What is the name of this method? (something with the E slice/equator)

[oneofthosedudes]

a friend of mine (amateur cuber) told me about a method that his friend uses. he said it is really fast. i would like to learn it or at least hear more, but he didnt know much..

what i know:

-first you solve the middle layer/E slice/equator.
-after that i think you bring the edges and corners to their correct sides, or just control them while you solve the middle layer.
-then orient/permute and thats it.
-but i always get a parity on orientation or permutation
-he also said that there were only a few algorithms.

i searched all over and i still have no idea what it is.

 

[4Chan]

Sounds like something i saw on youtube that they called the "ring method"
In which they did just what you described. They also showed how to solve parity as well.

I just youtube searched for "Ring Method"
and this was the first result:

 

[Daniel Wu]

Belt method I think. I read it somewhere but I don't remember...

 

[oneofthosedudes]

Cubes=Life is right, its definitely the ring method, but i cant find anything on youtube about it except that video of the person solving with it.

 

[Carson]

This seems very interesting to me... I have been searching youtube and googling like crazy, but can't seem to find anything on it.

I am experimenting with it right now. I don't know a lot of algorithms, so I am kind of trying to apply what I DO know to make it work. What I have figured out so far:
* Creating the "belt" is very easy and intuitive.
* I am using U' R U' R' U2 R U' R to trade corner between the U and D layers
* To trade edges between the U and D layers, I am rotating the cube so that the "belt" is in the vertical position and then using the T perm.
* Once you have all pieces in their respective layers, you have the potential to run into OLL's that are not possible when only the top layer remains unsolved. I assume this is the parity issue that was mentioned above? (If anyone can give me an algo for fixing this parity, please let me know)

I'm sure this is not the best approach to this method, but I am having some fun messing around with it.

 

[deco122392]

For oll problems involving impossabilitys with the edges I use m' u m. Play around with that with the belt on e. As for oll problems involving corners just think co for blindfolded cubeing

 

[4Chan]

I've tried this.

Its very similar to square-1 to place corners and edges after orientation, which can be done with a simple OLL.
Then i can solve both sides with an PLL

 

[deepSubDiver]

This seems very interesting to me... I have been searching youtube and googling like crazy, but can't seem to find anything on it.

I am experimenting with it right now. I don't know a lot of algorithms, so I am kind of trying to apply what I DO know to make it work. What I have figured out so far:
* Creating the "belt" is very easy and intuitive.
* I am using U' R U' R' U2 R U' R to trade corner between the U and D layers
* To trade edges between the U and D layers, I am rotating the cube so that the "belt" is in the vertical position and then using the T perm.
* Once you have all pieces in their respective layers, you have the potential to run into OLL's that are not possible when only the top layer remains unsolved. I assume this is the parity issue that was mentioned above? (If anyone can give me an algo for fixing this parity, please let me know)

I'm sure this is not the best approach to this method, but I am having some fun messing around with it.

At least this approach works, until you have a parity. You can apply a corner-twist. Hold the belt horizontally and one incorrect corner on the top at the URF position. To flip one piece, apply one of these sequences:

counterclockwise twist: U2 R L U R' U R U2 R' L' U' L U' L'
clockwise twist: L U L' U L R U2 R' U' R U' L' R' (mirrored)
This automatically fixes the parity on the bottom face.

Then, you can still run into a permutation parity. But those are usually easy to fix, for instance M2 U2 M2 U-Perm. Since you can run into parities, I don't think this approach is efficient, but it makes fun playing around with

\Edit:
For the corner swapping algorithm you use, it is easier to hold the belt on the M slice and just swap 4 pieces at once using U2. It saves a lot of moves, and in case of a messed up ring, it can be fixed by (R2 U2)x3

\Edit:
For fixing an edge, you hold it at the UF sticker and apply R' L D2 R2 L2 F R' L D' F2.
There was only one of a few cases for me where I had to fix both, edges and corners. So, one more parity

 

[trying-to-speedcube...]

I have experimented a bit with this, and I have found the best approach seems to be inserting edges and corners in their correct orientation into the D-layer. Then OLL/PLL on U and then PLL on D.

Algs I use:
U M' U' M
M' U2 M
M' U M U' M' U2 M
(R U R' U')*3
U' R U' R' U2 R U' R'
R U' R' U2 R U' R'
R U' R' U' R U R' U2 R U' R'
R U' R' U R U2 R' U R U' R'

And OLL and PLL of course.

However, I think it's better to do a square-1 like approach; CP and EP of both layers. And the corner insertion algs can be much shorter, as they don't have to preserve permutation.

EDIT: 27.26 avg5

 

[miniGOINGS]

I've heard it called the Doughnut Method before.

 

[oneofthosedudes]

thank you, everybody, for the info

without you guys i wouldnt even know what the method is called.

now i know its more complicated than it looked at first, but i'll definitely look into it more.

 

[hillary]

It could also be the ryan heise method or human thistlethwaite algorithm (I don't exactly know what the difference is). It is mostly intuitive or uses very short algorithms, I don't know if it involves doing a proper ring but you seperate the colours first and rearrange them later so you solve top and bottom at the same time. Ryan Heise also explains how to avoid parity by fixing bad edges right in the beginning.
There are a few people on youtube who made tutorials about it. The original method is a bit difficult to understand because it is all text-based, but the solves look really cool.
I think there is also a discussion in expert village about a more advanced approach.