[Help Thread] Help needed for a Beginner's Customised LBL Method (DBM).

Same thing really, Us at the beginning and end of algorithms serve as visual AUFs.

A-ha! Thank you so much! This clears up something for me. I finally fully understand the U's between algorithms. It's a revelation.

So much for me to learn.


That's very kind of you. How long does it take to be able to turn so fast?

And the way you do the last L turn - doing most of it with the right hand (like a wide R) is brilliant. I have to learn to tilt the cube up and down, and turning both wrists for these awkward L and R' moves.

A big thank you to everyone for the help you have given me. I am so happy to have started on this journey. Although it's barely 3 months, I feel it has become an important part of my life now.

If there are other beginners following this, your feedback will be very helpful to improve the write-up. I myself learnt a lot with this exercise just these 2 days. I never thought I would when I first started documenting my method and have hesitated about posting it here.

Docendo discimus :)
 
There is also another way to execute the algorithm regripless!

Please share your way. As this is a method for meant for beginners who are not ready for 4LLL and it's meant to be easy to learn, I chose (U R U' L') ( U R' U' L) because it is symmetrical for the 2 hands and easy to remember. However, I will definitely consider improvements if there are better algorithms (not necessarily faster ones).

BTW, is there an easier name for this nice little beginner algorithm - (U R U' L') ( U R' U' L) - besides something like the #2 variant of Niklas?
I call it the flip-flop :)
 
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That's very kind of you. How long does it take to be able to turn so fast?

And the way you do the last L turn - doing most of it with the right hand (like a wide R) is brilliant. I have to learn to tilt the cube up and down, and turning both wrists for these awkward L and R' moves.
For me it took about 2-4 months. (Times vary for different people)

i used to only try to learn algorithms using a video so i can see the hands turning and i would copy the movements.

Now i do the fingertricks that feels better for my hands
 
Let's have some fun, OK? :D:D

I will give a free WRM 2021 cube to show my appreciation of the help from members of this site.

I will select a member to receive it, someone who makes a public video of a solve to demonstrate my method on Youtube. It must be uploaded by 30 June 2021 and you must provide a link in this thread. Any quality is fine if it's 720p or better. Title should be "Dan's Beginner Method (DGM)". The scramble must be clearly shown at some point. You must use only the steps and algorithms as described above for DGM. It will be used for personal learning, not for any commercial purpose. I will select the winner based on a video that can best demonstrate it, based on only my opinion. It's not about the best video quality video quality or the fastest time. The cube will be bought from an online store and I will ask them to send it to you. You can give me an address in private if you are chosen to receive it. Winner will be announced on July 1, 2021.

Nothing serious. I thought this should be fun and you get to demonstrate you skill and help beginners. And have bragging right. If a picture is worth a thousand words, your video will be worth a million. Thank you for your help.

Update. I have just included a demo video to show what I like to see, but it is very rough and poorly made. Don't laugh too loud at my 0.1 average TPS. It does show a case when a swap of diagonal corners is necessary (@ 1:43 in the video). :D It's up to you if you want to make it slow, like a tutorial, or if you want to demo how fast it can be using great your finger skills, do whatever using your creativity. It's up to you. Most important is to have fun!


Feel free to critique.
 
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Let's have some fun, OK? :D:D

I will give a free WRM 2020 cube to show my appreciation of the help from members of this site.

I will select a member to receive it, someone who makes a public video of a solve to demonstrate my method on Youtube. It must be uploaded by 30 June 2021 and you must provide a link in this thread. Any quality is fine if it's 720p or better. Title should be "Dan's Beginner Method (DGM)". The scramble must be clearly shown at some point. It will be used for learning, not for any commercial purpose. I will select the winner based on a video that can best demonstrate it, based on only my opinion. It's not about the best video quality video quality or the fastest time. The cube will be bought from an online store and I will ask them to send it to you. You can give me an address in private if you are chosen to receive it. Winner will be announced on July 1, 2021.

Nothing serious. I thought this should be fun and you get to demonstrate you skill and help beginners. And have bragging right. If a picture is worth a thousand words, your video will be worth a million. Thank you for your help.
I don’t need a WRM 2020, but I might submit a video anyway ;).
 
I don’t need a WRM 2020, but I might submit a video anyway ;).

That's a great spirit. Participation and volunteering help. Thank you, PetrusQuber. Besides beginers, you are also helping to promote speedsolving.com and cubing.

I look forward to seeing your video.

(It's actually the new WRM 2021. If there's any issue with its quality or supply/delivery, I will attempt to send another flagship grade cube of equivalent value.)
 
