Rubik's cube

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Links

Official

• World Cube Association

Guides & Wiki

• speedsolving.com wiki
• Quel cube choisir pour le speedcubing 3x3x3
• Rubik's cube : aller plus vite avec la méthode débutant

Tip Videos

• HOW TO DO FINGER TRICKS RUBIK'S CUBE FINGER SHORTCUTS How to do finger tricks for Beginners.

Some cool finger tricks. Don't leave your finger from the cube most of the time.

• Finger Trick Exercises And Tips

More nice exercices to do (RUR'U', L'U'LU, RUR'F...)

• What a speedcuber sees when he solves the Rubik's cube.
• Tutoriel : Améliorer la croix du 3x3 (méthode fridrich)

Overshoot move: U' R' F R, swap an edge on the cross: R' u R' u'

• Tutoriel : Résoudre les F2L intuitivement

See #Tutorial section below

• Rubik's cube : Méthode intermédiaire (fridrich simplifiée)

See #Tutorial section below

• Alternatives to cube rotation [F2L Tutorial

Video on how to move F2L to FR column.

• Cube rotation: y U' L' U L. Quite slow.
• Sledgehammer: F R' F' R (or see variants below).

  A bit faster, no cube rotation. Use it for inserting your last f2l pair for partial edge control of your OLL, or to avoid moving your next pair if you've spotted it using look ahead. Apparently the F' is done with the thumb, a bit before doing the R.

• Case Number 2: F' (r U r')
• Case Number 3: r' U' R U M' — What about B' R B R' ?
• Case Number 4: l U L' U' M' — What about B L' B' L ?

• NoahCubes Edge Control Part 1: When to Use Sledgehammer

When to use the sledgehammer (right-handed left variant): R' F R F' , or "RU" prime: U R U' R' (i.e. sexy move prime).

The goal is to end up with 4 well-oriented edges in the OLL.

• NoahCubes 10 Websites Every Cuber Should Know

http://cubesolv.es/ (reconstruction db for WR...), speedsolving.com forum and wiki, alg.cubing.net, wca, www.qqtimer.net

• F2L - The Jessica Fridrich Method - No algorithms needed.

Solutions

• Bob Burton's CubeWhiz

  Notations

Shops

• Lubix Cube (USA)

Sell the recommended lube lubix's lube, but oversee, so high shipping and custom cost.

The Lubix silicone is made of a polydimethylsiloxane polymer. Note this is the same lubricant that Rubik's sell in their Rubik's Speedcube Pro Pack.

• Cubikon (Germany) (google translated)
  • Does not sell lube in tube (only spray, reputed bad)
  • Sell Zhanchi Dayan V (10.95€)
• King's Cube (France)

Sell Maru lube (not recommended, see below), Calvin's lube high viscosity and Calvin's lube medium viscosity (seems very good).

Sell Zhanchi's cube, but not black ones.

• iCubik (Italy)
• Info
  • List of recommended and non-recommended lubricant
  • Maru lube not recommended. Dries out too quickly. ([1])

Tools

• Tools on Rubik's cube (algorithm mirror, rotation remover)
  • qcube v2 (cube simulator)

z = U            p = z       h / g = F / F'
r = Lw', l       q = z'      i / k = R / R'
t = x'           j = U       d / e = L / L'
y = x2           m = r'      j / f = U / U'
u = Rw, r        x = U'      s / l = D / D'
i = R            v = l       w / o = B / B'
                                           
space = scramble             a     = y'    
                             n / b = x / x'

• alg.cubing.net — Great & clear cube visualizer, view your moves, simplify & mirror them.

On GitHub. Installed locally at http://localhost/alg.cubing.net/index.html.

Apps

Android

Games

• Cube Rubik

A rubik's cube game. A bit though to manipulate.

Timers

• Rubik's Stopwatch

A simple speedcubing timer with scrambler algorithms support. Very nice design, all on one single page. Best out there.

• SpeedCube Timer Free (Rubiks)

A timer for speed cubing. Some ads and no much features.

• SpeedCube Timer

A timer for speed cubing. Scramble algorithm. No graph.

• Speedcuber Timer

A timer for speed cubing. Scrambe algorithm. No graph. Compare cube brands. Too many pages.

• Sune Timer

A timer for speed cubing. Scramble algorithm. Graph. Design not as good as Rubik's Stopwatch. Additional resources like algo, WCA regulations.

• plusTimer

A simple, elegant timer with WCA scrambles for recording Rubik's cube solves. Graph and history by session (best, best AO5), scramble image, double touch inspection.

