Laravel polymorphic voting system with namespaces - laravel

Question

I'm attempting to add what I hope is a simple voting module to posts and comments. A "Connection" is a type of post in my application. Users can vote up or down a Connection, or a Comment.
The issue I'm running into is when I attempt to attach a vote to a Connection. I receive this error: Class name must be a valid object or a string.
Here's the line of code in question:
$voteToCast = $vote->voteable()->associate($voteable);
I am certain the $voteable var is an instance of an Ardent/Eloquent model, so I can only presume the error lies within the way I am namespacing my models, or some pathetic typo I am too blind to see. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Connection Model (type of post):
...
public function votes()
{
return $this->morphMany('Acme\Votes\Vote', 'voteable');
}
And the Votes Model:
/* Votes Model */
namespace Acme\Votes;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use LaravelBook\Ardent\Ardent;
class Vote extends Ardent {
protected $table = 'votes';
protected $fillable = [
'value',
'votable_id',
'voteable_type'
];
/**
* Establish the polymorphic relationship
*
* #return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsTo
*/
public function voteable()
{
return $this->morphTo();
}
public function users()
{
return $this->belongsTo('Acme\\Users\\User');
}
/**
* Vote the item up
*
* #param Model $voteable
* #return mixed
*/
public static function up(Model $voteable)
{
return (new static)->cast($voteable, 1);
}
/**
* Vote the item down
*
* #param Model $voteable
* #return mixed
*/
public static function down(Model $voteable)
{
return (new static)->cast($voteable, -1);
}
/**
* Execute the vote
*
* #param Model $voteable
* #param int $value
* #return bool
*/
protected function cast(Model $voteable, $value = 1)
{
if (!$voteable->exists) return false;
$vote = new static;
$vote->value = $value;
$voteToCast = $vote->voteable()->associate($voteable);
$voteToCast->save();
}
/**
* Restrict the votes so the absolute value is 1
*
* #param $value
*/
public function setValueAttribute($value)
{
$this->attributes['value'] = ($value == -1) ? -1 : 1;
}
}
Votes Controller:
...
public function cast($connection)
{
$voteable = Connection::findOrFail($connection);
if (Input::get('value' < 1)){
return Vote::down($voteable);
}
return Vote::up($voteable);
}

Answer 1

After some more troubleshooting, this appears to be an issue with the way Ardent handles relationships. I was able to use Eloquent on my Vote model instead of Ardent and the voting mechanism now works flawlessly.