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TwistedCube

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Posts posted by TwistedCube

  1. I'm taking a trip to the Denver-Boulder metro area since I had an airplane travel voucher that was about to expire, and since I'll only be in the area for 2-3 days, time is limited. I'm seeking caches with high favorite points for creativity and overall uniqueness, (gadget caches, etc). Recommendations are much appreciated! 

  2. On 12/14/2018 at 3:00 PM, TwistedCube said:

    What are your caching goals for next year???

     

    Mine:

     

    ~ Get to 1000 finds

     

    ~ Hide at least a cache a month

     

    ~ Cache in at least one new state

     

    ~ Find a kayak cache

     

    ~ Make new memories

     

    --------------------------------------------

    Depending on the type of cacher you are (numbers, quality, hider, finder, etc.) yours will look different than mine. I seek favorites and strive for hiding the very best I can hide.

     

    Get to 1000 finds - SUCCESS! (Current find count now 1,055)

     

    Hide at least a cache a month - Unfortunately, I have not been able to hide a cache a month this year. 

     

    Cache in at least one new state - SUCCESS! I have cached in SIX new states so far this year!

     

    Find a kayak cache - The weather is far more bearable here in Southeast Texas compared to the dreadfully hot and humid summers, so finding a T5 kayak cache is definitely a possibility in the coming weeks.  

     

    Make new memories - (Still in progress) 

     

     

  3. 19 hours ago, niraD said:

    If you have them bring their own coins, then you'll need to design the mechanism to accommodate various size coins, or tell them specifically what kind of coin to use.

    I’ll state in the description that they must bring a quarter, since it is the most common large American coin.

  4. 22 hours ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

    Are you thinking of a contraption where the cacher has to use their own actual coins?

    If they don't fall out the bottom, then you might run afoul of the guidelines.

     

    Sounds like fun, tho. Hope you make something work.

     

    Yes, I was going to have them bring their own coins. However, the coins will fall out the bottom for the cacher to retrieve. 

  5. I am wanting to create a gadget cache in which the cacher drops a coin down a Plinko type game to access the log. If they get through the right slot, the bottom will drop. I am trying to accomplish this without the need for any coding, so I thought that possibly the coin could complete a circuit by touching the two correct nails to activate a solenoid lock. In your opinion, do you think that this will work? If not, what would be another method for making this contraption possible?

  6. I am planning on creating a multi cache in which the theme revolves around a 9 Volt battery. At each stage, the cacher must use the battery in some form or fashion to get the coordinates for the final. The final will be a small box containing a motor which lowers the cache. 

     

    I am having a bit of trouble coming up with the other few stages. What are some other unique and interesting ways I can use a 9 Volt battery to power a motor or some other apparatus? Coding is not something I am particularly proficient in. 

  7. 10 hours ago, Michaelcycle said:

    If you are going to Portland, why not take the time to go to the location of the first cache?

    GCGV0P

    and the very nearby Oct 2000 cache

    GC92

    The Seattle area has HQ and an APE cache, of course.

     

     

     

     

     

    What’s neat is that I am actually staying outside of Portland in a suburb, which happens to be much closer to the Original Stash. About a 30 minute drive i’d say. So I’ll probably be able to grab that one and possibly the ones around it.

    • Upvote 1
  8. I am going to be traveling to Portland for a family reunion and to Seattle for a short vacation afterwards and wanted to know what, in your opinion, the best caches are in the two cities, as well as in the area between them. Not so much caches in cool locations, but ones with a cool container, hiding style, or perhaps a clever mechanism, as I love gadget caches. 

     

     

  9. Mid-year Progress Report 

     

    ~ Get to 1000 finds - Just hit 900, only 100 left to go! Planning on making GCHQ my 1000th find.

     

    ~ Hide at least a cache a month - I was oh-so close, but I did not hide a cache in the month of April.

     

    ~ Cache in at least one new state - I am going to Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA in August, so that'll be 2 new states! 

     

    ~ Find a kayak cache - Planning on doing so this summer while it's hot outside. A few of the water caches in my area can be done by swimming, so I may do that unless I somehow am able to acquire a kayak in the next 3 months.

     

    ~ Make new memories (Still in progress)

    • Upvote 1
  10. On 5/1/2019 at 7:10 PM, funkymunkyzone said:

    Sounds like a cool cache.  If it was me, I think I would just make a latch mechanism that basically has a lever that would be pushed by the marble, and another arm that sits in behind a hook on the door.... depending exactly on which part of your housing opens.  And then use a spring that keeps it locked by default.  Good luck!

