So recently we’ve started producing a manufactured 4Cube (as opposed to our previous kit and hand-built versions.) ThinkGeek carries them now. They’re much (much!) cheaper for those who can’t or don’t want to build a kit. Heck, they’re significantly cheaper than even the kits. Which is all pretty awesome. But as we hadn’t launched it on this site yet, information about it doesn’t appear here… Which has apparently led some of you to quite understandably confuse the new version available on ThinkGeek with the old still here. And for that I apologize. While the core Cube is much the same, there are some important feature differences, namely the lack of USB connectivity and forward/back buttons. So if you were expecting them on the new Cube, I can understand you might be upset. Sorry.
Now, for the hacking minded amongst you, we didn’t entirely cripple the new Cube in terms of hackability. The firmware on it still fully supports the protocol used by the old Cube, and while there is no longer a USB-UART bridge on board, the UART pins are exported on the PCB. So you can connect your own USB-UART bridge, RS232-UART bridge, or another microcontroller to it and have full control over it. I’ll write up a quick tutorial on how to go about doing that shortly.
As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me.
As a comment to my own post – for those of you wondering why it’s even cheaper than the kit: China is a magical & scary place 🙂
Disclaimer: No American jobs was lost in this outsourcing*.
*Well… I outsourced myself, but I expect I’ll get over it.
Hello,
I just received my Hypnocube from Thinkgeek (I was indeed surprised at the lower price – and guessed China had to do something with it) and love it. I too was a bit disappointed about the lack of USB connector (I didnt expect a connector readily available but at least some way to add it. So help with that is certainly appreciated!
Thanks for a great looking gadget – now only if I can convince my family to appreciate it too 😉
J.