Motorized Cube gears with removable base

Like everyone else here I'm sure, I love Emmett's cube gears (all his creations really. Did I say I was a fan!! ). The monogrammed ones have made their way into several of the Christmas and birthday presents I have given out. I have always wanted to take them to the next step though and motorize them like I have seen that others have done, but I didn't want to give up my ability to still play with them. So, I thought up a way to modify it to work both ways! Yep, you can motorize it and play with it by hand!!!

I extended the pin for one of the big corner blocks and put a hex shape at the end. I made a hole through the corner block to accommodate the extended pin. I also made three parallel rounded indents into the three sides of the corner to provide a way to hold it in place. Then I took a geared motor that I got cheap on e-bay and made a case around it with a battery holder and a lid with three cylinders to fit into the slots in the cube. I added a driver to the motor to match up with the hex shape and let her rip. (there was actually a few iterations and moments of head scratching involved) To switch the power, I went with a simple solution of making a flexible tab in the battery lid that pushes the wire onto the top of the battery. Simple and elegant!

Now I can freely play with the cube gears and have a nice stand to set it on that amazes everyone when I show them what happens when I press the button.

Modifying an existing geared cube (5-6 version with new pins) to work with this is as simple as taking off one of the big corners and replacing it with the new pin and corner.

Here's a of video of my son playing with it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWgoSRPvsrQ

Update - I ordered a couple of standard geared motors (should get in a couple of weeks) that are more freely available than the salvaged ones I used. I will update this with a new base when I have tested it with the new motor.