Solvers, Algorithm database

• Rubik's Cube Fridrich Solver

Solver (manual input or via camera). List of solving algorithms.

• Rubik's Cube Algo Reminder

A big database of all possible sequence for each category (PLL, OLL, F2L...). Support for 'favorite' flag, adding new category and new algorithms.

• Badmephisto

Simply a big page with all solving algorithms, clear and well-designed. Must have.

PC

• TNoodle
Official WCA's scrambler, showing final cube state. Include a very nice timer application. Download TNoodle:

git clone https://github.com/cubing/tnoodle.git

./tmt graph --description                 # To get a list of available target

Timer

Timer application is only available up to v0.8.7.

git checkout v0.8.7
./tmt make dist timer
sudo cp -r timer/dist /usr/local/bin/tnoodle-timer
chromium-browser /usr/local/bin/tnoodle-timer/tnt.html           # To start the javascript timer

In old version, timer is available as a .jar file. For instance:

git checkout v0.7.14
vi tmt
# Comment line with
#                args += [ '-Werror' ]
./tmt make dist timer
java -jar timer/dist/TNoodleTimer.jar 
# Then visit http://127.0.0.1:8080/tnt/ or http://127.0.1.1:8080/tnt/ (or possibly port 2014)

• Data for the javascript tnoodle-timer is stored in chromium local storage:

On the disk

~/.config/chromium/Default/Local Storage
  __0.localstorage
  __0.localstorage-journal
  chrome-extension_pafkbggdmjlpgkdkcbjmhmfcdpncadgh_0.localstorage
  chrome-extension_pafkbggdmjlpgkdkcbjmhmfcdpncadgh_0.localstorage-journal

Or better, in chromium, open developer tools by pressing F12,then

• Export timing data — Go to Console tab, then type localStorage.sessions to get the content of the array, and save the results.
• Import timing data — Go tot Console tab, then type localStorage.sessions="XXX" where the XXX is replaced by the result saved previously, but with all double-quotes escaped. These can be escaped for instance with

sed 's/"/\\"/g" sessions.txt > sessions-escaped.txt

Sessions data is also available in the Ressources tab, but long values get truncated, and hence this is not suitable method for import / export.

• To install tnt in lighttpd (example on lacie-cloudbox):

vi /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

Add the lines

## Added for rubik's WCA official scrambler / timer
alias.url += ("/tnt" => "/opt/local/tnoodle-timer/tnt.html" )

Copy all files to /opt/local/tnoodle-timer/

Then open browser at http://lacie-cloudbox/tnt/ (Firefox or chromium works best it seems, Opera only works via file: access)

Other TNoodle apps

• BLD
• scrambler
• qqtimer (the most used timer it seems) (qqTimer on GitHub)

Notation

• Cube rotation x, same as R but whole cube
• Cube rotation y, same as U but whole cube
• Cube rotation z, same as F but whole cube

Sequences

We call a move a permutation on the cube that can be done in a single movement. This can be the rotation of a face by 90° or 180°, but also rotation of a middle layer, two layers, or the whole cube. Each move has a dedicated letter, with a prime indicating the reverse movement.

A sequence is a small serie of moves that is frequently used to build up more complete algorithms. Typically these sequences are done very rapidly. Fast algorithms are those that link several sequences with an easy transition (no re-gripping, cube rotation, etc).

The inverse of a sequence is the sequence that cancel the effect of that sequence. We use prime to denote that sequence.

A mirror sequence if the L-R symmetric sequence (i.e. F changes to F', R changes to L', etc)

Sledgehammer

• Right: F R' F' R (prime: R' F R F')
• Left: F' L F L' (prime: L F' L' F)

Note: If we do this sequence with the right-hand (after cube rotation y'), we get y' R' F R F, which is the same as Right prime.

Overshoot

• U' R' F R

Sexy move

• Direct: R U R' U' (prime: U R U' R')

Tutorials

F2L

Source: Tutoriel : Résoudre les F2L intuitivement

The principle is to always fall back in one of the 4 basic cases. A basic case is one that requires only '3 moves to solve:

• Basic1R: R U' R' and basic1L: L' U L (mirror)

Pair next to each other, horizontal and left (right) of target slot.

• Basic2R: R U R' and basic2L: L' U' L (mirror)

Corner above target slot, edge on UB. Corner white sticker facing right (left), front sticker same as edge up sticker.

Always put the corner above the slot, and solve from the right side first, then switch to left if necessary.

Notes:

• In algorithm below, whitespaces indicate that we reached a basic case.
• We can always replace U2 R U' R' with U sledgeR'.

There are 3 F2L families.

