Leeds Hackspace built a 3 meter sized cube a few years ago for Leeds Light Night (which then made it to a few events around the country); though we stuck with 8x8x8 resolution. We had it playing some pre-made patterns as well as some interactive games (draw on the cube by drawing on a phone, play snake etc...)
It was a lot of fun, but even with the 8x resolution there were thousands of solder joints to deal with. We also had it wired in a daisy chain (power and data) which was easier to do, but makes it a bit christmas-lights when it comes to finding a problem.
As far as I know all the software and hardware was open sourced, and there's a pygame and an html based emulator too, for testing patterns.
It was a lot of fun, but even with the 8x resolution there were thousands of solder joints to deal with. We also had it wired in a daisy chain (power and data) which was easier to do, but makes it a bit christmas-lights when it comes to finding a problem.
As far as I know all the software and hardware was open sourced, and there's a pygame and an html based emulator too, for testing patterns.
https://github.com/pbrook/lightcube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj-1SvWIQTo (yup, that's disposable plastic cups acting as diffusers).
https://wiki.leedshackspace.org.uk/wiki/LED_Cubes
I have to say, after seeing the 3456 cube in the main article, I feel ours pales in comparison.