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Choose either Sune or its left hand version (called Left Sune from now on) to do this by checking the colours of the edge pieces on the right and left sides. This can be very quick after enough practice and familiarisation. Always check and then use the algorithm when you have a side already matched facing you. Right Sune will result in the top edges pieces, except the one in front, rotating clockwise. And vice versa. If you see that that the left or right side are also colours matched already, then spin the cube to the left until you find a side that is not matched up, then do a U (to match up the colour in front) before Sune, thus:

⦁ U (R U R' U R U2 R')

After this, turn the cube up towards up slightly to check the back to see if it's also matched, If so, continue turning the cube till it is “up side down” and the white cross is facing down, ready for the next step. Occasionaly, the back side is still not match up after Sune, then you will have to repeat what's done before, i.e. Spinning the cube to the left until you find an unmatched side and then again do a U and then Sune. That happens if the front and back are already matched before you start Sune.

TIP. If you have been more careful and noticed it (opposite sides matched up already) before doing the Sune, here is a fun way to match all colours without using Sune at all :

⦁ M2 D2 M2 U2
I'm not sure if you'd be willing to learn a new trigger, but if you wanted, you could use R' U' R U R' instead of U+sune there :)
 
Thank you for reviewing the method and for your suggestion. Nice little algorithm. However, this method is to provide an easier method by cutting down the number of algorithms. So, I will have to think about it more, but it's probably not a change that I want to make at this time. Instead I will collect all ideas and include in an addendum later, or as TIPs inside the document.

I do have a few things that can make the method more efficient but they have to wait, or they can be in a separate addendum. For example, for one of the cases (2 pairs of headlights), the algorithm is Sune x2. Now, this can also be made simpler or shorter to save 4 turns.

(R U R' U R U2 R') x2 = (R U R' U R U2 R') (R U R' U R U2 R')

= (R U R' U R U2 + U R' U R U2 R')

= (R U R' U R U3 R' U R U2 R')

= (R U R' U R U' R' U R U2 R')

To help remember it, I think this way - Do the first Sune but stop after 5 turns, then insert a U' and restart from the last R'. I am trying and struggling to learn to do all the U, U2 and U' except the first U using the left forefinger, flicking back and forth with this shortened algorithm. Not easy but a lot of fun. :) )

All these will be evaluated when I can Polish it more. I welcome all suggestions and of course pointing out any mistakes and typos I made. It's a great learning exercise for me.
 
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It seems like it would be more natural to the method to just solve the edges using Sune/Left Sune as well. Rather than tacking on more algorithms for EPLL.

(Sune -> U -> Left Sune does a clockwise 3-cycle of edges, i.e. a Ub perm.)

(Left Sune -> U' -> Sune does a CCW 3-cycle of edges, i.e. a Ua perm.)

i have to read through the LL steps again, but I've always been partial to:
  • MirIS method's approach to LL
  • KALL
 
It seems like it would be more natural to the method to just solve the edges using Sune/Left Sune as well. Rather than tacking on more algorithms for EPLL.

(Sune -> U -> Left Sune does a clockwise 3-cycle of edges, i.e. a Ub perm.)

(Left Sune -> U' -> Sune does a CCW 3-cycle of edges, i.e. a Ua perm.)

i have to read through the LL steps again, but I've always been partial to:
  • MirIS method's approach to LL
  • KALL

And I agree. For an easy method, I also think this would mean yet another algorithm to learn. It's not like that saving a few turns will let someone break the world record.
 
It was late last night, but here is more info:

MirIS - simple beginners solution using only the inverse sexy move (if you use the sexy move as well, this can be a decently fast method)

KALL - a less popular LL method with these steps:
1. corner orientation (get corners all up)
2. OLLCP/A (permute corners and orient edges at the same time) - This can be split into two steps if you wish. Eventually developing into full OLLCP/A with 16 cases and about 8 algs.
2a. corner permutation - 1 to 2 algs - either adjacent swap or diagonal swap.
2b. edge orientation - 2 to 3 algs to pop up your edges without messing up your corners.
3. edge permutation - it seems like you're familiar with this step from your current 4LLL.
 
Thank you, tsmosher. The MirIS is the first method I learnt. Speed of solving is not the most important thing on my mind when i started to customise, ease of learning and fun are.

The KALL looks very similar, with the same approach. Is there a link or site with more details?

I was learning 4LLL and my intention for a customised method was to find a way to make the beginners method more interesting but without learning all the algorithms and cases in 4LLL. Then I discovered that the Last Layer can be much simpler, by doing just one or two Sune for all cases if we can get the corners fixed up first and there are only 5 cases to learn. It seems I could have saved a lot of time if I had known about KLLL.
 
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Thank you, tsmosher. The MirIS is the first method I learnt. Speed of solving is not the most important thing on my mind when i started to customise, ease of learning and fun are.

The KALL looks very similar, with the same approach. Is there a link or site with more details?

I was learning 4LLL and my intention for a customised method was to find a way to make the beginners method more interesting but without learning all the algorithms and cases in 4LLL. Then I discovered that the Last Layer can be much simpler, by doing just one or two Sune for all cases if we can get the corners fixed up first and there are only 5 cases to learn. It seems I could have saved a lot of time if I had known about CLLL.

There's not a lot of information out there about KALL.

