As we work with our new products, it’s not uncommon for us to find possible issues that we don’t see documented elsewhere on the internet. When that happens, we work hard to find a solution or workaround, and post it to this blog!

There are a couple of things you should make sure that are in order with your Cubelets:

• Check your batteries, they should be fully charged. A fully depleted Battery Cubelet can take up to an hour and a half to fully charge. You’ll know the Battery cell is fully charged when the orange indicator light turns off while it’s still plugged in. A fully charged Battery Cubelet can last for about 4-6 hours depending on how many Cubelets are attached to it during play as well as how long you have Action Cubelets outputting at full value.

• Make sure to clean your Cubelets to avoid some small dust or debris to collect on the magnetic connectors. We recommend wiping them down with some Lysol Wipes or with a little Isopropyl after they’ve been in storage or after a session of, particularly heavy use.
  
• Make sure that your students are letting the Drive blocks move at their own pace without too much downward pressure. This can produce problems with the mechanics of the gears.

• We don’t recommend using any kind of lubrication with any of the Cubelets. 

• When you have more than one Drive Cubelets, check the orientation of the Drive Cubelets in your construction to avoid the Cubelets going in different direction. When you look at the Drive Cubelet wheels you can see two white gears to the side of the wheels (behind the clear plastic). Please make sure that these gears are on the same side for all the Drive Cubelets in your construction. This ensures that your wheels are spinning in the same direction.

• If you are using the Distance Cubelets, consider that the reflectivity of the surface in which your robot is on can cause your robot to misbehave, given that this Cubelet uses infrared light. Also, the whiteboard could cause some issues because it is reflecting too much light when it is over the tape-line.

• Remember to always keep your Cubelets updated to the latest operating system using the Bluetooth Cubelet, this will help you to avoid possible bugs that have been already solved.

After a session you can spend some time on maintenance: 

• Charge the batteries
• Inspect the interfaces (the magnets tend to attract small metal bits, which interfere with the connection).
• Pull hair and dust out of the Drive Cubelets and Rotate Cubelets. The rotate “platter” sometimes picks those up similar to the Drive “rollers”
• Assemble them into blocks with the green status LED facing up, and check for connectivity.
• If any of your Cubelets fell off a table, you might inspect the plastic on the outside just to make sure it didn’t crack.

About once a week wiping your Cubelets down!

Enjoy your Cubelets!  

I hope this article has been helpful! Do you have an issue with your Cubelets for which you can’t find a solution?

Contact us at support@robotLAB.com and we may write a post just for you!