#853 555 3x3x3 LED Cube

A 3x3x3 LED cube animated with 512 different patterns generated by a 555 timer and CD4020 binary counter.

Here’s a quick demo..

Notes

This is an old 555 circuit to animate a 3x3x3 cube of white LEDs.

The 555 is used to clock a CD4020 14-stage binary counter, from which 9 outputs are used. Each output controls a column of 3 LEDs in series.

There are no current limiting resistors as the chip can only deliver a maximum of 15mA per output.

Since we are using 9 outputs from the CD4020, it produces 2^9=512 distinct patterns before repeating.

Circuit Design

Designed with Fritzing: see LedCube.fzz.

The circuit setup on a breadboard for testing:

Testing:

Final Build

Planning the construction on a 5x7cm protoboard:

As built:

Under test, works well when powered from 9V to 12V:

Credits and References

• LM555 Datasheet
• CD4020 datasheet
• https://www.555-timer-circuits.com/3x3x3-cube.html