PixelCraft Cube

The PixelCraft Cube is a fully custom interactive 3D NeoPixel display inspired by the aesthetic and interactivity of Minecraft. Built around a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, an Adafruit CircuitPlayground Bluefruit, and a network of precisely mapped addressable LEDs, the cube transforms real-world motion and digital input into dynamic voxel-style light animations. Designed as both a visual showpiece and an interactive platform, the PixelCraft Cube bridges physical computing with Minecraft's creativity, bringing the blocky, animated sculpture to life.

6 x 24" by 24" by 1/8" Clear Acrylic Panels

1 x 20" by 8" 1/4 or 1/8" Acrylic Panel (for laser cutting pickaxe head)

1 x Tube of Lexel sealant for edges and corners (more if sealing waterproof LEDs into the frame - I was going to do this but ultimately did not)

10m of individually addressable RGB LED's (I used an off-brand NeoPixel strip, but any LED strip conforming to the NeoPixel standards (5V - this is important) which you can cut to length will do just fine.

1 x Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W and breadboard

1 x CircuitPlayground Bluefruit and USB cable

1 x 0.9m rope lights, 5V 3-wire (can use more of the LEDs from earlier if you want)

1 x JST connector and 5V power supply

1 x PixelBlaze controller, with 2 x PixelBlaze matrices

Some filter material to diffuse light from the LEDs - I used screen printer filter paper since I had it on hand

Assorted 16 and 20-gauge wire

8 x Wago inline connectors

1 x I2C relay (for PixelBlaze power)

For building the exterior of the cube, I taped the acrylic sheets in place, and then used Lexel to bind them together at the edges. After letting 5/6 panels dry, I laser cut a hole for maintenance into the back panel, and then attached that.

At this stage I also cut a smaller interior box out of wood for the electronics, and to support the PixelBlaze. I used Boxes.py with outer dimensions of 200mm in every axis.

Next, attach the LED strips to the frame. There are a variety of methods to do this, but my strips had a sticky backing, so I simply stuck them LED-side facing in, on the external cube walls. Anywhere I would have used an edge more than once, I cut the strip and soldered a jump section of 3 cables from one end to the start of the next strip. At the start of the whole chain of pixels, I soldered a 3-pin clip connector from the strip to my power supply, along with 5V power and ground feeds for the Pico and the Pixelblaze. The Pico and the Pixelblaze both had power in simple +/- fashion from this same connector (through the Wago connectors), which was linked to the power supply. I also cut one side of the positive wire to the Pixelblaze, and inserted a SparkFun relay to turn it on and off.

To build the pickaxe, I soldered a length of 3-wire 5V rope lighting (much the same as the LED strips for the cube) onto a CircuitPlayground Bluefruit. From here, I laser cut a pickaxe head shape out of acrylic, and attached the whole CPB assembly to the head. I then mounted everything on a scrap tube I had for a handle, with the CPB's USB wire running through the handle, which I then filled with hot glue to secure in place.

Take both of the microcontroller files below and put them into each controller board. The simple bridge script runs on my laptop whenever I am using the project, but should run on any machine that has both WiFi and BLE connections. The main thing is to remember to connect the computer to the Pico's WiFi network before you try to run the script. Other than that, connect two Pixelblaze 16x16 matrices together, and make a simple animation that flashes at the end of the animation sequence (controlled by turning the relay on/off from the Pico, code for Pixelblaze not shown). Mount the Pixelblaze setup inside the cube, and then turn everything on (and make sure the script connects to the pickaxe). You now have a working PixelCraft Cube!