RGB Rubik Cube Control Using LabVIEW

There are many ways to design a Rubik cube. Classical methods imply solving the cube by rotating its layers in order to obtain the same color on each face of the cube. This paper proposes an interesting method to command a Rubik cube using a LabVIEW application and a data acquisition board. This Rubik cube 3x3x3 is built with RGB light emitting diodes of three main different colors. Combining two of the main colors it can be obtained another 3 secondary colors. So, rotating a layer of a classical Rubik cube can be equivalent with an adequate color changing of the same diodes.The application designed in LabVIEW permits to the user to simulate the movements of a Rubik cube. Cube movements can be controlled from the front panel of the application. The principle of operation is the following: it is considered that each cube face has 9 fields. The algorithm uses all the time a linear vector of 54 elements. Each movement generates an adequate rearrangement of the vector elements.The output data can be transmitted using a data acquisition board to a real Rubik cube designed with RGB light emitting diodes which generate light in 3 principal colors (red, green and blue) and 3 secondary colors obtained from principle colors (yellow, magenta and cyan) in function of supplying voltage. Using sequential loop structures and appropriate subroutines from LabVIEW library, the application controls the output digital signals of data acquisition board in order the linear vector containing the movement information to generate adequate functioning of RGB light emitting diodes. The supplying circuits of Rubik cube are also controlled by data acquisition board. Keywords: Rubik cube, data acquisition board, LabVIEW, RGB light emitting diode;