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Older cubers discussions

mark49152 said:
How do you find BLD on a magnetic cube?
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I'm not a BLD master... Working on learning M2 still.

But in my practice of shooting OP corner targets, and M2....

I love two things about them.

1. The physical feedback. I am reassured that I am getting my turns right, by the feedback. Just like in sighted solving, but it is more important in BLD in my mind... because you don't have sight.

2. The fact that the cube is "aligned" more often, stops "strange" cuts from happening, while this shouldn't be an issue... time to time, I get sloppy, and I do get a strange cut, magnets reduce the chance.

3. The cube is more stable. Just a good thing :).

Cons:

1. M2. M slices are a bit rougher.
 
Even though the magnets in my GTS are too strong it has definitely improved for 3BLD. There's no overshooting as you know where you are. But, you get a similar effect, just in a different way, from the clicks in the Thunderclap.
You could get a good set of MBLD cubes very cheaply by magnetising a load of Guanlongs as they would definitely benefit or, you could save time and buy Thunderclaps. It depends how valuable your time is and whether you enjoy the process.
I'm sure the right magnetic cube is our there for me, I just haven't made it yet.
 
Nice time @Shaky Hands. Your 6x6 times seem proportionally much better than your smaller cube times, are you focusing on the bigger cubes?

I finally found time to do some averages and am surprised that I'm not that much slower after almost a month off. Around 1:08 on 4x4, 2:20 on 5x5, 1:16 on 3BLD. If I wasn't so addicted I might take breaks more often :)
 
mark49152 said:
Nice time @Shaky Hands. Your 6x6 times seem proportionally much better than your smaller cube times, are you focusing on the bigger cubes?
Click to expand...

I don't really practice regular 3x3 much anymore although I still enjoy solving it when I do. I did a lot of 7x7 in January, so that has probably helped with 6x6. I feel I have more scope for improvement with big cubes too.
 
Congratulations on the great OH solve, Mike. I'm always aware it could happen to me any solve, having had a number of 12,13 second 'first 2 layers' , it just hasn't yet. My cube is getting past retirement, hopefully a new one might just make the difference.
I did set a 'one-fist-pump' PB on Mirror-blocks over the weekend. An easy first 2 layers, and a skipped step on the last-layer, resulting in an 8-move LL, produced a 43 sec solve. This is my first sub-50.
All this talk of magnets makes me think that if there's a puzzle that needs magnets, it's Mirror-blocks. Just holding the flippin thing usually results in two faces turning.
Whaddaya think, Magnet Mark?
 
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SenorJuan said:
All this talk of magnets makes me think that if there's a puzzle that needs magnets, it's Mirror-blocks. Just holding the flippin thing usually results in two faces turning.
Whaddaya think, Magnet Mark?
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I did consider it very briefly yesterday. I don't know if it would be possible due to the different ways the pieces line up against each other. Then there's the problem of trying to squeeze magnets into the thinner pieces and I haven't even looked at how the pieces come apart. I'll have another look at it as you are interested but I think its unlikely to work.
My Fisher cube turns far too quickly so I considered that too but the pieces align in too many ways.
I ended up doing a stickerless Guanlong. The magnets I used were too weak but I did get the process down to under 40 mins which is a PB!
 
teacher77 said:
On the positive side : new PB today, Ao10 = 26.01 sec, down from 26.17 sec.
25, here I come !
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Hey guys I said the above only a few days ago. Guess what ? I didn't do 25. I just did a 24.73s Ao10 !

It feels amazing ! Look at those times :
23.17
26.99
26.58
26.23
23.77
25.86
23.88
23.81
20.28
26.72

Usually, I would get one or two 30+ that would screw up my average. And I would tend to see 27, 28 or even 29 as "ok". But look : each and every solve in this sequence is bellow 27 !

Another positive thing is that I didn't get this Ao10 PB because I got a PB single. Nothing is close to my 18.11 PB single. There's this 20.28 but replace it by a 23.00 and I still would have had a 25.00 s average.

Now the sad note : all this isn't worth much if I end up adding 10 more stress-induced seconds in a comp.
 
pglewis said:
Some people do well with adrenaline, note @megagoune's comment about competition boosting his focus. My first comp back in Sept: DNF, DNF, 2:20.78, 1:21.74, 1:10.82 :D. I was comfortably under :40 going into my 2nd comp but still landed 44/48 for single/avg. Still well off my at-home times but much better than the first go-round.

