriously think out the timeline of the display you are making. I spent a lot of time running the "debug" to test what I had just wrote, and it would always crash ofter 5 runs. (Not the app, just debug, I would have to save the display, exit out of the program and restart it.) If you make a mistake in the middle, it is so time consuming to try and fix.Too bad there isn't a share repository for icubesmart hex files. (Hex files created by other LED cube programs are not compatible, yes I tried). It, would have been great if I had bought the model that had an audio input. One last comment, after dropping Windows for mac years ago, it would have been nice if there were mac apps for it or it was able to be easily connected to an Arduino.With all the shortcomings, I still give it 5 stars because, it's pretty cool. I have spent 2 days writing and testing my version of "Rain" with splashes, and it looks phenomenal in low light settings (The iPhone video does not do it any justice). I was thinking of next going for the 16x16x16 RGB (voltage color changing) LEDs next, but, wow. not going to do that.

The lack of stars on this particular review is a good thing. It's a very good challenjt if you're looking for one. The documentation is great and you can plan on spending a week (at minimum) to complete this project. It's not hard, it's just time consuming becase of the number of "welds" required. The sky is the limit with the included USB interface and software to create your own animations. Again, I didn't say easy. I'm not a patient person however the end result was extremely rewarding. I ran mine 24/7 for a couple of month and it was rock solit. I hope that you find the same rewarding experience. Well worth the cost.

The media could not be loaded. I like building kits like this and have purchased at least 5 other led cubes, but this is the best I have seen and the price can’t be beat at about $50, plus another $25 for the matching acrylic case (absolutely get the case if you buy the kit). It is well designed, and came with printed illustrated instructions that are very clear and complete, even if the English translation is not perfect. Components are good quality. I did not encounter a single bad led, but just in case there are over 100 extras so you can even mess up a layer (it happens). There is a handy device for testing led layers as you build. The case fits perfectly and came with extra corner blocks and screws.Probably not for beginners (at least a thousand precise solder joints, and it’s tricky to align the layers into the final cube), but if you like this kind of stuff and have a decent thermostatic soldering iron & magnifier, you should enjoy this very much.Had so much fun I bought the 16 x 16 x 16 kit (4,096 leds!). Might even get it built before COVID goes away.

The packaging was clean and everything was labeled sufficiently. The cut-outs in the PCB made the whole process faster and the end product much cleaner. Fare warning tho there is a lot of soldering that you have to do! This is a soldering project. But it is a relatively easy soldering project and you are at very little risk of damaging any electronics. This kit was gifted to a 14-year-old boy that had some previous experience with soldering, he put this kit to gather in 2 weeks with about 20-25 hours of work; might take longer if you don’t have much experience with soldering. He found it very satisfying to finish. He had a little trouble getting the software but after Emailing the company(email address in instructions) They responded within 1 business day with all the information, instructions, and software to program the cube. He was able to set up and use the software after reading through the instructions. He made several custom programs and successfully uploaded them to the cube. This was a great overall project that required some learning but was overall successful and fun!

The media could not be loaded. This electronics kit is a good way to do what's advertised - make pretty lights do cool things. It takes many, many hours to complete. It's quite tedious, but I can't see how it wouldn't be. My main issue is with the instructions. They were difficult to understand, and skipped around at times. Knowing what I know now, I could have completed it easier if I did it differently.