V-Cubes!

[AvGalen]

I just ordered a 6x6x6! I can't wait to get my hands on one of these! I only ordered the 6x6x6 for now because my birthday is coming up so I'll get the 5x5x5 and 7x7x7 then. I'm so pumped!

I've been doing some 6x6x6 solves on Gabbasoft to prepare. I'm sure that people have been doing this for a while, but I've been doing the edge pairing by reducing the cube to a 4x4x4. It's kind of like AVG edges on the 5x5x5... you build a lot of semi pairs with the bottom two edge pieces, and eventually all of your edges will be semi pairs. Then you can just solve it like a normal 4x4x4 by doing 2 or 6 pairs at a time, treating the semi pairs as one edge piece. The same parity issue comes up as in AVG 5x5x5, so you can use the same alg to solve: r U2 r U2 F2 r F2 l' U2 l U2 r2. I think using this method, a 2:00-2:30 average is possible. The centers shouldn't take any longer than a minute. Then, I'm thinking somewhere around 30 seconds to build all the semi pairs and another 20-25 to finish pairing (which again is exactly like pairing edges in a 4x4x4 and a lot of people can do it even faster than that). Then 20-30 seconds for the 3x3x3 part, depending on whether you have parity or not. I can't wait to try it on a real cube! I bet my 6x6x6 average will pass up my 5x5x5 average!

Glad to see you like my method of edge pairing Jason. When I was looking for a way to solve my bigcubes for the first time I first tried layer by layer, but that was just to slow (and boring). Then I changed to building only centers layer-by-layer and that worked quite nicely for me (I later found out that this was the way Pochmann described). But then I started thinking about scalability to larger cubes and found that 2 opposites centers, followed by 1 center at a time was just as easy, used fewer moves and scaled well to any size cube.
Because I liked solving centers first I had to figure out a way to solve edges without messing up the centers. Initially I just figured out a way to do 1-at-a-time, then figured out a way to do 2-at-a-time and then improved that by starting with a semi-pair to greatly simplify 2-at-a-time and improve look-ahead+speed. For > 5x5x5 cubes the semi-pair process should work just as well, you just have to do it several times and on different levels/layers/slices. So for a 9x9x9 cube you would have (9-2)*12 edges to pair. I imagined starting at the middle (5th) layer and adding the 4th+6th layer, then the 3rd+7th layer and finally the 2nd+8th layer (working inside -> out). However working outside -> in might work just as well or even better, especially on even numbered cubes.

I wonder which method the "bigcubes.com-people" will start using. I can imagine that doing the 8 "tredges" is still possible for a 6x6x6 (not for a 7x7x7 anymore because you need 5 edges and only have 4 faces), but the number of algs for the final 4 "tredges" would simply grow way to fast. For AVG edges you will always need only that 1 alg (+intuition)

 

[Pedro]

one method people use (and me too, on my baaaaaaad 6x6x6 solves at hi-games) is "multi-reduction"

you first pair the inner edges, like a 4x4
then you match those with the outer edges, like the 5x5

works quite well

 

[rachmaninovian]

my upsized ortega plus commutators plus centres last requires little brain power..just spam...

 

[masterofthebass]

Jason, I think you are grossly overestimating the ability to be fast on a 6x6. If you look at the people who have them already, Frank says he can average about 3:30. Also looking at Michael Gottlieb's computer cube results, you can look and compare to the 5x5:

Michael's 5x5 time is 1:06. The WR is 1:23. That's a factor of 1.26. So taking Michael's 6x6 time of 2:04 (I think he actually averages around 2:20-30) you get a WR time of 2:36.

Personally, I don't even think this time will be reachable for a little bit. I think that 3:00 is equivalent to something like the 1:45 goal on 5x5. Also, centers are much harder than you think, if you think you can get them sub-1.

 

[jonny guitar]

I have no problems with the cube prices but man, 44 bucks for shipping is pretty steep!

Anybody know what method they ship? Is it a courier or standard mail? I hope it is something that hooks up with Canada Post rather than UPS so the brokerage fees are not outrageous.


.

 

[Hadley4000]

Personally, I don't even think this time will be reachable for a little bit.

Well, until Erik gets one.

 

[Hadley4000]

I have no problems with the cube prices but man, 44 bucks for shipping is pretty steep!

