So I picked up a GoCube during its crowdfunding. I was super-excited about having a cube that could interact with a phone app, potentially play games with strangers around the world, keep track of my solve times, etc., but to be 100% honest, I was almost as excited about simply having a cube that was designed to be a speedcute.
I’d always wanted to get around to learning speedcubing techniques. I seem to have hit a wall with traditional pattern-solving techniques from the 1980s. I never solved it in under a minute that I can recall.
So I got it, played with it a while, and then forgot about it. And the thing about some devices with rechargeable batteries is that if you leave them alone too long, they die for keeps.
I came across it in a box about a week ago, thought I’d charge it up and play with it again. When you plug the USB charger in, it flashes for quite a while as if it’s charging, but then stops. And if you launch the app, it sees the cube — briefly — and then the cube goes dark and disconnects.
I googled it. A lot of people are having this issue. I tweeted about it. GoCube Support responded, said they’d make it right. However, the tweet given and the fine print taketh away. Since I’m just out of warranty (by about two months) they offered to repair it for $30 or replace it for $50. Shipping included. I figured $30 isn’t bad to get it working, but $20 more means I have one fully functional (for as long as I remember to charge it) and one that’s still a decent speedcube. So I’m waiting for that transaction to finalize.
Meanwhile, I was playing with it and caused one of the edge cubes to pop out, and decided to go ahead and disassemble as far as I could safely do so.
This is how far I got. I’m temporarily stymied on how to get further safely.
Once you get the removable cube pieces off of the skeleton, you’re left with the ball and the center pieces, which are attached to the ball in a rather ingenious manner. The ball has cone shaped tips in the six cardinal directions which shroud the turning mechanism and give the cube structural integrity.
To unlock its secrets farther, you would need to first remove the keycaps, which it seems are held in by tabs at the four corners as shown. Likely they have a custom grabby tool to remove those. Underneath that is a spring mechanism. Since the two halves of the core terminate at four points in those conical tips, even though only two screws hold the core together, you can’t open the core until you’ve removed those four center pieces.
Fortunately for our education, but not for our amateur repair, the hard work has already been done, by Intertek Testing Service. Here’s a document I found posted online. I don’t know the backstory. If you do, please enlighten me.
Until I figure out how to get the keycaps off without breaking them, I guess I’m stuck.
I started going down another path. Is it possible to revitalize a LiPo battery? The battery in the GoCube is: Rechargeable LiPo Battery; 85mAH, 0.3145 watt hours, Model: JHY661515, weight 2.1g.
I found articles indicating that a balance charger/discharger might be able to revitalize a LiPo battery. “Interesting,” I thought, and then I realized that I have one of those. I had bought it for a specialized purpose about 4-5 years ago and only used it that one time.
So then I started thinking about how I would get to the LiPo battery if I can’t get it open. The included USB charger seems pretty basic, just a molded hat with a couple of pogo-type pins that go down into the holes on one face’s center piece on the cube.
I suspect all this device is doing is shooting 5V down the holes, and there is a.tiny battery charging circuit in the core with the LiPo, so the only way my charger is going to do any good is if I can get those keycaps off of the centerpieces and open the core, so that I can bypass the device’s own recharging circuitry.
This photo is not mine, it’s from the Intertek document linked above. I’m just including it so that other explorers will know what the insides look like.
I’ll come back and edit this document if I’m able to reliably get the keycaps off and finish opening the core. This thing is nagging at me now, and I’m becoming obsessed with the idea of revitalizing it myself.
Aside from determining whether my specialized charger can revitalize that battery, I could just BUY a replacement once I crack it open. I can’t find the exact model listed above, but here’s one from Wish that looks like it will work, and for just two bucks, you can’t go wrong.