    Great idea! I took your advice and made your locking mechanism idea into something more applicable to my cache design. I took a PVC pipe section and made a button out of a piece of dowel and a spring. The marble will push the dowel to allow the roof to open. It is difficult to explain without a picture but I hope you get the idea. 

     

    Thanks!

    • Upvote 1
  11. I am going to be starting a gadget cache series pretty soon, and one of them I am attempting to create is a birdhouse gadget containing a pipe designed like an uncomplicated labyrinth with only a few turns in direction against the front of the inside wall. The cachers won't be able to see the pipe when they approach the cache or when the open it, as it will be sandwiched between two walls in the birdhouse. They will however see the birdhouse with arrows written on the front tracing the direction of the pipe and holes drilled into the wood at each switch in direction. There will be a marble at the bottom of the pipe. The cacher must use long rods to push the marble through the pipe vertically and horizontally via the holes and eventually trigger a latch which opens up the birdhouse. What kind of latch should be used so that a marble being pushed with a rod can trigger it and unlock the roof section of the birdhouse, which opens like a typical door but in a vertical direction? 

     

     

     

  12. 10 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

     

    You say this CO who adopted these caches is well-respected.   There's DNFs, but has anyone logged a NM ? 

    How about a simple email saying some of those caches need some maintenance ?

     - If he is a very active hider (as you say), he might like to know that some adopted caches need maintenance.   :)

     

    So someone else's caches are mediocre, and you're going to save the hobby by placing "quality" caches in their place ?

    Taking another's caches and replacing them with something not even listed correctly on the cache page (I feel) is an odd thing to do.

     - I'd bet if the CO complained to HQ, you'd be the one having to explain yourself...

     

    They are mediocre now because they are broken, have a missing lid, or are full of water.

     

    I wouldn't "take another's caches and replace them with something not even listed correctly on the cache page". I would put out new containers with new listings. 

     

    The CO seems well-respected and is good at maintenance, yes, but that is with his own hides, the ones he placed himself. Those are in top-notch condition. But, the 100+ cache series he adopted hasn't been checked on for months.

  13. 4 hours ago, dprovan said:

    I'm kinda disappointed by the answers you're getting. Yes, of course it's fine to talk to the CO and ask if he'd like some help or even let you take over the area. All I can imagine is that the other people responding to your OP think you're going to say, "Hey, your caches suck, and I demand you archive them." But, naturally, you're just going to politely talk it over with him and work with him to make the geocaching in that area better for everyone. Sure, you do something like that in a rude way if you try hard enough, but it's not inherently rude or offensive, and any reasonable CO should be happy to hear the input.

    Exactly! The only reason I was even thinking of asking him to archive caches is that other local cachers said that he was willing to do so due to his massive hide count. Also, these caches haven't even been found in 6 months and the other caches he adopted from the absent CO have been there for 5 years with logs few and far between. I just wanted to put out some fresh caches so that others in the area have something to do, it wasn't even about the quality of the original hides that was the issue, it was that they were mediocre due to the lack of maintenance and missing/broken containers. When they were fixed last year they were above average. The few containers left are so-so because of wet logs, or missing lids. I think that the new CO and the absent CO were friends so when he left, he asked his buddy to take over the caches for him, which nearly doubled his hide count. Sure, he could fix them all, but it looks to me that he doesn't care about the ones he adopted quite as much as his original hides, whom he cares for very well. 

     

    I also want do put out some new ones to bring variety to the area. the absent CO put out preform tubes in trees and ONLY preform tubes in trees. There are 100+ other caches he left behind that are missing/broken, and now, belong to the current CO.

  14. One of my local trail systems has many under-maintained and mediocre caches along the 2 mile stretch. They were placed about 2 years ago and the most recent "Found It" logs were from last summer. I myself have tried to find some of them and the ones I couldn't locate I attempted several times during bike rides and walks. The original CO (who still hogs the area with at least 100 below average caches) moved away and the caches were adopted by a well respected CO who is a very active hider himself. In fact, he has nearly 200 hides at this point, and all that he has placed himself are in top notch condition, save for the ones he took over from the absent CO.

     

    Since the caches along the trail are mostly gone and full of DNF's, and the containers that are still there are mediocre at best, does it seem out of my bounds or taboo to ask if I could put some new caches out in place of the old ones? I am planning on mixing in some field puzzles and gadget caches to keep it interesting and also to increase traffic, and all of the other caches I could place  will be homemade and checked on regularly. From speaking to local cachers at events, I can tell that the current CO is a neat guy and even they themselves stated that he was willing to archive some to make room for theirs, but since I haven't met him, I don't know if it would come across as strange or rude to ask him to make some room for mine. 