Anybody know what method they ship? Is it a courier or standard mail? I hope it is something that hooks up with Canada Post rather than UPS so the brokerage fees are not outrageous.


.

44? I only payed 37.

No idea what method, all I know is 2 weeks.

 

[RobinBloehm]

I just ordered a 6x6x6! I can't wait to get my hands on one of these! I only ordered the 6x6x6 for now because my birthday is coming up so I'll get the 5x5x5 and 7x7x7 then. I'm so pumped!

I've been doing some 6x6x6 solves on Gabbasoft to prepare. I'm sure that people have been doing this for a while, but I've been doing the edge pairing by reducing the cube to a 4x4x4. It's kind of like AVG edges on the 5x5x5... you build a lot of semi pairs with the bottom two edge pieces, and eventually all of your edges will be semi pairs. Then you can just solve it like a normal 4x4x4 by doing 2 or 6 pairs at a time, treating the semi pairs as one edge piece. The same parity issue comes up as in AVG 5x5x5, so you can use the same alg to solve: r U2 r U2 F2 r F2 l' U2 l U2 r2. I think using this method, a 2:00-2:30 average is possible. The centers shouldn't take any longer than a minute. Then, I'm thinking somewhere around 30 seconds to build all the semi pairs and another 20-25 to finish pairing (which again is exactly like pairing edges in a 4x4x4 and a lot of people can do it even faster than that). Then 20-30 seconds for the 3x3x3 part, depending on whether you have parity or not. I can't wait to try it on a real cube! I bet my 6x6x6 average will pass up my 5x5x5 average!

I think pairing the two inner edges of a 6x6x6 first is much easier. Cause if you pair the two bottom edges, you have the following process:
1. Recognize the (example) green-orange outer edge is in your buffer
position.
2. Search for a green-orange inner-edge
3. Check, if it is the correct one of the two(!) green-orange inner-edges. If so, got to step 5.
4. Search for the second green-orange inner-edge
5. Start with the next pair.



Pairing the two inner edges first is easier cause there is only one other inner edge with the same color. So do 4x4->5x5, not 5x5->4x4

 

[Stefan]

Darn system has a total value limit and didn't let me buy my 3+2+2 cubes, had to settle for 2+2+2. I'm sad. Can I get some sympathy here?

 

[RobinBloehm]

yeah, we wanted to order 3 of each (Sébastien, Jens and me), but couldn't, of course. There is a limit of 225Euros, I think.

 

[andrewvo1324]

Darn system has a total value limit and didn't let me buy my 3+2+2 cubes, had to settle for 2+2+2. I'm sad. Can I get some sympathy here?

Why not buy a wii >.> get some excersise.(even though you look skinny)

haha. But your rich

 

[TimMc]

Why not buy a wii >.> get some excersise.(even though you look skinny)

haha. But your rich

heh, it'd be nice if they offer discounts for early customers later on in the year if they can afford it

Buy 2 of one kind and save 20% etc.... Lack of massive cardboard packaging would reduce the price too though ^^

Tim.

 

[Alex DiTuro]

Just wondering... How do you solve the last two centers on a 6x6x6? I've gotten the I've gotten the first 4 on hi-games, But can't finish the last 2. HELP!!!!

 

[TimMc]

Just wondering... How do you solve the last two centers on a 6x6x6? I've gotten the I've gotten the first 4 on hi-games, But can't finish the last 2. HELP!!!!

Make two 3x3's on each center face, and then extend both to 4x3. You should end up with two 4x1 lines which a scrambled. Just do some slice moves to swap them.

o.O

Tim.

 

[sam]

Last two centers = Commutators/other little tricks.

 

[masterofthebass]

the niklas commutator is the most common.

R U' L' U R' U' L U. Try it and see what it does

 

[Jason Baum]

Woot, my fiancé ordered me a V-Cube 5x5x5 and 7x7x7! So I only had to pay for the 6x6x6 and I'm getting all 3 cubes. I can't wait for them to get here!

 

[Hadley4000]

I could only afford 1, so got the 7x7x7. Do you think that they will make more 6x6x6s eventually? I will be devistated if I never get to get my hands on one.

 

[Kenny]

I wouldn't be too worried if I were you, they certainly will. (I only got the 7x7 myself. It's not only a question of money though, I also heard that the 6x6 is sort of crappy [some of my friends who tried it told me that].)

 

[shadowpartner]

ill wait for the price to dip