Brickman & Glimmercat
Glimmercat Glimmercat
You know, I've been dreaming about building a tiny mechanical thing that can solve a Rubik's cube all by itself—like a little whirligig that flips its own colors. You’re a wizard with wood and gears—think you can help me sketch out something that actually works?
Brickman Brickman
Sure thing. Start with a sturdy base—some plywood or MDF cut to about 10 by 10 centimeters, with a hole in the middle to mount the motor. Attach a small DC gear motor to the center, and slip a 4-tooth gear on its shaft. Around that gear, mount a 24-tooth gear that will drive the cube. The cube itself needs a rack‑and‑pinion or a simple cam system to rotate each face. Keep the whole thing under a centimeter tall so it fits in a cube. Use a simple microcontroller—Arduino Nano is fine—wired to the motor with a driver chip like an L298N. Program the standard 2‑phase algorithm for a 3×3, and let the robot run those moves. If you’re good with wood, you can carve a small cradle to hold the cube in place. That’s the basic sketch. Once you build it, test with a cheap rubber cube, tweak the gear ratios if it skips a step, and you’ll have a self‑solving little whirligig. Good luck, and remember: if the motor stalls, just hit it with a hammer a few times—works for most things.