We’ve been working hard since The Bay Area Maker Faire to get the CubeRinth.com website up and running. All of the encouragement and support is appreciated and has made it possible for us to get to this point. Mx3 Designs (Maker x3 Designs) was started as a kid centric group, with the goal of inspiring invention, engaging kids, and even adults in the process of design, building and Making! We believe in the power of ideas and invention. The Cuberinth is one of our first projects taking us through the process of concept, design, prototype and now product.

We were introduced to the world of making after meeting Joey and Julie Hudy at a local Maker Fest event. Julie Hudy encouraged us to attend the Maker Faire Bay Area in 2014, where we were blown away by what we saw. It was very inspiring to see what other people had made, and once home we got right to making!

The idea for the CubeRinth began when we participated in an online camp called Maker Camp. During the games week, one of the projects to build was a Labyrinth out of scrap pieces of wood. We were inspired by a www.TwoBitCircus.com video presentation and their idea of super-sizing games. We decided to super-size the labyrinth by making the MakeyRinth V1.0, our idea was to create something out of easy to find items, which was a simple 24″ by 24″ piece of plywood, a peg board, wood pegs and rubber bands with the concept being simply to create your own mazes. The game is played by 2 to 4 people and is customizable. With the MakeyRinth V2.0 we kicked it up a notch and created a super-sized version with a 64 LED matrix which scrolled text! This presented us with the challenge of coding using an Arduino to control the scrolling text. We had the great fortune of being introduced to Erin Kennedy from www.robotgrrl.com. Erin made it possible by helping Reagen learn the in’s and out’s of using the Arduino coding language. The soldering of all the LED’s and linking them together gave us a lot of experience as well.

Our friend and mentor Erin Kennedy!

While working on V2.0 we wondered if it would be possible to make a 3D version that worked in the same way as the 2D versions. The CubeRinth was born! A 3 dimensional acrylic cube with removable peg board shelves, using pegs and rubber bands player’s can create an infinite number of maze combinations on the 5 peg boards. This version presented design challenges for us.  Reagan at the time was learning how to use SketchUp, a 3 dimensional cad software. After the initial design, Reagan began learning how to use AutoDesk Inventor where he was able to engineer the CubeRinth into a kit which anyone can build. The game is played by dropping a marble at the top, playing it to the bottom maze and flipping it over to play it back to the top again.  Each kit comes with everything you need to build a CubeRinth: the Cube sides, door, pegs, screws, a ball and colored rubber bands.

We attended The Bay Area Maker Faire in May and introduced the CubeRinth kit at the show along with our Speederz Concept bike. We were inspired by the interest in the CubeRinth kits and it has helped to get us to the point where we can begin offering them to all of you.

Thank you again for all your support and encouragement.

Make On!