A Revamp

[cubinator]

50 minutes ago, monstah said:

4/10 bring cube back

Pretty sure this isn't what you meant, but...Here's a basic plan:

I've got all next week off from school (yay!) and @monstah made this brilliant unrelated remark which reminded me of the perfect circumstances. My first cube was, yes, the first of it's kind. It was, technically, fully functional. I haven't seen anyone not be totally impressed by it's very existence. But it was glitchy. And it took forever to turn. And it would lock up frequently in ways only fixable with a quickload. That checkerboard, something I can do in two seconds on my Zhanchi, took me over an hour! Besides, it doesn't even work in the latest version of KSP. I believe I can do better. I can make a cube that is stable and relatively fast and easy to turn. And it means ditching the docking ports. Instead, I need to have each part be free to move around the cube, but not out into space. I have a basic idea of how this might be accomplished, and I think I'll try to develop it over the next week. Hopefully I won't run into any major setbacks and we'll all be rewarded with a cube that's manipulable enough to do a full scramble and solve on. That is my ultimate goal.

I'll get back to you all on it soon!  

Edited March 11, 2017 by cubinator

[monstah]

SOON™

[cubinator]

I started designing today, I used this video as a reference for my center bearings and started work on the edges, tests of which have been unsuccessful thus far. The bearing may be a little long for my purposes, and if I compress it I may get better results.

http://imgur.com/a/Hw4s5

[cubinator]

I've made some progress today, now I have something that looks like a cube. The only issue now is getting it to work...

http://imgur.com/a/QmHaK

[cubinator]

Today I tried to get a balance between too tight and too loose, but was unsuccessful. I realized that turning the pieces by pulling them with the center is terribly inefficient, and not the way that physical cubes are manipulated. I can't have them be rotated by rockets, as that would be just as cumbersome as the docking ports from the original cube, if less buggy. I think an external turning mechanism could be easier. I will start work on that another time, as I've already been working all morning on the cube. I have an idea involving the asteroid claw and action groups.