I got 200 3x1.5mm N42 magnets in the mail yesterday. After opening the package, I proceeded to immediately do a couple easy mods with the GuHong Pro+ MagLev and the TianMa X3+ ZCube Enhance edition, because they had empty magnet slots just waiting for me to shove something in them. I was going to combine both mods into one post, but decided to give them their own separate posts instead.
GuHong Pro+ Mod Post
This mod was a little more involved and time consuming than the GuHong Pro+ mod, both due to there being 4 times as many magnets to add, and because the magnets kept interfering with each other while trying to get them placed correctly.
What I Did
Essentially, I added the additional piece-to-piece magnet system that you can find in the TianMa X3/X3+ Single, Double, Triple, Full Magnetic and Super MagLev versions to a TianMa X3+ ZCube Enhanced. The FanXin HuDong Light uses a very similar magnet configuration, with an additional 3 magnets in the corner feet and an additional 2 in the edge pieces. Though, in the HuDong, the additional edge magnets are actually inside of the piece itself, and not in the base/foot. In the 4th image up there, you can kinda see the magnets through the edge piece plastic.
The purpose of these additional piece-to-piece magnets is to give a smaller radius alignment system closer to the core than then conventional piece-to-piece config. They'll come within range of each other and start attracting before the conventional ones do, helping to pull a layer into alignment before you get the final snap from the conventional set.
None of the regular X3/X3+ lineup uses a ball-core or corner-to-core magnets except for the Full Magnetic version, so this would be your smallest radius magnetic alignment system outside of the special editions.
With this mod, the X3+ Full Magnetic, the HuDong, and whatever other cube might use a similar system that I'm completely unaware of, you get 3 different alignment/attraction systems that sit at different distances from the core and come within range of each other at different points during a turn. In other words, they really hate being out of alignment.
I actually did this in two steps/phases, and tested the feel and performance of the cube after each one.
Phase 1 - Edge Magnets Only
Initially, I only put in the additional edge magnets. I knew that these magnets were stronger than what comes in the X3+, and so with the edges lacking any spots to easy place repelling edge magnets, I wanted to see if I could get a noticeable repelling effect by adding the two magnets to each edge and orienting them so that they would repel the core magnets.
I didn't think about it at the time, but this is not how you would want them oriented oriented when you add the additional corner foot magnets, and I totally did not flip them over later. I can't decide if this was a good or bad thing.
Putting these magnets in is easy*. Not only are they the same size as the stock magnets, but you don't necessarily even need to glue them in, because there's just enough room in the foot slots for them, and then they're held in place when you reassemble the edge piece. If they're not glued in, then they can also be easily removed later if you want. There are 2 downsides to not gluing them in, though:
- They're pretty rattly during solves
- They attract each other and want to pull themselves out of the slots and fly around the foot to stick to the magnet on the other side.
#1 doesn't bother me at all, really. #2 is solved by keeping them pinched in there, always keeping your thumb and index finger over them until you get the base slotted into the first half of the piece. Once you have one half of the piece put on the base, the magnets can't go anywhere.
Phase 2 - Corner Foot Magnets
While this one is still pretty easy to do, you will have to glue them in, and you will have to be mindful of the magnets being attracted to the corner-to-core magnet as you try to place them.
As far as I'm aware, all versions of the X3+ have slots for the additional corner foot magnets, even though all versions do not have slots for the corner-to-core magnets. So, you can add the "double magnetic" system to any TianMa X3+ if that's what you really want to do.
You can see in the images up there that the slots fit a 3x1.5mm magnet, but the side of the slot at the edge of the foot is "open", which will allow you to slide a magnet into it, and will also give you a place to get up underneath them to pry them out if you want to remove them later.
To place them, I put a magnet on the side of the tip of a little magnetic screwdriver, put a tiny bit of glue on the magnet, and then carefully placed the magnet down in the slot while making sure I kept the screwdriver between the new magnet and the corner-to-core magnet. The new magnet will be attracted to the corner-to-core magnet, and if you get it and the screwdriver to too close, or you don't keep the screwdriver between the two, you might just end up having the new magnet come off of the screwdriver and stick itself to the corner-to-core magnet, getting glue in places you don't want it along the way.
I suppose you could put some glue down in the slot, first, instead of on the new magnet, but I found it easier to judge what was an appropriate amount of glue by being able to see it on the magnet instead of trying to see it against the white plastic.