  15. 3 hours ago, kunarion said:

     

    A "birdhouse" for the bell is a neat idea!  My doorbell button is inside a locked birdhouse, and it's a puzzle box, too (it provides clues).  My cache pretty much uses ideas I've had for the past ten years, ideas that I had ruled out as being impossible for an outdoor cache. B)

     

    My "bell" box is separate from the actual cache as you mention.  I sure don't want cachers opening it.  It needs to stay dry and hidden.  But on the way to that "bell", everyone seems to be seeing the actual cache.  So the bell seems untouched, except that squirrels eat it.

     

    I am also going to be theming the cache after "The Wizard of Oz" by calling it "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead!". The birdhouse containing the button will be painted black with a green stencil of the Wicked Witch painted on the sides. I am going to be designing the perch of the birdhouse to look like her broomstick so when the cacher pulls it out, a trapdoor drops releasing the doorbell button with the striped legs and ruby red slippers of the Wicked Witch of The East. 

     

    I was also thinking of attaching one of those stick on door alarms to inside of the final container to seal the deal. If only I can find one which plays back the sound of the Wicked Witch laughing...

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  16. I too am in the process of creating one like this. I am going to have my button inside of a birdhouse, and the receiver mounted inside of another birdhouse, however, there won't be a bottom piece to the birdhouse, as it may dampen the sound, as kunarion mentioned. Also, you might not want the final cache to be in the same container as the receiver. The birdhouse containing my receiver is going to be 12-15 up a tree, so cachers cannot reach it. Instead I am going to have the final container at the base of said tree (probably an ammo box).

     

    At one I have found, the button and receiver were roughly 100 feet apart. The CO did mention in the description that the cacher must walk about 30 feet towards the final while pressing the button; that was how the stages could be separated that much. If your button is going to be stationary though, the final may have to be much closer. 

     

    I LOVE your idea whyteman, of having this placed in a parking garage! The only problem I see with it is having strangers hear the doorbell sound. Try to find a wireless doorbell which has the "car alarm" option. It may blend in better. ; D

  17. I think they may have fixed it. Someone just got the FTF on one of my new caches and I was able to see my cache page and audit log through GC.com. They stated in their log entry that they made the find before the website went down and were only just now able to log it.

  18. UPDATE: 

     

    A new idea for Stage 2 is a pipe gadget cache strapped to a telephone pole where, in order to find the code to a combo lock, the cacher must find a phone book hidden in a tupperware container nearby and find the phone number of a certain person to look for in the book. The last 4 digits of the phone number is the code. 

     

     

  19. One of the more complex gadgets I am planning on building is one where the cacher opens the box from the front which reveals a maze cut out into a door (the same size is the cache, so they cannot reach through it). There is a bolt with a magnet on the back fastened to the start of the maze, acting as a handle. Slide the bolt through the maze to the end where the magnet will trigger a "baby lock" and open the cache. 

     

    I'll try to post pics when completed.

  20. 1 hour ago, niraD said:

    The simplest type of gadget cache that I've seen is one of those marble maze puzzle boxes that can be used as a gift box, with cash or a gift card inside. The geocache log goes into the locked compartment, and finders have to solve the marble maze puzzle to unlock the compartment. Unlocking the compartment also moves the marble to the beginning of the maze, so it's ready to solve again.

    I have one of those. Just put it out a month ago. Seems to be faring well so far.

  21. 1 hour ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

     

    I hope you're poking a hole in the bottom so the water can run out.

    The trick is to put your finger over the hole so it fills faster than it empties.

    Otherwise, it's a mess.

    Also, take pains so they can't turn it over and shake it to get the boat into the window!

    Yes, I forgot to mention that. : )

  22. Another gadget cache I am planning on building is one where the cacher fills a birdhouse with water via a chimney to float a miniature boat to the top, where there is a window to the inside. The boat has a 3 digit code written on the side, which opens a combo lock.

    • Upvote 1
  23. I currently have one (not published).

     

    The cacher finds a birdhouse and opens the roof, revealing a shelf with 3 threads with keyrings on both ends of each. A red, blue, and purple thread. Then, they see nails on the side of the birdhouse in neat rows and columns. They must take each thread and hook the keyring on one of the nails and guide the thread around the nails using a data map. The nails are labeled A-F in rows and 1-6 in columns, much like the game Battleship. The data map or "key" shows the cacher which nails they must guide the thread around. For example: A1, A6, C6, C1, C6, F6, F1. After they guide the thread it becomes a "3". 

     

    Once they do this with each of the 3 threads, they put the numbers together to make the code which opens a combo lock on the side, revealing the container.

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