GoCube is a bluetooth enabled Rubik's cube. This document contains a partial description of the GoCube BLE protocol.
Setup communication:
- Scan for BLE devices that supports the Primary Service
- Connect to the primary service
- Enable notifications for the TX characteristic service
The following notifications are sent without requests:
- 3D tracking: 15 notifications per second (MsgOrientation). These notifications can be disabled or enabled
- Rotations: one message each time a face is rotated (MsgRotation)
The following notifications can be requested:
- Current battery level (MsgBattery)
- Current state (MsgState)
- Offline stats (MsgStats)
- Cube type (MsgCubeType)
Additional requests:
- Reboot
- Toggle backlight
- Calibrate 3D tracking
- Reset cube to solved state
| Service | Properties | UUID |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Service | 6e400001-b5a3-f393-e0a9-e50e24dcca9e | |
| RX Characterstic | W, WNR | 6e400002-b5a3-f393-e0a9-e50e24dcca9e |
| TX Characterstic | N | 6e400003-b5a3-f393-e0a9-e50e24dcca9e |
Requests supported by the RX Characterstic service.
Enable or disable MsgOrientation (3D tracking):
| Value | Command |
|---|---|
| 0x37 | DisableOrientation |
| 0x38 | EnableOrientation |
Request additional information from the cube:
| Value | Command | Message Type |
|---|---|---|
| 0x32 | GetBattery | MsgBattery |
| 0x33 | GetState | MsgState |
| 0x39 | GetStats | MsgStats |
| 0x56 | GetCubeType | MsgCubeType |
| Value | Command | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0x34 | Reboot | Reboot the cube |
| 0x35 | SetSolvedState | Resets the cube to solved state |
| 0x41 | LedFlash | Flash the backlight three times |
| 0x42 | LedToogleAnimation | Enable or disable animated backlight |
| 0x43 | LedFlashSlow | Slowly flashes the backlight three times |
| 0x44 | LedToggle | Toggle backlight |
| 0x57 | CalibrateOrientation | Calibrate 3D tracking |
This section describes the format of the notifications.
| Byte Offset | Length (Bytes) | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | Prefix | Fixed value: 0x2A (*) |
| 1 | 1 | Length | Length excluding Suffix |
| 2 | 1 | Type | Message Type |
| 3 | Length-4 | Message | Message |
| Length-1 | 1 | Checksum | Sum of byte 0 .. (Length-2) % 0x100 |
| Length | 2 | Suffix | Fixed value: [0x0D, 0x0A] (CRLF) |
Example:
Byte Offset Value Description 0 0x2A Prefix: asterisk (*) 1 0x05 Length: 5 bytes 2 0x05 Message Type: MsgBattery 3 0x38 Message: Battery level: 56% 4 0x6C Checksum: (0x2A + 0x05 + 0x05 + 0x38) % 0x100 5 0x0D Suffix: CR 6 0x0A Suffix: LF
| Type | Name |
|---|---|
| 0x01 | MsgRotation |
| 0x02 | MsgState |
| 0x03 | MsgOrientation |
| 0x05 | MsgBattery |
| 0x07 | MsgOffLineStats |
| 0x08 | MsgCubeType |
Message Length: n * 2 bytes (Length - 4) (n = number of rotations)
| Message Offset | Length (Bytes) | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| n | 1 | FaceRotation | Face and rotation |
| n + 1 | 1 | Orientation | Center piece orientation |
| FaceRotation | Binary Value | Color | Rotation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | 0000 0000 |
Blue | Clockwise |
| 0x01 | 0000 0001 |
Blue | Counterclockwise |
| 0x02 | 0000 0010 |
Green | Clockwise |
| 0x03 | 0000 0011 |
Green | Counterclockwise |
| 0x04 | 0000 0100 |
White | Clockwise |
| 0x05 | 0000 0101 |
White | Counterclockwise |
| 0x06 | 0000 0110 |
Yellow | Clockwise |
| 0x07 | 0000 0111 |
Yellow | Counterclockwise |
| 0x08 | 0000 1000 |
Red | Clockwise |
| 0x09 | 0000 1001 |
Red | Counterclockwise |
| 0x0A | 0000 1010 |
Orange | Clockwise |
| 0x0B | 0000 1011 |
Orange | Counterclockwise |
| Orientation | Description |
|---|---|
| 0x00 | Twelve o'clock |
| 0x03 | Three o'clock |
| 0x06 | Six o'clock |
| 0x09 | Nine o'clock |
Example:
Prerequisite: Yellow side facing up, green side facing you
Notation FaceRotation Orientation Description F 0x02 0x09 Green face clockwise rotation, center piece orientation nine o'clock R 0x0A 0x00 Orange face clockwise rotation, center piece orientation twelve o'clock U 0x06 0x09 Yellow face clockwise rotation, center piece orientation nine o'clock L 0x08 0x00 Red face clockwise rotation, center piece orientation twelve o'clock B 0x00 0x06 Blue face clockwise rotation, center piece orientation six o'clock D 0x04 0x00 Yellow face clockwise rotation, center piece orientation twelve o'clock F' 0x03 0x06 Green face counterclockwise rotation, center piece orientation six o'clock R' 0x0B 0x09 Orange face counterclockwise rotation, center piece orientation nine o'clock U' 0x07 0x06 Yellow face counterclockwise rotation, center piece orientation six o'clock L' 0x09 0x09 Red face counterclockwise rotation, center piece orientation nine o'clock B' 0x01 0x03 Blue face counterclockwise rotation, center piece orientation three o'clock D' 0x05 0x09 Yellow face counterclockwise rotation, center piece orientation nine o'clock
