Greetings. Long time listener, first time caller.... I'm excited to join the community.

I wanted to follow up on a long dead post regarding the Ghost Hand Crystal Cube, which is translucent and has a core that lights/flashes when it senses movement. I bought a few of them recently from Lightake and was somewhat disappointed. The turning quality is decent (but definitely not main speedcube quality), and the flashing lights are interesting and fun. But, OEM, they are more of a novelty than anything actually useful. And quite distracting to boot. The flash pattern is simply too quick to make the cube easy to solve in low (or no) light. And the motion sensor is kind of flaky.

So, I decided to "hack" it, as described in more detail in these two blog posts:

http://adventuresincubing.com/2012/12/0 ... cube-hack/

http://adventuresincubing.com/2012/12/1 ... ck-part-2/

I removed the motion sensor and wired directly from the battery to the LEDs -- bypassing the on-board IC -- by way of switched leads. The leads attach to a micro slide switch that is accessed under the blue/yellow edge. I considered several ways of switching power, and this was the easiest way for now -- and a solid proof of concept.

As you'll see in my video in the second post, the cube now lights constantly once switched on.

I have some better ideas on how to switch the power on/off, some detailed in the first link. But all would require some heavier modding than I'm capable of. I ordered another half dozen from Lightake, and I'm going to keep experimenting.

Fun project!

This is quite interesting! Keep it up man! may I ask what you are attempting to make your "forte"? modding? solving? questions questions....

Thanks! It was fun, and I hope to refine the next iteration a bit more.

Nice of you to ask. Basically, this cubing hobby is a chance for me to take a break from my stressful day job and to let my kids learn over my shoulder about blogs, video editing, etc. as I go. I'm basically a solver (and a not very fast one). But I enjoy the things that go with it -- collecting puzzles, trying new techniques, blogging about it, making videos, connecting with the community, etc. I'd go crazy if all I did was play lawyer all day. This is a chance to do something different and challenging in an entirely different way. I first solved a cube a year ago, in my mid-thirties. It's been a fun year since.

Now, to make this topical again -- is anyone aware of other light up cubes? Any other ideas on (doable) mods to control the power switching?