Older cubers discussions

Macclesfield schedule is up. I'll be done by lunchtime on Sunday unless something goes very right in 3x3. I could always hang on for OH if I haven't got a PB by then (which is a distinct possibility).

Early start for FMC on the Saturday. Will see if I make it for that.

I might make a token entry in OH, even though I've only successfully solved it with one hand 20 times in my life and that's solely due to the Weekly Competition. I should still be able to beat the hard cut.
 
Thanks! Did you change tensions and lubed it as well?

Yup, I always tension cubes up to the point where they cut 45 degrees, but where they do not cut 46 degrees. I learned that from a tensioning video back in the Dayan Zhanchi days. Works well for all cubes. And for my GTS not to cut 46 degrees it is very very tight, but the GuoGuan is not tight and not loose.
 
Yup, I always tension cubes up to the point where they cut 45 degrees, but where they do not cut 46 degrees. I learned that from a tensioning video back in the Dayan Zhanchi days. Works well for all cubes. And for my GTS not to cut 46 degrees it is very very tight, but the GuoGuan is not tight and not loose.
Thanks a lot for the feedback. I will try that. What surprised me is how much of a difference it made half a turn of the screws for the Yuexiao compared to other cubes in terms of corner cutting.
 
I like this one. Will drill it some and see what the results are. Thanks for sharing :)
That's the Y perm I've used for 3+ years. Its great. Originally posted by jskyler91, I think. When I learned BLD I found that I liked the regular Y perm just as much, and considered switching. The main reason I didn't switch is because I didn't want to confuse muscle memory and end up doing the training F' during BLD OP. I do use the regular Y perm on bigger cubes where muscle memory isn't as strong.
 
The PLL videos you guys post here are really impressive! Hopefully I can get to similar tps with enough practice. I'm currently at 19/21 PLL algs learned, 2 G-perms missing. I tried doing a PLL attack with the 19 algs I know. After a few tries, and learning the order I wanted to execute them, I eventually got a 1:12. That's about 3.8 seconds per alg... :( Back to practice it is.

Do you all use the same alg in 4 different versions for the G-perms, or completely different algs for some cases? I learned R2 u R' U R' U' R u' R2 y' R' U R and the same backwards for Ga and Gb. I'm now considering if I should learn the inverses of those for Gc and Gd, with more risk of confusion between 4 very similar algs, or go for something completely different. I think D R2' U' R U' R U R' U R2 U D' R U' R' could also be pretty fast, for example.
 
Quote:"What surprised me is how much of a difference it made half a turn of the screws"
I've seen several different types of screw used in cubes:
Regular M3 metric 'for metal' thread
Regular 'Plastite' plastic-fixing screws - a coarse thread
Twin-start Plastite, much coarser thread, eg. 48-2, or HiLo type.
These all give significantly different axial movement for a given rotation. And there are brand-to-brand differences in the plastic-specific fasteners.
http://www.shakeproof.com/products/threaded/hi-lo.html
http://apexfasteners.com/fasteners/thread-forming-screws/thread-forming-for-plastic/plastite
 
The PLL videos you guys post here are really impressive! Hopefully I can get to similar tps with enough practice. I'm currently at 19/21 PLL algs learned, 2 G-perms missing. I tried doing a PLL attack with the 19 algs I know. After a few tries, and learning the order I wanted to execute them, I eventually got a 1:12. That's about 3.8 seconds per alg... :( Back to practice it is.

Do you all use the same alg in 4 different versions for the G-perms, or completely different algs for some cases? I learned R2 u R' U R' U' R u' R2 y' R' U R and the same backwards for Ga and Gb. I'm now considering if I should learn the inverses of those for Gc and Gd, with more risk of confusion between 4 very similar algs, or go for something completely different. I think D R2' U' R U' R U R' U R2 U D' R U' R' could also be pretty fast, for example.
I just learned the inverses and mirrors and, in fact, learned the 4 algs in one day. I don't think there's a risk of mixing them up but maybe there are better algs out there. I just learned those because at the time it felt convenient but now I'm stuck with them. Chris Olson has some alternative algs for some of the G-perms that you might want to check out in his "X-perm like a pro" series.

@SenorJuan, wow! You really know about nuts and bolts my friend. To be honest I have not checked out the internals as these new cores that the Yuxiao comes with, similar to the Gans "octopus" seem a bit scary :) But probably you're right and it's just that the "slope" of the screw is different. Bad thing is that properly adjusting the tensions and getting them even becomes much more difficult.
 
@mafergut, I've been somehow stuck with my official average of 20.16 for 15 months until last comp in which I bested it by 2 tenths, however I always felt like I was improving while practicing at home but I never was able to get a good long average (>25 solves) I always messed up somehow.

I've always shifted my interest to another event whenever I felt I was stuck at any other category and it has helped me in improving my all around ranks.

But this week something has happened, suddenly I have improved lookahead a lot. Monday I did my first sub 20 Mean of 100 (19.75) and yesterday my first sub 18 ao12 (17.90), all of a sudden I can sub 18 Ao5 at will.

I just don't understand how improving works, not at all :p

@muchacho, nice aveage! :)
 
I just learned the inverses and mirrors and, in fact, learned the 4 algs in one day. I don't think there's a risk of mixing them up but maybe there are better algs out there. I just learned those because at the time it felt convenient but now I'm stuck with them. Chris Olson has some alternative algs for some of the G-perms that you might want to check out in his "X-perm like a pro" series.
For the Gd perm, which he calls his favorite G perm, he uses the alg I'm considering. Except that I would maybe place the D' at the start instead of the end of the alg.

