pokeycat9

why would they bother to do that. I mean it is just lot of work on their part to do all the admin.

I'm a little new. I created a gadget series about 10 weeks ago. One gadget in particular has almost 60 bugs! And what is more confusing is that this gadget cache is the furthest out and hardest to get to (but not really difficult). What is the reasoning that makes this cache have so many bugs? https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC7CGNT_agent-009-gadget-trail-wordsmith?guid=4d475deb-f7e0-40cd-bcdc-14e2fa673469

Here is link to the series descriptions. https://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?tx=32bc9333-5e52-4957-b0f6-5a2c8fc7b257&u=pokeycat9

All the fancy cutouts are from a laser. The photos are work in progress not showing things like large lcd screens, etc. The smart cache has audio, individual pixel leds (60 leds), rfid, touch capacitance, and some unique ways of skinning an old cat. For example, we put a new spin on the classic game Simon Says. You battle the Drone in hand to hand combat. We tell you what kind of attack the drone is doing and you have to push a touch sensitive pad complete with sound effects. Then we added a ultrasonic distance sensor for blocking the attacks where you have to position your hand either 6 inches, 12 inches or 20 inches away from the sensor. Smart caches really come down to a few types of input sensors and an even few type of output devices (lcd, audio, vibration, servos, lights). This picture shows some of the components in the command module. SD card read, amplifier, esp32 processor, power distribution. The first smart cache has 150 audio files in it. It has 6 levels of play and is designed to take 45 minutes. I create my own collectibles as a souvenir for solving our series. The first nine are numbered and get posted on the description. The gadget cache series has the instructions / hints posted on the outside of each cache. I learned that people don't read the on-line instructions, so I posted them on the cache. If users get frustrated, they start hacking at the gadget and cause maintenance issues. Check out the other videos on the channel. They don't have any lead in stories. When researching ideas, google "escape rooms". You can find many good ideas, especially with microprocessors.

Here is one panel of the smart cache series in progress. It uses the new esp32 chip. I also attached some wiring documentation. If you are technical, smart caches are very rewarding. The series is very much like a mobile "escape room".

We released Agent 009 Gadget trail and based on percentage of favorites, it seems to be well liked. We did videos on each one. We also created a "find sheet". We started working on a smart cache series. Up to six thousand lines of code and a lot of fun fabricating. Just finished up the comic strip that will be on the inside of the door.

I did a search and came up empty. I tried pasting in the <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YHcs1J7C8mg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> into the description (showing html) and the editor strips it out. So am I to assume embedding youtube vids is not possible?

great story.

OK, I just had another private message from another experienced premium cacher who also didn't read the on-line description or the hint. I even changed the hint to make it easily solved. I would imagine that if you got stuck the first thing you do is go to the online hint. I was dead wrong. So the solution will be to engrave a 6" x 9" plaque with the online description and graphics on it. It will also say if you get stuck to go on-line for the hint. So since the description will be on the outside of the cache there is now no reason to not raise the difficultly. Glad I am releasing these over a period of time so I don't have to go back to all the caches.

Wow. Tons of great experience and advice here. The next release will be "PMO" and have d2.5 mystery. GC7CGK9

Yeah, I have wrestled with this. Since starting caching in my area I have learned what I like and don't like. Specifically, most of the caches in this area (forest preserve ) are hidden in thick thorn bushes loaded with mosquitoes. We (my high school kids and myself) hated it. The other option was lamp post finds, which got very old after the second find. In short, about 80% of the caches we went to look for were a bad experience. I haven't found a gadget cache around here. Even the 1.5d / 1.5t around here don't get much activity honestly. Maybe 3 logs a year, perhaps 6 if its a lamp post. I looked at other high quality gadget cache trails around the country and they 20+ a year. So my concern was getting more activity, not less. In this particular forest preserve (my house is right against it) there is a really nice professionally run campground. Often, boy scouts are out and about doing cleaning. This Agent009 gadget series is perfect for them. Definitely something I would want my kids hunting for. ---------------- Now, if the gadgets get jimmied so they create a maintenance issue, then I will turn on "premium" checkbox keeping the rif raf out, no question about that. But again, if the jimmy damage is caused by the cache being too difficult, I will just increase the content in the Hints. But people need to see the hints to solve the problem. Time will tell. Thus the staged release of the other 4 caches. This first gadget hide is a test case for this area's human behavior.

Thanks for all the comments. I now fully understand the difference between basic, premium and advanced. I am deeply concerned about this cache getting damaged as people try to jimmy their way in if they don't get the hint. Heck, the first finder got in somehow without going through the normal way. I'd rather give more hints than people potentially damaging the gadget. And in order to get finders more info, they have to be able to see the hints (1.5d in mobile). > I left the difficulty at 1.5 but in the description I stated the time to solve to be around 30m (I tested this with my kids and they gave the front puzzle a 4 out of 10 difficultly). > I also added some more info in the hints. > I deleted some attributes so the puzzle attribute didn't get pushed to the "more" button on mobile use. Since I have 4 more caches to post, I will try a higher difficult on some and observe the logs.

I am releasing a series of 5 gadget caches. The first one was released and we kept the difficultly at 1.5 so non premium members can play. The FTF gave a great feedback including raising the D to 2.5 and making it a mystery cache. We have modified the Description to say this should take up to 30 min and probably be a 2.5d but we want everyone to see it. Question: Is it ok to leave the D at 1.5 so all can play? GC7CFHK here is the video