CsTimer is undoubtedly the most popular cube timer in the community. Its popularity is largely due to its simplicity, yet an abundance of features. However, some of these features go unnoticed. This article will show you some of the best, most useful csTimer features that not many people know about.
The Basics
If you’ve never used csTimer before, here are some things you need to know: From the second you open the website, it’s ready to use. The first thing you’re gonna want to do is create a new session and name it.
You can either name it what puzzle you are practicing and do all your solves in that session, or make a new session for every Ao50, or group of solves you do in that session. Keep in mind that while creating different sessions is optional, it’s the best way to organize your times from various puzzles. When you are ready to solve, you can choose the scramble type from the selections just above the scramble. After doing your first solve, you will see statistics showing up like your current and best times, Ao5, Ao12, Ao25, and Ao50. You can click the times to get information about those solves.
All your solves save locally to your device and you can manually export and import them from the csTimer server, or a .txt file if you would like.
Themes
The first, and easiest thing to do is customize the theme of csTimer. To do this, navigate to Option (top left) ← Color.
There are already a bunch of custom themes that you can try out, my personal favorite is Style 2. If you don’t like any of the presets, try playing around with the custom colors and seeing what you like. If you scroll up just a little, you will see the input for a background image which you can set to whatever image you like.
Tools
These are just 4 of the 15 tools available to help with your solving
Tools in csTimer are one of the most helpful features. They allow you to view statistics, change your times quickly, generate scrambles, and much more. There should already be a tool in the bottom right of the screen by default, but if there isn’t, go to Option ← Tools ← number of tools, and add 1 – 2 tools. You change the function of the tool by clicking the dropdown menu that says “function xxxx.” The most useful tool for casual solving is the confirm time tool, which lets you copy scrambles, DNF and +2 times, and add comments to your solves all from one small widget. Here’s a quick overview of some of the other interesting and useful tools:
Cross-session stats:
- View your times across different time spans, puzzles, and sessions with this tool. Can be useful if you organize your solves into different sessions based on day.
Time trend:
- View a detailed graph of your times for that session. The red line is Ao5 and the blue line is Ao12.
Draw scramble:
- This tool provides a 2D image of the scramble every time a new scramble is generated so you never solve on a misscramble. The feature has support for every WCA puzzle.
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Solvers:
- Find optimal solutions for things like cross, x-cross, EOLine, Roux S1, and Pyraminx V
Stackmat
You can also connect a stackmat timer to csTimer if you have a 2.5mm to 3.5mm cable, and a USB audio device. These are both relatively cheap and can be found for under $10. Using a stackmat is beneficial because it helps simulate a competition environment and also reduces the time you have to take typing in times manually which lets you do more solves in less time.
If you have problems setting it up, check out this video for help. If you don’t want to connect a stackmat, then you can also use manual time entry by going to Option ← Timer ← entering times with, and selecting typing.
csTimer+
Even though it sounds like a paid feature, csTimer+ is a free “enhanced” version of the original csTimer that is a chrome extension you can download. It has new features like more themes, refreshed design, and even inspection voices from people like Tingman and Speedcubereview. If you love csTimer and want even more, consider downloading it.
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