White sticker UP

• edge on 2L:

• Case 1: R U2' R' y U2 (L' U L), or my variant: R U2' R' U' sledge
• Case 2: sexy sexy sexy.

• edge on LL, not touching: bring edge to its color, raise slot, bring corner close to edge, turn back slot.

• Case 1: U R U2' R' sledge'
• Case 2: U2' y L' U' L sledgeL'

• edge on LL, touching:

• Case 1: corner/edge opposite color, move corner, turn face, move corner to opposite side, turn back face, and we get a basic case, R U2' R' U' (R U R').
• Case 2: corner/edge same color, disconnect edge/corner while keeping corner white up, then solve that known case, e.g. U' R U' R' / U' y L' U' L (L F' L' F) (or U' L' U L instead of sledge), or mirror U L' U L / U y' R U R' (R' F R F')

White sticker FRONT

• Edge on 2LL:

• Case 1, edge correct: Goal is to get a /1R/ using BR corner, U' R U' R' U2 R U' R'.
• Case 2, edge wrong: Goal is to get a /2L/ using BR corner, U' R U R' U y L' U' L.

• Edge on LL, non-adjacent

• Case 1, same U color, edge BU: Goal is to get a /1R/ using BR corner, U' R U R' U2 R U' R'

Idem for edge LU: U' R U2 R U2 R U' R'

• Case 2, different U color, edge BU: Because U color are different, goal is to get a /2L/ case here using BR corner: y U L' U' L U' L' U' L (or U' R U' R' U y L' U' L).

For edge LU, this time we directly have a /2L/: y L' U' L

• Edge on LL, adjacent on RU

• Case 1, different U color, so we want to get a /2L/, using BR corner: U' R U2 R' U y L' U' L.
• Case 2, same U color, we have directly a basic case /1R/, U R U' R'.

• Edge on LL, adjacent on FU

• Case 1, different U color, we use FL corner to get a /2L/: y U L' U L U' L' U' L
• Case 2, same U color, we also use FL corner, but to get a /2R/ : y L' U L U2' y' R U R'

White sticker RIGHT

Fridrich simplified

Source: Rubik's cube : Méthode intermédiaire (fridrich simplifiée)

4 steps:

• Cross
• F2L
• 2-look OLL
• 2-look PLL

For F2L, see tutorial above.

For 2-look OLL, first do the cross:

• Line shape: F sexy F' (F' with the thumb)
• L shape: f sexy f' (f' with the thumb)
• no shape: do 1st then 2nd algorithm

Then we do one of the 7 OLL "cross" algorithms. The cases are denoted by the position of yellow sticker for each corner, starting from FL, the FR, BR and BL corner. So UFRB means the yellow sticker facing upward for the left-front corner, facing front for the right-front corner, facing right for the right-back corner, and facing back for the left-back corner.

• UFRB: R U R' U R U2 R'
• FRUL: R U2 R' U' R U' R' (inverse of UFRB)
• FFUU: R2 D R' U2 R D' R' U2 R' (D and D' ideally by pulling then pushing with left-hand finger)
• LRUU: x' R U R' D R U' R' D' (idem) (x' R → l, so l U R' D R U' R' D') (or variant UFBR: l' U' L U R U' r' F)
• URUB: x' R U' R' D R U R' D' (idem) (x' R → l, so l U' R' D R U R' D')
• FFBB: F sexy sexy sexy F'
• LFBL: R U2 R2' U' R2 U' R2 U2 R

For 2-look PLL, like for the 2-OLL, we first do the cross, then the corners. For the cross, turn the U face until 1 edge is good, and place it at F slot, and look how the other edges must be permuted.

• All edges are ok: congratulations ;-)
• clockwise: R' U R' U' R' U' R' U R U R2'
• anti-clockwise: R2 U' R' U' R U R U R U' R
• 2 edge ok: do either of algorithm above, and retry.

Then look at the corners. If one corner is good, turn the cube such that it is at FL slot, and look how the other corners must be permuted

• 1 good corner (FL), clockwise: x R' U R' D2 R U' R' D2 R2 or l' U R' D2 R U' R' D2 R2 (using x R' → l')
• 1 good corner (FL), anti-clockwise: x R2' D2 R U R' D2 R U' R l' R' D2 R U R' D2 R U' R
• no good corner: do either of algorithm above, then you will have a good corner

Algorithms

PLL - swap 2 edges

• R U R' U R U2 R' U

Solution

We use notations from https://github.com/chrishunt/rubiks-cube:

• R, means turn Right face clockwise
• R' or r, means turn Right face counter-clockwise
• R2, means turn Right face twice.