1. LED Rubik’s Cube
Team 54: Meghan LeMay & Michael Rupp
TA: Bryce Smith

2. Problem Statement
There is no way for a user to reset a Rubik’s Cube without completely solving the puzzle.

3. Nomenclature “Cube” refers to entire Rubik’s Cube
“Block” refers to smaller cubes that make up the “cube”

4. Fast Facts The cube is comprised of 26 blocks.
Each of the six colors represents the initial state of one of the cube’s faces.
Each center block is stationary and can only rotate.
In our project, we have an RGB LED representing each face of each block visible to the user.

5. High-level Requirements
Rotation
Reset
Low Power Consumption

6. Physical Implementation

7. Rotation Mechanism

8. Design Considerations
No wires between blocks
RGB LEDs must change color on demand
Power to each block

9. Power Problem Solutions
Metal Contacts
Wireless Power
Each block individually powered

10. Proposed Solutions
Gyroscope/accelerometer with arrays of transmitters and receivers
Optical communication in IR band

11. Center Blocks
Responsible for initiating reset sequence using microphone
Propagate reset signal to side blocks using infrared LEDs
Never change color

12. Block Diagram of Center Blocks

13. Center Block PCBs

14. Microphone
Reads 1 kHz sine wave
Autocorrelation
Peak detection

15. Microphone – Voltage vs Time

16. IR Transmission IR spectrum does not interfere with RGB LEDs
940 nm IR LEDs
20 ms pulses

17. IR LED Timing Diagrams

18. RV: IR LED

19. Side Blocks Contains infrared transmitters and receivers
Receives reset signal from center block
Send reset signal to corner
RGB LEDs on two faces

20. Block Diagram of Side Blocks

21. Side Block PCBs

22. Photodiode – Voltage vs Time

23. Corner Blocks Contains infrared receivers
Receives reset signal from side blocks
RGB LEDs on three faces

24. Block Diagram of Corner Blocks

25. Corner Block PCBs

26. So what went wrong…?

27. 26 Total PCBs…

28. Fixes We Made Extra grounds to attach last minute components
Filing the corners of PCBs to allow them to fit in blocks

29. Conclusions Successful proof of concept!
Further work must include more consideration of the mechanical constraints.
Implementation of “pseudorandom” reset could be achieved with further programming work.

30. Questions?