Older cubers discussions

Finally a Sub 1 OH solve: 53.83. (ZZ) Working on Y neutral, and need to complete learning PLL. But you know... End the night on a high note. :) 45s you are next.

Cube used: Valk 3. Loving that cube OH. So smooth and predictable.
 
Hardware at the moment:

3x3:
Thunderclap V1: main, strongly considering a 2nd as a backup

2x AoLong V2, one stickerless, one half-bright: I still enjoy solves on both a lot but they feel so heavy after the Thunderclap now, almost like they're made of stone.

Gans Air: I want to love it but for the distracting small catches still

Zhanchi: my first, trusty and serviceable. Still a good exercise to see how lazy my turning has become with the more modern cubes.

2x2:
WeiPo (and a couple cheap YuPos), planning to pick up a DaYan and a YueHun 'cause, hey, more cubes. 3x3 is my main focus but I found 2x2 incredibly addictive from the moment I got the first cheap one to try.

4x4:
Don't have one but that's next. AoSu most likely.
 
pglewis said:
4x4:
Don't have one but that's next. AoSu most likely.
Click to expand...

Some other folks here recommended the Cyclone Boys G4 a while back. I have an Aosu, and it's undeniably a good cube, but if you ignore the price the G4 is, in my opinion, a slightly better cube. And the cherry on top is that it's about $8 cheaper, if I recall correctly. Stability is comparable between the two, but I could never get the inner layers on my Aosu anywhere near the speed of the outer layers, whereas the G4 both are quite fast. Especially after breaking in the Aosu also has a lot of flex, which can lead to catches. The G4 apparently tends to catch early and break in nicely. (I got mine lightly used, and never had a problem with it.) The G4 is a very loud cube, if that's an issue.
 
mark49152 said:
I finally got round to trying this on obliques and it works for me. Maybe we're talking about different algs. Assuming buffer is Ubr, my alg for Dbl is

l B2 d2 B2 l' U2 l B2 d2 B2 l'

If the l slice is inner, the d slice should be outer, and vice versa, depending which oblique group. My notation is probably wrong.

It's not a fast alg but I still have to resort to it in 4BLD sometimes when I mess up the chance to set up to something better.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mark. I was using the other version of the alg {l B d2 B' l'} U2 {l B d2 B' l'} and it could not work. Your version works fine. I will adapt it to my solves if I got targets on U and D layer.

Shaky Hands said:
Thanks for this. My success rate on 3BLD is pretty low but I still found this fascinating and look forward to seeing how you progress. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thank you. The words like this motivate me to keep doing it.
 
pglewis said:
The one's I have jotted down start with a z rotation, I like the sequence for some weird reason (E is another):

z U R' D R2 U' R U D' R' D R2 U' R D'
z U' R D' R2 U R' D U' R D' R2 U R' D
Click to expand...
Those are the ones I use. I really like <R,U,D> algs. When I discovered how nicely the Rowe E perm could flow if you get the finger tricks right, I did some research and switched most of my PLLS and some of my OLLs to <R,U,D>. I can post them if you're interested.

h2f said:
Thanks Mark. I was using the other version of the alg {l B d2 B' l'} U2 {l B d2 B' l'} and it could not work.
Click to expand...
I can't get that to work even on 4x4. The setup disturbs the wings on the U layer. Are you sure it's correct?

Anyway, now that I setup to comms for any U and D target that's adjacent to a side face target, it's quite rare that I have to use this alg. I did learn two comms for solving adjacent U and D face targets. One solves Ufl, the other solves Ubl, diagonal and adjacent pieces to my buffer, so they can easily be set up to solve any U/D pair. The problem is, those cases always make me pause horribly in solves and resort to the individual piece algs! :)
 
pglewis said:
The one's I have jotted down start with a z rotation, I like the sequence for some weird reason (E is another):

z U R' D R2 U' R U D' R' D R2 U' R D'
z U' R D' R2 U R' D U' R D' R2 U R' D
Click to expand...
I'm not a fan of N perms and have tried a few different algs, but eventually have settled on some. The ones I use are the extended J-Perm algs ... They are longer than most but have a bunch of triggers which are quick to execute ... Start with a trigger, into a J-Perm, end with a slightly different sequence at the end

(R U R' U) (R U R' F') (R U R' U') (R' F) (R2 U' R' U2) (R U' R')

and for the Nb I use the lefty mirror ...

(L' U' L U') (L' U' L F) (L' U' L U) (L F') (L2 U L U2) (L'U L)
 
mark49152 said:
I can't get that to work even on 4x4. The setup disturbs the wings on the U layer. Are you sure it's correct?

Anyway, now that I setup to comms for any U and D target that's adjacent to a side face target, it's quite rare that I have to use this alg. I did learn two comms for solving adjacent U and D face targets. One solves Ufl, the other solves Ubl, diagonal and adjacent pieces to my buffer, so they can easily be set up to solve any U/D pair. The problem is, those cases always make me pause horribly in solves and resort to the individual piece algs! :)
Click to expand...

Maybe you did wide moves instead of sinlge layer. In standard notation: 2L B 2D2 B' 2L' U2 2L B 2D2 B' 2L'

What comms you use for U/D? ;)
 
@cmhardw Wow! It's a pleasure to have you here, in our oldie thread, Chris. You don't know me but I have read lots of interesting stuff by you in the forum and your big BLD achievements are well known. Hope you'll feel comfortable here and looking forward to having interesting discussions with you.
 