Had an amazing round in the Race to Sub-30. New Ao12 PB 25.43 and Ao5 PB 22.61. Now it's time to focus on the race to Sub-25. :) Once I complete that with ZZ, I might consider giving it a shot with CFOP as well. If I can learn to associate the CPEOLL algs I used earlier with the correct OLL case, I should already know about 20 OLL algs, including those with edges oriented.
 
But this week something has happened, suddenly I have improved lookahead a lot. Monday I did my first sub 20 Mean of 100 (19.75) and yesterday my first sub 18 ao12 (17.90), all of a sudden I can sub 18 Ao5 at will.

I just don't understand how improving works, not at all :p
Good stuff Raoul! Be sure to make a real jump in progress the next few months by practicing every day 3X3 :)
 
@moralsh Raúl, thanks for your encouragement. I certainly don't know how improvement works either but I still have the will to improve so not a chance I'm quitting cubing for now ;) Regarding shifting interest to another event that's what I keep doing and now I have many more that got me interested so no problem there either.

Congratulations on your newfound lookahead skills. Now go for a sub-19 or sub-18 Ao5 in comp, c'mon!

@JanW, I saw that a moment ago. Nice results!
 
I must say one more thing - a lot of people in a recent time asked me why I have a slow tps. These voices came from young and fast cubers like Czapiewski, Tokarski etc. I was so focused on lookahead that I forgot about it. So I decided to speed up my tps cause I think my muscle memory includes almost all of f2l cases. That was the reason I've started back CFOP - just to see if it works. I think all these practice sessions which include slow turning etc. are imporatant but one cant forget that this is called speedsolving. ;) I think it's a matter of balance between speed and slow. I've noticed that in my good solves like 15.xx or 16.xx I'm fast and my lookahead is good. In slower I lock up, lose lookahead, bad recognize olls and plls etc.
 
I must say one more thing - a lot of people in a recent time asked me why I have a slow tps. These voices came from young and fast cubers like Czapiewski, Tokarski etc. I was so focused on lookahead that I forgot about it. So I decided to speed up my tps cause I think my muscle memory includes almost all of f2l cases. That was the reason I've started back CFOP - just to see if it works. I think all these practice sessions which include slow turning etc. are imporatant but one cant forget that this is called speedsolving. ;) I think it's a matter of balance between speed and slow. I've noticed that in my good solves like 15.xx or 16.xx I'm fast and my lookahead is good. In slower I lock up, lose lookahead, bad recognize olls and plls etc.
Happens to me as well. When slow solving I don't usually get any better than 17-18 seconds. It's only by combining good lookahead and a speedier TPS when I can get down to 13-15. Of course that's only in lucky solves. Most of the time trying to rush too much only ends up in bad lookahead and worse times.

By the way, I made a "void" cube yesterday by removing the center stickers of a Yuxin 3x3 that I was not using anyway. It is a nice and speedsolvable void cube, much better than Rubik's one, even if it's not truly void ;) I had to learn an alg to deal with parity, though. Maybe I'll feature it in my planned unboxing video.

By the way #2, XMD Galaxy already available in some stores, including Lightake for those interested. I'm gonna wait until I receive the SS Aurora. If it is good enough I might pass on the Galaxy.
 
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Had an amazing round in the Race to Sub-30. New Ao12 PB 25.43 and Ao5 PB 22.61. Now it's time to focus on the race to Sub-25. :) Once I complete that with ZZ, I might consider giving it a shot with CFOP as well. If I can learn to associate the CPEOLL algs I used earlier with the correct OLL case, I should already know about 20 OLL algs, including those with edges oriented.

Well done Jan. They were mostly good scrambles this week for CFOP white cross I thought.
 
Well done Jan. They were mostly good scrambles this week for CFOP white cross I thought.
They were quite good for ZZ yellow top, blue front as well. At least two scrambles with only 2 bad edges, if I recall correctly. Though there was indeed some scrambles that made me wish I was doing CFOP instead. Some very easy white crosses there.
 
I just finished 3rd ao100 during last 3 days. First sub20: 19.90 including pb ao12: 18.31.
enerated By csTimer on 2016-7-6
solves/total: 100/100

single
best: 15.76
worst: 26.44

mean of 3
current: 20.54 (σ = 1.25)
best: 17.10 (σ = 0.19)

avg of 5
current: 19.15 (σ = 1.26)
best: 17.27 (σ = 0.19)

avg of 12
current: 19.95 (σ = 1.38)
best: 18.31 (σ = 1.24)

avg of 50
current: 19.89 (σ = 1.65)
best: 19.46 (σ = 1.74)

avg of 100
current: 19.90 (σ = 1.89)
best: 19.90 (σ = 1.89)

Average: 19.90 (σ = 1.89)
Mean: 20.00

14+: 2
16+: 21
18+: 31
20+: 27
22+: 13
24+: 4
26+: 2
 
Slow day at the office so as an experiment I just lined up 6 different 3x3's and did 20 solves each. Set new PBs for 5,12,50, and an AO100 of 19.52. Finally a sub-20 AO100!!!

YueXiao (stickered): 20.39
YueXiao (stickerless): 18.92
X-Man Tornado (stickerless): 19.30
Weilong GTS: 20.05
Gans 356: 19.12
Gans 356s V2 Master: 18.15

I haven't set up my GTS yet, so it's still a little too fast and unstable out of the box. I had 3 solves with the GTS where I botched last layer algs because it's just too uncontrollable.

My best average was with my new Gans 356s V2 Master (that's a mouthful). It too is straight out of the box, no set up. It's really nice.

I also lubed and tensioned my new Yuxin 4x4. It's really nice now, though I wouldn't say it's any better than a nicely set up and broken in AoSu or G4. It's the smoothest feeling, and quietest of the 3, so it would probably make for a nice car/travel 4x4. As for picking a main 4x4, I'm stuck in limbo just like 3x3...
 
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