iCEBreaker FPGA LED Cube Lights Up the Room

Bob Miller (AKA Kbob) has created an LED cube that’s 136mm (5 3/8 inches) on a side, each covered by thousands of LEDs — 64 x 64 or 4,096. As cool as this is from a pure lighting standpoint, what is really incredible is that it uses an iCEBreaker FPGA board that enables it to display graphics at a full video frame rate.

Miller’s cube uses 2mm pitch LEDs, allowing for incredible lighting effects in a size that will fit in the palm of his hand. Along with the iCEBreaker, the cube also contains a battery, a Raspberry Pi, and power board on removable carriers. His cube is 3D-printed in PLA, and has a hinged lid and magnets to keep everything in place, which reportedly “works very well.”

Of course, this isn’t by any means the first LED cube to hit the hacker-sphere, and the project write-up does a great job of crediting and linking the people and projects that have contributed to this type of device. As he puts it, “It looks like all the cool kids are making LED cubes. For some reason, almost all the cool kids are in Europe.” For his part, Miller lives in Oregon, and is helping the Americas catch up, but we’ll be excited to see how this type of device progresses, regardless of where it originates.