Rubik links

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Links and applications for the famous Rubik's cube.

Links

Official

Shops

Europe
Ordered in 2020: GAN 356 X V2, GAN 356 XS, Valk Elite M, Moyu WRM 2020, GAN standard lube...
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.
US
! High shipping cost and custom taxes.
Ordered many cubes, including GAN 356 i.
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.

Guides & Wiki

Buy guides, solutions, (new) how to improve...
Tip Videos
Some cool finger tricks. Don't leave your finger from the cube most of the time.
More nice exercices to do (RUR'U', L'U'LU, RUR'F...)
Overshoot move: U' R' F R, swap an edge on the cross: R' u R' u'
See #Tutorial section below
See #Tutorial section below
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 ?
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.
http://cubesolv.es/ (reconstruction db for WR...), speedsolving.com forum and wiki, alg.cubing.net, wca, www.qqtimer.net
Insert a connected pair in wrong slot to get out a corner with white sticker to prepare next slot.
  • Break algorithms into triggers (R U R' U', R' F R F', R U2 R', R U R', R U' R', ...)
  • Track F2L pairs in algorithms.
  • Cases of 2 algorithms put into one.
  • Look for repeating patterns in algorithms.
  • Learn more algorithms.

Blind-folded

  • Good memory NOT needed
  • Conjugates make small changes (A B A', with A called the setup move, and A' the undo setup). Setup move must not destroy the buffer or the adjacent corners/edges that are swapped along.
  • All pieces are solved from the buffer
  • Target is where the buffer needs to go (where we need to shoot).

Solutions

Tools

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.

Trainers

Timer, PLL and OLL trainer
Complete set of tutorials, trainers... (see this intro video for features).

Tutorials

Look-Ahead

cubefreak.net — A Guide to F2L Look Ahead

Note: The visualcube links are broken, but can be fixed using Privoxy filters.

Excellent introduction to advanced lookahead techniques, explaining the principle of edge parity (good/bad edge).

Video Tutorials

Victor Colin

3x3 - Exemples de résolutions avancés en Fridrich

3x3 - Exemples de résolutions avancés en Fridrich (partie 6)

Miscellaneous

F2L case 03 — R2 U' R' U R2' (require BR free)

Android Apps

Games
A rubik's cube game. A bit though to manipulate.
Timers
A simple speedcubing timer with scrambler algorithms support. Very nice design, all on one single page. Best out there.
A timer for speed cubing. Some ads and no much features.
A timer for speed cubing. Scramble algorithm. No graph.
A timer for speed cubing. Scrambe algorithm. No graph. Compare cube brands. Too many pages.
A timer for speed cubing. Scramble algorithm. Graph. Design not as good as Rubik's Stopwatch. Additional resources like algo, WCA regulations.

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
Solver (manual input or via camera). List of solving algorithms.
The best I tried. Can fav individual algo. Can create new with very convenient interface. Nice neat list. PLL recognition trainer (similar to Advance Cube)
Crash on my phone. No ad.
A big database of all possible sequence for each category (PLL, OLL, F2L...). Support for 'favorite' flag, adding new category and new algorithms... But cannot add easily new algo, tricky interface.
Simply a big page with all solving algorithms, clear and well-designed. Must have.
Very neat app, showing for each case a long list of algo, that we can fav... but we cannot create our own :-( which is very annoying when one is missing
Long list of methods and algorithms, we can add new algorithm, but again, when we fav, we instead fav a pattern and not a specific algorithm for that pattern. I don't get it.
Nice app, but paying features. Can add new algo, but not really favorite them in a nice neat list.
A nice looking and simple app, but only one algo per case.
List of algo, but cannot add new. ad.


Trainers
To train PLL recognition from 2 sides only!
Another great looking PLL recognition trainer. Note it says incompatible, but installed fine with the APK.

PC Apps

Timer — Prisma Puzzle Timer

By far the BEST timer application!

  • Local java application
  • Time database saved in a single file, which can be exported/imported in text format.
  • Including (partial) scramble view, graphs, tips with optimal cross algo...

Links:

Timer — TNoodle

Official WCA's scrambler, showing final cube state. Include a very nice timer application. Only drawback is that times are saved in the browser local storage.

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

qqtimer is one of the most used online timer it seems (qqTimer on GitHub).

There is no scramble visualisation it seems (prob. to avoid cheat), but one could use one of the simulator to check.

Timer — CCT (CALCubeTimer)

In java, from here (discontinued, use Prisma Puzzle Timer instead). Show scramble view, optimal cross solve algo...

Virtual Cube - alg.cubing.net

alg.cubing.net (github) is a Multi-purpose puzzle viewer – the new generation of alg/reconstruction viewing and sharing. 

git clone --recursive https://github.com/cubing/alg.cubing.net.git
cd alg.cubing.net
vi .htaccess                     # Comment out SSLCipherSuite!

To use over HTTP link: 

git co 8d2d34b
# Not necessary to update twisty.js module

VisualCube

VisualCube is a php application written by Conrad Rider that generate Rubik's Cube 3D images on-the-fly from a given setup algorithm.

My default settings (visualcube_config.php) 

-        'fmt'   => 'svg',
+        'fmt'   => 'png',     # png for better transparency
         'pzl'   => '3',
-        'size'  => '128',
+        'size'  => '100',
         'view'  => '',
         'stage' => '',
-        'r'     => 'y45x-34',
+        'r'     => 'y30x-30',
         'alg'   => '',
         'case'  => '',
         'fd'    => '',
         'fc'    => '',
         'sch'   => 'yrbwog',
-        'bg'    => 'white',
+        'bg'    => 't',

Also, create a file .htaccess: 

# Require "AllowOverride Indexes" in apache config for this site
DirectoryIndex visualcube.php

Example of use:

https://miki.immie.org/visualcube/visualcube.php?fmt=png&bg=t&stage=f2l&alg=RUR'U'
https://miki.immie.org/v/?fmt=png&bg=t&stage=f2l&alg=R'FRF' (shorter notation)
https://miki.immie.org/v/?fmt=svg&size=200&view=plan&case=R2U%27R%27U%27RURURU%27R&arw=U1U3,U3U5,U5U1 (PLL example)

More Apps

More apps can be found at [4].

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