Blindsolving Discussion and Help

[aronpm]

I have heard about a technique for centers in 4x4x4: before remembering them you should check if you can do a slice so more centers will be on their positions. Does anybody use this trick? What should I do with edges on that slice? Should I remember them as they are already in new positions? Or there is an algo that fixes them back?

I have never heard of this 'technique' but I can tell you that it's most likely worse than not doing it. There is[/i] a technique that should always be used, where you rotate the cube's orientation to solve as many centres as possible. You don't have to do any extra algs to fix things and it can solve a lot of centres. It can be used on 6x6 without any issues too. It also can be used on 5x5 and 7x7 but you have less orientations to choose from because you need to be able to solve the middle centre pieces with something like M E M' E' or M E2 M' E2

 

[toastman]

Greetings,

I've recently swiched from Old-Pochmann to M2 for edges. What can I say, I should ahve done this months ago. So much faster. And I learnt good variants of the 3 M-Slice algs in a couple of days.

There's one case that gets me confused though. I'll see if I can explain:

My current understanding is: "If the M-Slice is flipped, and the next target is in the M-Slice, you execute the algorithm that's 'opposite' where the piece lives (i.e, if the UF piece is in the buffer, .. Do the BD algorithm instead)".

So far, so good yes?

But I get suck when:
- The M-slice is flipped
- The DF piece is in DF
- The UB piece is UB.

According to my understanding, the alg should be "M2".
This then puts the UB piece in the buffer... meaning that that alg is "M2".
And then I get stuck in an infinite loop!

What am I missing here? Is there some rule that I need to add like:
"If the DF piece is in the buffer, whether the M-slice is flipped or not, start a new cycle"?

Cheers.

 

[JasonK]

"If the DF piece is in the buffer, whether the M-slice is flipped or not, start a new cycle"?

Yeah that.

 

[Zane_C]

So far, so good yes?

Indeed.

And then I get stuck in an infinite loop!

This is because doing the move 'M2' when DF is solved just breaks into a new cycle by shooting to UB. If you do M2 when UB is already solved, you're not breaking into a new cycle (rather breaking into an old cycle ).

So if DF and UB are simultaneously solved, you need to shoot to a piece that isn't UB.

 

[toastman]

Indeed.

This is because doing the move 'M2' when DF is solved just breaks into a new cycle by shooting to UB. If you do M2 when UB is already solved, you're not breaking into a new cycle (rather breaking into an old cycle ).

So if DF and UB are simultaneously solved, you need to shoot to a piece that isn't UB.

Awesome! Thanks guys.

 

[Jakube]

Is reorienting the 5x5x5 a good thing?
Is there any time difference between reorienting or just normal gogogo?
I saw the results of Mats and Mike for this weeks comp. They took over a minute for reorienting at one solve. In this time I can easily memorize a few more pieces.

 

[Cubenovice]

I decided to hop onto the M2 train today

All is clear except one thing: what to do during a solve if my next target is UB or BU while my M-slice is off?
I cannot shoot to "the location M2 away from it" because the piece is already there???

 

[Jakube]

I decided to hop onto the M2 train today

All is clear except one thing: what to do during a solve if my next target is UB or BU while my M-slice is off?
I cannot shoot to "the location M2 away from it" because the piece is already there???

Exactly the same as if the slice isn't off.
UB: M2
BU: B' R B U R2 U' M2 U R2 U' B' R' B (or an other alg)

 

[Mike Hughey]

Is reorienting the 5x5x5 a good thing?
Is there any time difference between reorienting or just normal gogogo?
I saw the results of Mats and Mike for this weeks comp. They took over a minute for reorienting at one solve. In this time I can easily memorize a few more pieces.

I think it's safe to say that whenever we take a minute reorienting, we've totally messed up. There's never an excuse for taking that long (other than weakness on our part). Ideally, reorients should take no more than a few seconds; if they take longer than that, it was probably a bad idea.

Keep in mind, though, that you don't just save memorization time reorienting - you also save execution time. I'd guess a reorient that saves 4 pieces probably saves me 20 to 30 seconds - about half of that memorization time and about half of that execution time. If the reorient takes longer than it saves based on that metric, it was a bad idea. I've really been trying to cut down on my reorient time lately. Unfortunately, that solve was a bad example - it looked tempting several ways, but the actual counts didn't match up with the looks.

 

[Jakube]

Thanks, I may try it the next days.

 

[AbstractAlg]

I decided to hop onto the M2 train today

All is clear except one thing: what to do during a solve if my next target is UB or BU while my M-slice is off?
I cannot shoot to "the location M2 away from it" because the piece is already there???

In buffer is:
UF/FU/BD/DB pieces: if the M is not flipped do normal alg, if it's flipped do alg for opposite sticker.
DF/FD piece: break into a new cycle immediately
UB piece: no matter how's M slice do just M2
BU piece: no matter how's M slice do the alg for BU piece

(this is if the buffer is DF)
I hope I explained it well.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Thanks, I may try it the next days.

The big advantages for it are this:
1. If you get a really bad scramble, it makes it not so bad. In fact, the really bad ones often become the really good ones.
2. If you get a scramble where there are lots of centers solved reoriented, you can get a really spectacular result.

If you are not finished with the Blindfold Race this week (which closes later tonight) don't read the spoiler yet:

Spoiler

An example of a scramble like this is scramble 2 in the 5x5x5 Blindfold Race this week; there was an amazing reorient on that one. Unfortunately, I did a terrible job memorizing - taking too long and then also DNFing because I missed one piece while memorizing. That scramble is a classic case of this situation. 6 centers solved pre-orient; 17 centers solved after orient! It was such an obvious reorient that it really did only take me a few seconds to spot it - I'd guess 5 seconds at the most.

In any event, most scrambles are fairly average; they're rarely helped much by reorienting. Reorienting is mainly nice because it helps so much with the outlying cases.

 

[Czery]

Where can you get blindfolds?

 

[Mike Hughey]

Where can you get blindfolds?

I've found the quickest, most convenient place is pharmacies, placed with sleep aids.

 

[Cubenovice]

Exactly the same as if the slice isn't off.

UB piece: no matter how's M slice do just M2
BU piece: no matter how's M slice do the alg for BU piece

Thank you!
I'm all good now

 

[Carson]

So it is what you were looking for?

So, I'm a few days late replying to this... Yup, this was what I needed.

 

[jla]

What's the best method to start experimenting with 4BLD for a noob (I do know how to solve a 3x3 BLD and have succeeded multiple times)

 

[Zane_C]

What's the best method to start experimenting with 4BLD for a noob (I do know how to solve a 3x3 BLD and have succeeded multiple times)

Daniel's tutorial covers commutator centers, r2 wings and Old Pochmann corners.

Knowing commutators is a really useful skill. I don't think there's a problem with getting started with commutators for 4BLD centers. An alternative is U2 centers, I unfortunately don't have a link to a tutorial.

 

[JasonK]

Here's a U2 tutorial, but I agree with Zane - learning commutators straight off is extremely helpful.

 

[Cubenovice]

I have no succesfull 4BLD solve yet but I found commutator centers and r2 edges pretty easy to understand.
If you know your basic 8 move corner comms you can do all centers, you will need some set up moves though.

Apart from the yt videos by Daniel there is also a sticky thread by Mike Highey on how to solve centers via commutators.