Puzzled 2: Bandage Cube Kit—Unbandaged Flying Carpets & budlcuber 02

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Bandage Cube Kit—Unbandaged Flying Carpets & budlcuber 02

Today I solved the Unbandaged Flying Carpets, by Burgo. It was fun. He had posted—a long time ago—on the twistypuzzles.com forum. The interesting thing is that he posted pictures of the scrambled state, not solved. So part of the challenge was making your way to a place without knowing where you were going. I struggled to get the middle layer, but finally achieved it by trying to organize the 2x1 yellows somewhat. Then when I looked at the yellows all I needed to do was twist 3 corners to have a pattern that pleased me. I got "iii" on one side, and "iö" on the other side.

After solving Unbandaged Flying Carpets I felt like making my own bandaged cube, scrambling it, and posting it online. budlcuber 01 was very simple to solve. Well, when approached correctly it was. So I decided to make it a teeny bit more complex. Now I can't solve it! Here it is in scrambled state:

budlcuber 01 was the same puzzle minus the 3x1x1 block.

budlcuber 02 is almost solved, but even if I can figure out how to flip the last edge, I won't be able to tell you how I got to this point.

Here is what it looks like now. Perhaps it is time to just swap the tiles and start slowly and carefully analyzing it.

July 16, 2014
I tried last night but got nowhere and it was soon a mess again. I had just about decided to detile it and start over where I left off with the ones on Burgo's list on the forum. Another possibility was to break the 3x1x1 into a 2x1x1 and a 1x1x1, but I didn't really want to do that. The problem with this puzzle was that it seemed that the best I could do was have two layers that could twist. Sometimes only one. And even when I could twist two layers I couldn't get any familiar algorithms to work. I was so close to giving up, but decided to fiddle with it one more time today. This time instead of worrying about what I couldn't do, I just looked for things I could do, and wrote them down and recorded the affects. (I'm using Ri for R anti clockwise, because I don't like the way the F' looks.)

With Green on front and Red up, the first thing I tried was—
R RURi FiLiF RURi FiLF Ri
I wasn't overly impressed with the results so went back to solved. Next I tried—

R FiLF2 RiDR y
Surprise! Now L, M, and R can all move! Follow with
LiMiRi
and now L, M, R, and U can all move! So altogether we have—

R FiLF2 RiDR yxR2 from the solved state puts the

3x1x1 at the bottom in R;
The white 2x1 on the bottom at the back of the M slice;
The orange 2x1 on the front at the bottom of the M slice;
The 2x2x1on the bottom back in L.

And what can I do now?

The Sune Family! The cube, or at least the bottom layers need to be spun around for some. Example—(DE)2 Ri or y2 sets it up for a right-handed Sune.
LiUi LU and y2Ri RU RiUi.

Shortly after this I started experimenting with a solved 3x3x3 cube so I could better see where pieces were moving.

(Right-hand Sune) (DE)2 L (Left-hand Sune) Li (DE)2 RU RiU moves UF > UB > UR and twists corners 2, 7, and 8 clockwise.
With the 3x1x1 in R do R2 U2 R U2 R2 to cycle FR > UR > BR > UL.

So now I am somewhat hopeful that with this knowledge I can maybe make some progress toward solving budlcuber 02. (Later) Almost there. The one corner isn't in the correct place. Maybe tomorrow. Good night.

July 17, 2014
Solved! But getting the last corner was a matter of trying the algorithms above in different combinations until something worked. Not real confident about it. I need a corner twister that doesn't move edges.

Breakthrough on another front. Mi U2 M Ri F2 R does a 5 cycle of corners and a 3 cycle of edges. After doing it for awhile I realized it could be shortened to these:

(U2 Li U2 L) x 3 cycles 1>2>4>8>7 A Pure Corner Cycle!
(U2 Li U2 L) x 5 cycles UL > UR > FL A Pure Edge Cycle!

To get back from the working state to solved state—

R2x'y' RiDiR F2LiF Ri

As far as the corner twister goes, Once all the edges are solved, get the corner to 1, twist it using Li Ui L U times 2 or 4, if necessary. Then move it into place using the pure 5 cycle. Then Use Li Ui L U times whatever until the edges are solved.

