LED光立方制作全过程（九）
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LED光立方翻译版 http://group.chinaaet.com/218
好了，进入正题吧。
Step 15Choose the size of your cube
We wanted to make the LED cube using as few components as possible. We had seen some people using metal rods for their designs, but we didn't have any metal rods. Many of the metal rod designs also looked a little crooked.
We figured that the easiest way to build a led cube would be to bend the legs of the LEDs so that the legs become the scaffolding that holds the LEDs in place.
We bent the cathode leg on one of the LEDs and measured it to be 26 mm from the center of the LED. By choosing a LED spacing of 25mm, there would be a 1mm overlap for soldering. (1 inch = 25.4mm)
With a small 3mm LED 25mm between each led gave us plenty of open space inside the cube. Seeing all the way through to the furthest layer wouldn't be a problem. We could have made the cube smaller, but then we would have to cut every single leg, and visibility into the cube would be compromised.
Our recommendation is to use the maximum spacing that your LED can allow. Add 1mm margin for soldering.
Step 16How to make straight wire
Our first attempt at this failed horribly. We tried to bend it into a straight wire, but no matter how much we bent, it just wasn't straight enough.
Then we remembered an episode of "How it's made" from the Discovery Channel. The episode was about how they make steel wire. They start out with a spool of really thick wire, then they pull it through smaller and smaller holes. We remembered that the wire was totally straight and symmetrical after being pulled like that.
So we figured we should give pulling a try, and it worked! 100% straight metal wire from a spool!
Here is how you do it.
- cut of the length of wire you need from the spool, plus an inch or two.
- Remove the insulation, if any.
- Get a firm grip of each end of the wire with two pairs of pliers
- Pull hard!
- You will feel the wire stretch a little bit.
If you have a vice, you can secure one end in the vice and use one pair of pliers. This would probably be a lot easier, but we don't own a vice.
