Rubik links

Rubik's pages on this wiki
Rubik's cube Rubik links Rubik guides Rubik Cross Rubik F2L Rubik OLL Rubik PLL

Links and applications for the famous Rubik's cube.

Links

Official

• World Cube Association

Shops

Europe

• mastercubestore.com

A shop based in Sweden. Ordered in 2023: Gan 356i V3, GAN lube.

• speedcube.nl

Ordered in 2020: GAN 356 X V2, GAN 356 XS, Valk Elite M, Moyu WRM 2020, GAN standard lube...

• A list of shops on Reddit
• Cubikon (Germany) (google translated)
  • No longer shipping outside Germany
  • 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])

US

! High shipping cost and custom taxes.

• Speedcubeshop

Ordered many cubes, including GAN 356 i.

• 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.

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.

• Rubik's solver (quite slow)

Given a random position, find a twenty-ish scramble to produce that position.

Learn

• new algdb.net - DB of good algorithms
• new CubeSkills - Learn site from Feliks Zemdegs, twice world champion...

Trainers

• Timiks

Timer, PLL and OLL trainer

• JPerm Trainers, tutorials

Complete set of tutorials, trainers... (see this intro video for features).

• Rubik's cross trainer

Get scramble of increasing difficulty.

• new bestsiteever.ru

Train particular PLL / OLL to improve recognition and muscle memory!!!

Timers (online)

• CsTimer - Professional Rubik's Cube Speedsolving/Training

• BEST TIMER OVERAL but online only.
• Recommended for practice drills, using the R-U 2-gen scrambler or L-U 2-gen scrambler.

Android Apps

Games

• Cube Rubik

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

Timers

• (BEST one-fit all app?) Twisty Timer

A free, nice, simple app with almost all feature you wish for. Timer with random scrambler for many official puzzle. Has dictionary of OLL / PLL algo (can edit algos as simple text list). Has optimal cross solver for any face. Has timer categories. Config can be exported.

• 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.

• (best of all) 3D Fridrich CFOP

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)

• (excellent reviews but crash) RubikAlgs

Crash on my phone. No ad.

• 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... But cannot add easily new algo, tricky interface.

• Badmephisto

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

• (very good... almost perfect) Fridrich CFOP

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

• (very good... but not perfect either) Cube Algorithms

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.

• (good but not perfect) Rubik's Cube OLL/PLL Trainer

Nice app, but paying features. Can add new algo, but not really favorite them in a nice neat list.

• (nice look but only 1 alg / case) Speedcubers desk reference

A nice looking and simple app, but only one algo per case.

• (bad) Cube Algorithm's and more

List of algo, but cannot add new. ad.

Trainers

• Advance Cube | PLL Recognition and Timer

To train PLL recognition from 2 sides only!

• RG 3D PLL

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 PC 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...
• ... not as powerful as CsTimer though of course.

Links:

• Prisma Puzzle Timer on GitHub (old download link)
• Forum post on SpeedCubing.com
• [ttps://www.speedsolving.com/forum/threads/prisma-puzzle-timer.25790/page-55#post-1231630 Convert DB to CSV]

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 (on this wiki, 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 (on this wiki, VisualCube demo page, github, ) 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',  // Reverted - iso view clearer
         '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

❗	visualcube always assume yellow is up. To submit a scramble algorithm with alg, prefix and suffix the scramble with x2, alg=x2...x2.

Example of use:

<img src="https://miki.immie.org/v/?fmt=png&bg=t&stage=f2l&alg=RUR'U'">	<img src="https://miki.immie.org/v/?fmt=png&bg=t&stage=f2l&alg=RUR'U'"> (shorter notation)
<img src="https://miki.immie.org/visualcube/visualcube.php?fmt=png&bg=t&stage=f2l&alg=RUR'U'">	<img src="https://miki.immie.org/visualcube/visualcube.php?fmt=png&bg=t&stage=f2l&alg=RUR'U'">
<img src="https://miki.immie.org/v/?fmt=png&bg=t&stage=f2l_3&alg=RUR'U'">	<img src="https://miki.immie.org/v/?fmt=png&bg=t&stage=f2l_3&alg=RUR'U'"> (show 1 pll only)
<img src="https://miki.immie.org/v/?fmt=png&bg=t&alg=RUR%27U%27&r=%27y45x-34%27&fd=oooouooooooorrrrrroooffffffdddddddddooollllllooobbbbbb">	<img src="https://miki.immie.org/v/?fmt=png&bg=t&alg=RUR%27U%27&r=%27y45x-34%27&fd=oooouooooooorrrrrroooffffffdddddddddooollllllooobbbbbb"> (Custom F2L stage styling)
<img src="https://miki.immie.org/v/?fmt=svg&size=200&view=plan&case=R2U%27R%27U%27RURURU%27R&arw=U1U3-s7,U3U5-s7,U5U1-s7">	<img src="https://miki.immie.org/v/?fmt=svg&size=200&view=plan&case=R2U%27R%27U%27RURURU%27R&arw=U1U3-s7,U3U5-s7,U5U1-s7"> (PLL example)

More Apps

More apps can be found at [2].