Message Length: 60 bytes (Length - 4)
| Message Offset | Length (Bytes) | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | BlueCenter | Constant value: 0x00 (blue) |
| 1 | 8 | BlueFace | The colors visable on the blue face, starting top left going clockwise |
| 9 | 1 | GreenCenter | Constant value: 0x01 (green) |
| 10 | 8 | GreenFace | The colors visable on the green face, starting top left going clockwise |
| 18 | 1 | WhiteCenter | Constant value: 0x02 (white) |
| 19 | 8 | WhiteFace | The colors visable on the white face, starting top left going clockwise |
| 27 | 1 | YellowCenter | Constant value: 0x03 (yellow) |
| 28 | 8 | YellowFace | The colors visable on the yellow face, starting top left going clockwise |
| 36 | 1 | RedCenter | Constant value: 0x04 (red) |
| 37 | 8 | RedFace | The colors visable on the red face, starting top left going clockwise |
| 45 | 1 | OrangeCenter | Constant value: 0x05 (orange) |
| 46 | 8 | OrangeFace | The colors visable on the orange face, starting top left going clockwise |
| 54 | 6 | Orientation | Orientation for each center piece: 0, 3, 6 or 9 o'clock |
| Value | Color |
|---|---|
| 0x00 | Blue |
| 0x01 | Green |
| 0x02 | White |
| 0x03 | Yellow |
| 0x04 | Red |
| 0x05 | Orange |
Message offset map:
| White Face | |||||||||||
| 19 | 20 | 21 | |||||||||
| 26 | 18 | 22 | |||||||||
| 25 | 24 | 23 | |||||||||
| Green Face | Red Face | Blue Face | Orange Face | ||||||||
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 46 | 47 | 48 |
| 17 | 9 | 13 | 44 | 36 | 40 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 53 | 45 | 49 |
| 16 | 15 | 14 | 43 | 42 | 41 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 52 | 51 | 50 |
| Yellow Face | |||||||||||
| 28 | 29 | 30 | |||||||||
| 35 | 27 | 31 | |||||||||
| 34 | 33 | 32 | |||||||||
Example message, hex values:
| BlueCenter + BlueFace | GreenCenter + GreenFace | WhiteCenter + WhiteFace | YellowCenter + YellowFace | RedCenter + RedFace | OrangeCenter + OrangeFace | Orientation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00-02-05-00-04-00-05-05-05 | 01-03-03-05-04-02-05-05-00 | 02-04-02-03-02-04-04-01-01 | 03-01-04-03-01-05-01-02-03 | 04-03-03-00-00-00-01-04-02 | 05-04-00-01-03-01-02-02-00 | 03-00-03-03-06-00 |
| White Face | |||||||||||
| R | W | Y | |||||||||
| G | W | W | |||||||||
| G | R | R | |||||||||
| Green Face | Red Face | Blue Face | Orange Face | ||||||||
| Y | Y | O | Y | Y | B | W | O | B | R | B | G |
| B | G | R | W | R | B | O | B | R | B | O | Y |
| O | O | W | R | G | B | O | O | B | W | W | G |
| Yellow Face | |||||||||||
| G | R | Y | |||||||||
| Y | Y | G | |||||||||
| W | G | O | |||||||||
Message Length: variable
Current orientation of the cube, reported as a quaternion. Numeric values represented as ascii strings. Used for 3D tracking.
Format: x#y#z#w
Example:
x delimeter y delimeter z delimeter w 0x39 0x31 0x37 0x35 0x23 0x33 0x34 0x36 0x23 0x2D 0x31 0x33 0x35 0x32 0x38 0x23 0x2D 0x34 0x35 0x39 9175 # 346 # -13528 # -459
Message Length: 1 byte (Length - 4)
| Message Offset | Length (Bytes) | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | BatteryLevel | Current battery level percentage |
Example:
Byte Offset Value Description 0 0x2A Prefix: asterisk (*) 1 0x05 Length: 5 bytes 2 0x05 Message Type: MsgBattery 3 0x38 Message: Battery level: 56% 4 0x6C Checksum: (0x2A + 0x05 + 0x05 + 0x38) % 0x100 5 0x0D Suffix: CR 6 0x0A Suffix: LF
Message Length: variable (Length - 4)
Format: moves#time#solves
Message Length: 1 byte (Length - 4)
| Message Offset | Length (Bytes) | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | CubeType | 0x00: Non edge cube |
Example:
Byte Offset Value Description 0 0x2A Prefix: asterisk (*) 1 0x05 Length: 5 bytes 2 0x08 Message Type: MsgCubeType 3 0x01 Message: Edge cube 4 0x38 Checksum: (0x2A + 0x05 + 0x08 + 0x01) % 0x100 5 0x0D Suffix: CR 6 0x0A Suffix: LF