New Square-1 Method Idea

[watermelon]

Hey Everyone,

I was playing around with my Square-1 today, and I had an idea for a very different method.

1) Solve D (no algorithms)
A. Solve 1/2 of D
B. Combine the other D pieces on U
C. Combine the 2 halves to solve D

2) Solve U
A. Use 1 of 10 algorithms to put U into a square
B. Use 1 of 42 algorithms to permute U

If anyone has any ideas/questions/comments for this method, please let me know!

The algorithms for Step 2 could be generated with Jaap's Square-1 Solver.

I think this method has some great potential, but I would really like some feedback!

Thanks!

 

[chiperten]

It took me a few minutes at first to get the D layer. It was a lot of fun though. Seems like a cool approach to a new method. Hopefully those algs won't be too difficult to learn and remember.

 

[blade740]

Seems like it would be pretty easy once you got used to it. It's like f2l on the 3x3x3. I'll try it.

 

[watermelon]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. If enough people are interested, I'll start generating the algs ASAP.

 

[chiperten]

Please start... and post some as you go. Id like to see some of them.

 

[watermelon]

Hey everyone,

I made a Microsoft Word (.doc) document with all the algorithms you will need for part 2A of my method. Any comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome!

When you execute them, make sure the middle layer cut is on the LEFT.

Thanks!

 

[chiperten]

Awesome... for permutation I just use :

/3,0/-3,-3/0,3

That swaps the BR and BL corners and the UB and UR edges along with the bottom layer. When you turn the top layer 30 degrees and repeat it creates a 3 edge cycle.

 

[watermelon]

That's a nice alg!
I'll still make a PLL sheet for the more advanced solvers!
It will have 42 in total (21 regular PLLs, and 21 with parities).

Has anyone discovered any cool tricks for the 1st step?

 

[chiperten]

Ive actually been having a hard time with that. It takes me a few minutes. I connect corner and edge then another corner and edge and connect both. Put them aside and work on making two other corner edge pairs until I complete one side. It's a pain though.

 

[watermelon]

After experimenting with my method for a while, I discovered a slightly different, and much easier way to do step 1. Just make 4 corner/edge pairs anywhere on Square-1 that belong to the same layer, then combine all of them on D. This gives you much more freedom when building the pairs, resulting in an easier solve.

Hope this helps!

 

[mmwfung]

The algs for the 21 normal PLLs (without parity) you can find at: http://www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles/square1.htm
Then look at: Method 5 ==> Phase 4.

Btw, there are 22 PLLs with parity instead of 21. Actually there are also 22 PLLs without partiy if you consider the solved case also as a PLL.

How did you find the algs for 2A? Can Jaap's Square-1 Solver 'ignores stickers' then?

Michael Fung

 

[watermelon]

Jaap's Square-1 solver cannot ignore stickers. If you perform the inverse of a 2A algorithm on a solved Square-1, you'll see that very few pieces change permutation. That is how I entered these cases, so I'm not sure if these algorithms are 100% optimal (perhaps other permutations with each shape could have a shorter solution). However, most of the algorithms are easy and short, so I don't think that will be an issue.

 

[mmwfung]

For real speedcubers this kind of things is an issue, especially if there exists algs that contains less twists. The only problem is that for every shape you must search for (I think) 44 cases to be sure you have an optimal alg .
Btw, if an square-1 alg contains a move a,b where |a|+|b|>6, there is a good chance that you can simplify this alg sothat it contains no moves anymore with |a|+|b|>6. (If this is not possible then it is always possible that the alg contains only one move with |a|+|b|>6.) This process of simplifying can be done best by hand.

Just an example (the first alg in your file):
2,0/2,2/0,1/4,4/-1,-2/3,3/0,1/3,3/-1,0
==> 2,0/2,2/0,1/-2,-2/-2,-1/3,3/1,0/-3,-3/-1,0

Michael Fung

 

[watermelon]

Thanks for the info Michael!

 

[adragast]

Hello ! What is the status on this ? Is this method heavily used now ? Have you switched to another method ? Where can we find this doc file ?

 

[masterofthebass]

I know that Mitchell uses the "standard" method that Lars explains well on his site. I also know that he hasn't done any heavily square-1ing so that's another thing. I would suggest learning the algorithms from Lars' site, but you have to find how to get it into a cube elsewhere. Lars has somehow managed to learn all the cases by intuition...