CO/CP:
2 Look CMLL
This guide is pretty good, but the pictures no longer work. The (2nd look) CP algs assume you are doing Roux though. Instead of those...

Just use Niklas+Sune for adjacent swap. (This is a J PLL by the way.)
(L' U R U' L U R' + R U R' U R U2 R')
(i.e., L' U R U' L U2 R' U R U2 R')

And you have a few options for diagonal swap:
Niklas+Sune --> U2 --> Niklas+Sune - if you don't want to learn algs
(R U R' U) --> Niklas+Sune --> (U' R U' R') - simple N perm conjugated from the J PLL above
F (U R U' R') (U R U' R') (U R U' R') F' + (R U2 R' U') (R U R' U') (R U' R') - F... 3 inverse sexy... F'... then a double antisune... (You could also do 3 sexy moves. They are equivalent.)

For EO then, the easiest algs are probably:
(r U R' U') M (U R U' R') - B52 shape
(R U R' U') M' (U R U' r') - H shape
M U (R U R' U') M2 (U R U' r') - 5 shape

I made a guide for my sons a while back.
(I would use the EOLL algs I placed above though.)

3 Look OLLCP

Combining 1st look of 2 look CLL (see Waffles guide or mine) with OLLCP/A with EPLL gives you KALL.

OLLCP/A
 
Thank you so much for all the details. They are a bit overwhelming at this time though, with all the acronyms and options, but I will try to understand more. Still trying to find out what EO, CO, CP ... mean. Very slow here. Sorry, I am still a baby with this stuff. o_O

Update. I used your links and also tried to search around ,but I found this KLLL and the various considerations seem quite hard, probably much deeper than I am ready for. It is however very interesting to see all the possibilities for a method that takes an alternative approach (fixing up the corners early). I am sure the alternative algorithms you mentioned would be useful to speed up the solve and they could be used to further enhance the method in many ways. I would leave this to others who are reading this to explore as it is way more than what I am capable of doing. My original intention is to make it simpler to learn, though slower, hence the use of just one easy algorithm for both diagonal and adjacent corner swaps, and the use of only the Sune for OLL. Thank you.
 
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Thank you so much for all the details. They are a bit overwhelming at this time though, with all the acronyms and options, but I will try to understand more. Still trying to find out what EO, CO, CP ... mean. Very slow here. Sorry, I am still a baby with this stuff. o_O

Update. I used your links and also tried to search around ,but I found this KLLL and the various considerations seem quite hard, probably much deeper than I am ready for. It is however very interesting to see all the possibilities for a method that takes an alternative approach (fixing up the corners early). I am sure the alternative algorithms you mentioned would be useful to speed up the solve and they could be used to further enhance the method in many ways. I would leave this to others who are reading this to explore as it is way more than what I am capable of doing. My original intention is to make it simpler to learn, though slower, hence the use of just one easy algorithm for both diagonal and adjacent corner swaps, and the use of only the Sune for OLL. Thank you.
Edge Orientation, Corner Orientation, and Corner Permuation fyi
 
Let's have some fun, OK? :D:D

I will give a free WRM 2021 cube to show my appreciation of the help from members of this site.

I will select a member to receive it, someone who makes a public video of a solve to demonstrate my method on Youtube. It must be uploaded by 30 June 2021 and you must provide a link in this thread. Any quality is fine if it's 720p or better. Title should be "Dan's Beginner Method (DGM)". The scramble must be clearly shown at some point. You must use only the steps and algorithms as described above for DGM. It will be used for personal learning, not for any commercial purpose. I will select the winner based on a video that can best demonstrate it, based on only my opinion. It's not about the best video quality video quality or the fastest time. The cube will be bought from an online store and I will ask them to send it to you. You can give me an address in private if you are chosen to receive it. Winner will be announced on July 1, 2021.

Nothing serious. I thought this should be fun and you get to demonstrate you skill and help beginners. And have bragging right. If a picture is worth a thousand words, your video will be worth a million. Thank you for your help.

Update. I have just included a demo video to show what I like to see, but it is very rough and poorly made. Don't laugh too loud at my 0.1 average TPS. It does show a case when a swap of diagonal corners is necessary (@ 1:43 in the video). :D It's up to you if you want to make it slow, like a tutorial, or if you want to demo how fast it can be using great your finger skills, do whatever using your creativity. It's up to you. Most important is to have fun!


Feel free to critique.
I just saw the video, looks good :D
try not to use the wca 15 second inspection, use as much time as you like for now, more time inspecting = you can better plan the cross
when planning the cross feels like second nature you would then use the 15 second inspection

Take your time inspecting and planning :)
 
That I think is exactly the advice I need. I need to take the time planning and then hopefully build up speed for the first cross, without having to think and stop so much. Thank you, moh.
 
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One thing to consider in the topic of inspection the is that fast solvers spend more time inspecting than actually solving.
So if you solve a cube in 2 minutes on average then in a sense fair inspection time for a speedsolve is 2 minutes rather than 15 seconds.
 
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