I think I've got everything I need to solve this little bugger. Ain't so impossible after all.

The finished product—

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Rubik's Cube Books

I got my first Rubik's Cube in the early nineteen eighties. The only way I could solve it was to take it apart and put it back together solved. Until, that is, I got some little books that explained sequences of moves that could be used to put pieces where you want them without messing up what was already in place.

The Simple Solution To Rubik's Cube
by James G. Nourse
Notes on Rubik's Magic Cube
by David Singmaster
Solve That Crazy, Mixed-up Cube Puzzle
by Don Frederick.

I think I put together my own strategy using bits and pieces gleaned from all three books. Eventually I lost interest and forgot how to complete the cube, forgot I had those books, and lost track of the cubes.

Mark Jeays' Working Corner Method

http://jeays.net/rubiks.htm

In 2007 my interest in Rubik's Cube was rekindled when I watched the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. Marae found my 1980s cube for me and I tried to solve it. Huh-uh. I could do part of it, but not the last layer. Looking online I found various tutorials. Mark Jeays included YouTube videos with his Solution 2. This method worked for me and although I no longer use it in its entirety, nor could I, as I have forgotten the yellow edges sequences, I still find the basic working corner technique helpful, and use a slightly modified version of his corner twisting technique at times.

In the summer of 2014 we packed 30 or so puzzles and flew to visit Raymond and Fam in the Czech Republic. Breann, who had learned this method and no other, made some comment about bubururu or something like that, and it piqued my curiosity. What were those algorithms, and how similar are they to the EPS technique I use now when using a working corner? So I looked them up. Actually, the three algorithms were for dealing with the two last edges solved, which either needed to be swapped, or flipped, or swapped and flipped. The swapper is very similar to the one I have learned and used since, but I actually like it better in one sense, with a slight modification.

To swap UR and FR without flipping:

U' R U' R' U' R U' R' U'

To swap and flip UR and FR:

F' U' F U' F' U' F U2

To flip UR and FR:

F' U F U' R U' R' U

Will I actually learn and use these? Probably not. But I like them. :)

There is a slightly different implementation of the Working Corner Method. Arnaud van Galen calls it the Keyhole Method. I like his demonstration better than the one I originally learned. It just dawned on me why he is able to get away with doing it the way he does. He goes ahead and finishes the F2L before going to the last layer, unlike the way Jeays uses the working corner (keyhole) to also get the last layer. Since I no longer use the working corner to get the last layer, I should implement Arnaud's technique.

Jasmine's Scalable Method

http://peter.stillhq.com/jasmine/rubikscubesolution.html

This was the next method I learned. For awhile the idea of speed cubing appealed to me. This promised to be a good beginner's method for those that wanted to go on to faster method's later. Now that I know what I know, I wouldn't recommend this method if your goal is to be able to consistently solve the cube in less than 30 seconds. Rubik's Speedsolver Champion Leyan Lo presents a beginner's method that I like the looks of although I've never learned it. I have recently watched Arnaud van Galen's complete beginner's method video series and recommend them. Gilles Roux presents a beginners' method that is very close to one of my favorite ways of solving the cube. The simplicity and comprehensibility make this method a good place to start if you want to understand the Rubik's Cube. Also, if you are interested in speedcubing you should check out this YouTube video.

After trying for months to get under a minute with both Jasmine's Method and the Corner's First Method—and failing, I finally decided to quit trying and just enjoy cubing at a nice slow pace.

Don't get me wrong. Jasmine's Method has its merits. The sequences for orienting the last layer edges and corners, and permuting the last layer edges are still in my arsenal of useful algorithms.

Adam Cheyer's Corners First Method

Philip Marshall's Ultimate Solution

http://helm.lu/cube/MarshallPhilipp/
After learning to solve the cube corners first, what is next? An Edges First Method! This was a very difficult tutorial to follow, but once I got it, it was my favorite way to solve the cube for awhile. It uses only a few algorithms, and when you are finished solving the cube you feel like you've solved the puzzle, not just used memorized sequences to unscramble it.

Gilles Roux presents a beginners' method that could be used to solve the cube edges first. The simplicity and comprehensibility make this method a good place to start if you want to understand the Rubik's Cube. His technique is much easier to follow than Marshall's.