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'

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

Sexy move: R U R' U'

• 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.

• 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:

~/.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, go to Resources tab. Timing data are stored in Local Storage → web site → variable sessions.

• 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)

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')

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.