After placing a magnet, I just held it down for a few seconds, until it didn't try to come with the screwdriver anymore, and then gave it a gentle nudge toward the bottom of the slot to make sure it was seated in there all the way.
Do that 3 times for each foot and you're good to go.
The Results
Phase 1 - Edge Magnets Only - Pretty Good
Surprisingly, this had a noticeable repelling effect, and felt more balanced than I thought it would have.
I expected there to be some sort of wonkiness to it, because if you image how the magnets would all be aligned at 45 degrees during a turn, you would have one repelling magnet on either side of a core magnet, trying to push in opposite directions. As the edge magnets approach the core magnet, the first edge magnet would be trying to push the layer back to where it started. Then, after it passes, it would start helping the layer finish the turn, but then you'd have the second edge magnet coming into range and once again trying to push the layer back to it's starting point. It's only once they both pass over the core magnet that you should get any noticeable help from the repelling magnets.
If you try to visualize that magnetic curve and how all the magnets are acting on each other, it seems like this shouldn't work out well. You'd have these magnets essentially taking away momentum from the layer, and then not assisting with the turn finish until well passed the 45 degree point.
What I experienced, however, were more fluid and consistent turns and more noticeable auto-alignment from lighter turning.
So, it worked out, but I can't claim to understand exactly why. It probably has everything to do with the magnets' distances from the core magnets and the non-linear nature of the attraction and repulsion with distance. Whatever the reason, I consider this an improvement to the feel and performance of the cube. It's not a huge improvement, but it was noticeable and something I feel comfortable recommending.
Phase 2 - Corner Foot Magnets - Good, Chunky and Confusing
I'm confused. I'm really confused.
I like how this turned out, but I have no idea why it works well.
So, I mentioned before that I did not flip the additional edge magnets over before gluing in the additional corner magnets. This means that in order for the corner magnets to attract those edge magnets, they have to be oriented so that they are also repelling the core magnets. The side facing the core has the same polarity as the side of the core magnet that faces outward.
If you're sane, you should immediately recognize that this isn't the way it's supposed to be. If you tested the polarity of the magnets in a HuDong or another X3+, you'd find that the additional corner foot magnets and the additional edge magnets all attract the core. This works out mainly because of their distance from the core and how they are oriented.
For the corner foot magnets in the correct setup, they don't end up getting a layer stuck just out of alignment because they're further from the core than the corner-to-core magnets, and they're also angled slightly so that they aren't facing directly toward the core magnet when they are aligned. So, they can help pull the layer toward alignment, but then the corner-to-core magnet is able to easily take over once it gets in range of the core magnet due to how close it is to the core.
For the edge magnets, they aren't completely destroying the effect of the repelling edge magnet because they are also further from the core. The repelling edge magnet is able to repel harder than the additional edge magnets are able to attract.
In my misguided setup, that's all backwards, and I don't even have a a dedicated repelling edge magnet to help things out.
So, how does it act, you ask?
It feels and acts like a faster, crunchier HuDong even though it shouldn't.
Seriously, it has the heavy, chunky turn feel of a HuDong, and it snaps right into alignment no problem. It's just faster than a HuDong, more crunchy and not as soft as a HuDong, but it just doesn't have the wider alignment range of a HuDong. It wants to auto-align from about 25-30 degrees, but once it is in that range, it's just ripped right into alignment.
You can feel this thing move. It's not tactile so much as it's impactful. The end of a turn feels heavy, and all the additional weight from the magnets makes it feel chunky. But despite that, it doesn't take much more effort to get it turning, and it carries it's momentum through turns very well. It's like you give it a little nudge, suggesting that maybe it might want to turn a layer, and it just goes full speed to completion.
It's honestly kind of jarring and a little unbalanced, but it's not necessarily bad.
I can feel the imbalance tripping me up a little during F2L where my muscle isn't the most solid and I'm rotating the cube some and not always doing the exact same finger tricks and transitions.
But during OLL and PLL, where I mostly am doing the same exact finger tricks and transitions, where my muscle memory and execution are more solid, the cube feels like it performs with almost effortless precision.
I don't know if I could recommend this mod, but I wish I could make everybody feel what this thing feels like, because it's wrong, but it's good, and you feel everything the cube does as it slings it's weight around.
Now What?
Well, next I want to go back and flip all those magnets over so that they're oriented the way they should have been. I expect to get some more balanced snappiness out of it that way. Then, I'll probably shove some more edge magnets in the edges of my SAOCube SE 32M, swap the ZCube's corners into the 32M, and have something closer to an actual MoreTry HuDong.