Mentally do a "postmortem"; take inventory of the things that adversely affected you. Do you need to be more comfortable solving in front of someone watching? Do you need to get accustomed to noise and distractions while solving? Are you in your zone at 4PM but your heat was at 9 or 10AM? Take what you can learn from the experience and then let it go, from a performance standpoint. I personally don't think you did poorly at all; not only do you have official times in the books, you're officially faster than me. Now to see if I can catch you at my next one ;).
Click to expand...

Good point. I definitly don't handle the pressure of an experienced public very well. I should practice in front of cubers, not just in front of people who would find it impressive to see anyone "finish" a cube.

I would say that I am in my zone around midnight. That's the time I acheived each and every one of my PBs (including tonight's 24.73 Ao10). I'm always very slow in the morning and that's when the comp took place. At on top that I had the stupid idea to drink a huge coffee just before and that makes for very shaky hands.

Distraction are not a problem if they take the form of noise. However, some guy BUMPED into me while I was solving and I kind of expected the rep to cancel the solve but he didn't say ****. Other "distractions" included the impossibility to lean against the table (the timer was about an inch from the side of the time. I leave around a foot at home), the instability of the tables (they shook like crazy).

But you're right : I see this as a start point.
 
teacher77 said:
There's this 20.28 but replace it by a 23.00 and I still would have had a 25.00 s average.
Click to expand...
Averages in cubing exclude the best 5% and worst 5% of results to eliminate the extremes of luck. So replacing the 20.28 with another best time would not affect the average :). Perhaps it's not technically correct to call that an average, but if you're comparing results to the community, that's what they do. By convention averages are usually quoted for 5, 12, 50 or 100 solves. What you're calculating is known as a mean.

Congrats on the nice progress :)

In other news, I used my backup mains for my recent 4x4 and 5x5 averages and I didn't realise how stiff and blocky they were until I switched back to my mains. The mains feel beautifully smooth and fast by comparison... but my times are loads worse. Anybody else noticed such a phenomenon?
 
All this talk of magnets .... The other magnets I ordered finally arrived yesterday. So I now have 4x2mm N35's and 3x2mm N35's. The new Valk I ordered hasn't arrived so I'm considering rather just using my current Valk. Also seeing as I have the smaller magnets as well I'm seriously considering putting them into my Yuxin Blue. I love the speed of it, just wish it was a little more stable.

I just started a new cube mode yesterday, so not sure when I'll find the time to play with the magnets. Then again it's a quick mod so will hopefully have that done in the next couple days.
 
Smiles said:
Holy crap guys thanks for watching and sharing my videos!
This means so much to me cause i just started not long ago and I'm so happy it's actually helpful.

I haven't been to this forum before but I feel a sense of community and kindness here.
Click to expand...
You've made some great videos. Keep up the good work!

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 
JohnnyReggae said:
Been working on a new mod over the last 2 weeks. Though it's not a hard mod, finding time amongst life is not always easy. Anyway I present the 5x5 Burr/Wall Cube :)

I have a couple white Shengshou cubes lying in a draw and after making my 4x4 Burr cube I wanted to make a 5x5 version so figured the white Shengshou would be a good candidate. The Shengshou's are also the only white cubes I have which don't fit with the rest of my black collection so a mod is a great idea for them.

I followed a different process when it came to painting the cube as I did with my 4x4 Burr, and as a result the 5x5 turns amazingly. I also took my time a little more with the glueing and individual piece prep so overall it is a better quality than my 4x4 Burr. I don't know how to solve it yet, but I would hazard a guess that it can't be to much more difficult than the 4x4 Burr which I really enjoy as a solve.

I must say that I quite like my custom shades on the white cube, they go quite well.

View attachment 7461 View attachment 7462

Slightly "scrambled" :)

View attachment 7463

4x4 Burr and 5x5 Burr

View attachment 7464 View attachment 7465
Click to expand...
Now that I've solved this puzzle a few times now I can say that it is .... awesome !! :)

In truth I think it's easier than the 4x4 Burr as you don't have any parity issues to deal with, and there are less algs to know. There is more to think about and move around but by using simple cubiod corner swaps and edge swaps you can solve most of the pieces.

I would recommend both the 4x4 Burr and 5x5 Burr to anyone who wants some more challenge. I'd also recommend that you make your own as well as it is quite an easy mod. Some super glue, a little putty to fill in the gaps where the pieces are joined, some sand paper and spray paint. :-)
 
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