@h2f - watched the 6x6 attempt video right through Grzegorz, really interesting. I look forward to see you progress. As for stickerless shades for the Valk 3 I personally think they are excellent. They seem exactly the same as the X-Man Design Tornado which you probably do not have in stickerless either to compare to!

@pglewis - The RUD N perms are very popular. I know when Breadan Vallance did a video of all sub 1 second PLLs a few years ago it was the RUDs he used for the N's. I do not favour D much and whilst I use it for A's, E and one G I much prefer RUF centric algs. Also another vote for the Cyclone Boys G4 here though I am not sure if it is available in stickered. All my cubes are stickerless now

--------

Today I decided to do a 2x2 - 7x7 relay or two. I had not done one before and felt that times probably meant on film it would be a length which would be uploadable to YouTube! Second attempt I got a sub 14 minute on film here:-


The splits are approximately:-
3x3 - 16s
2x2 - 8s
4x4 - 1m 08s
5x5 - 2m 14s
6x6 - 4m 03s
7x7 - 6m 10s

I did get extremely lucky with parities but I will be practicing trying to get down to 13 1/2 minutes soon :)

I get pops on the Yuxin 6x6 every solve. It is the most frustrating cube I own and I just cannot wait for the new Moyu 6x6 to be released. You will see a pop on the 6x6 solve. I got a major internal mechanism pop scrambling the next attempt. Spent 15 minutes battling with trying to put it back together with major outbreaks of what can only be described as early onset tourettes. At the point I was disgusted with it it went in a cube bag in my drawer and I suspect will never be solved again. I will use teh Moyu Aofu 6x6 stickerless until I get the new Moyu. Not a huge fan of the pink instead of red but it has to be better than a popping Yuxin. Naughty, naughty cube :D
 
Selkie said:
My Valk 3 seems to have slowed right up and I keep locking up on it which is frustrating. Tomorrow I will take it apart and lube it properly which I have not done yet so for now I am back on the X-Man Tornado and the above session was with that.
Click to expand...
Yeah, my Valk has slowed down also a bit. I cleaned it (and what a drama is it to put back together because of flipping center caps). I stick with the FangYuan for now which seems to become better with the day :)

mafergut said:
By the way, I have to say thank you again, as I think you have spotted my weakest point in 3x3 solving. I have decided to forget about everything else for some weeks and just focus on 3x3 again and, in particular in cross planning and cross-to-f2l transition.
Click to expand...
I have analysed my solves and cross plus 1 takes me 3.5 secs on average. And complete F2l around 10 - 11. So my weakest point is definatly last layer :) LL is hard for me to improve. Drilling algs does not work for me, because in real solves I will mess up because I will mix up triggers..

mark49152 said:
Those are the ones I use. I really like <R,U,D> algs. When I discovered how nicely the Rowe E perm could flow if you get the finger tricks right, I did some research and switched most of my PLLS and some of my OLLs to <R,U,D>. I can post them if you're interested.
Click to expand...
I also use the
Na the z U R' D R2 U' R D' U R' D R2 U' R D' z'
but for
Nb I use R' U L' U2 R U' M' B r' U2 R U' L. It is not found on the Wiki or algdb. But it is so nice...
 
Selkie said:
Naughty, naughty cube :D
Click to expand...
I had the same problems with both the Yuxin and AoShi. Lockups with dislocated centres, with more severe cases escalating to pops. With both cubes it got a lot better with just an eighth of a turn tightening from stock tensions, but ultimately I concluded that these bigger cubes need a different technique that is both more accurate and gentler, so that my hands feel a lock coming before it even happens.

I had pretty much the same experience on 5x5 when I first got into that, and these days rarely have a problem with it.
 
mark49152 said:
I had the same problems with both the Yuxin and AoShi. Lockups with dislocated centres, with more severe cases escalating to pops. With both cubes it got a lot better with just an eighth of a turn tightening from stock tensions, but ultimately I concluded that these bigger cubes need a different technique that is both more accurate and gentler, so that my hands feel a lock coming before it even happens.

I had pretty much the same experience on 5x5 when I first got into that, and these days rarely have a problem with it.
Click to expand...

I think it is as a result of increased TPS coupled with my lazy turning style. At Exeter I was globally about 4:50 on 6x6 and now about 4:10. That extra TPS is related directly to extra pops it seems. I pop the Moyu a lot less frequently and I think I know why. When the Moyu is about to lock it offers a lot more resistance to the turn and at speed I can feel I dont have it aligned and compensate. The Yuxin offers little resistance when its not aligned, I keep turning and oops!
 
h2f said:
I can buy only stickerless version of Valk3. Are the shades good at it or shall
IMG_20160926_125515.jpg
wait for sticker version when it's available?
Click to expand...
I don't have any issues with them. Here's a couple of pics to compare with a Yuxin 5x5 and a Thunderclap if that helps.
IMG_20160926_125533.jpg
 
Oh man... the cube gods are really messing with me..

1. 11.11 U' B2 L2 D B2 L2 U L2 R2 D R2 B' R D U' L D2 R2 B R' D
2. 22.84 L2 R2 D2 F2 U B2 U' L2 B2 R2 U' F' R2 F L R2 F' D2 B F' U'
3. 13.49 F D2 F2 D2 B2 U R2 U' B2 D' F2 L D2 U R2 B D2 F R'
4. 22.84 U2 R2 F' L2 D2 B' D2 B' U2 L2 F' U' R U2 F L' F' D2 L
Arggg!
 
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