Team Batpony

Well, I'm back at it again. A few of the oldtimers on these forums might've previously known me as Team Krammer. Today, I've got for you a little geocaching story that happened a few days ago. For the sake of clarity, I'll be calling my partner Bat and myself Pony. We were on a little caching run on our way to the movies, and decided to stop by a parking lot for what we assumed was a standard LPC. Bat went out to the location, searched for a moment, and couldn't find a thing. I went out and stared at it for a few moments and then made the grab immediately - one of those tiny little magnetic nanos about 3/4 an inch long with the cap that screws off to reveal the log. Brought it back to the car, unrolled the log, noticed that it was full, and as such didn't sign it. I went to get out of the car to return the cache, fumbled, and dropped the little bugger somewhere between the center console of Bat's car and the seat I was sitting in. Oh well, can't look for it now, we needed to go to the movies. I left a note on the cache page and the owner disabled it quickly. After our movie, we cleaned out Bat's car and eventually found the nano - stuck to a bit of metal that was part of the seat in the car. We stuck it to the outside of the car so we wouldn't lose it, and decided to return it to the next day. By some miracle, in the morning we actually remembered to remove the nano from the outside of the car so it wouldn't blow off in the wind on our way there. We went to the cache site and as we got there, I began unscrewing the container just because I felt like fidgeting. Naturally, I dropped both halves down into the same spot again. Spent a few minutes searching the car, found the bottom again, and then later on the top... But no log. We decided to simply replace the log with a new one as it was full anyway, so I gave it to Bat to hold onto it whilst I was rolling the new log. Somehow, he managed to drop the bottom again, and it took us another good 5 minutes to locate it in the car. Alright, the log was replaced and signed, the cache was closed, and we had a very firm grip on it. Bat went out to replace it as he no longer trusted me not to lose it again. Whew, what a little adventure... Has anything like this happened to you before? Share your story!

About the worst we've found are random non-special rocks in caches in areas with plenty of similar rocks.

Having it at home for a week would not be allowed, and if somebody decided to ignore that rule, it would be assumed missing and replaced. I'm suspecting this wouldn't work, then. There are a number of caches in my area that have such a device at the posted coordinates, and it works out without the device disappearing too often. But the problem in your case is the aspect of it being taken away from the posted coordinates for an indeterminate period of time by design. But if you want to try it, I'd suggest having the element be in an independent cache, and then make the element itself a travel bug. Then people could "check it out" of the cache, take it home, solve it, then check it back in when they return it to its cache after they're done with it. That would give people a way to find out whether it's available or not. Encourage people to plan ahead by announcing in the TB log they they plan to retrieve it and how long they expect to have it. Then the actual puzzle cache would be a different cache, but only findable if you solved the TB. To be honest, I'd expect this to fall apart pretty quick just because so many things can go wrong, but it would be a really interesting thing to try, particularly if you're mentally prepared for it to disappear the first day if it doesn't work. I don't know why you're thinking a trip home would be required, but if it's computing resources or research, keep in mind that many people carry their computers and network access with them, so in that case you could present it as a field puzzle and require they solve it at the posted coordinates instead of encouraging them to take it home. By the way, I'm just musing about what might work in practice. I have no idea whether any of these ideas this would trip over any current guidelines. Now that is not a bad idea, the TB idea. I think that could potentially work. It isn't computing resources or research, but I am fairly certain that the puzzle could be solved with something that nobody would (or could) bring into the field, even if asked to on the cache page or something. Telling you exactly what it is would reveal the surprise.

I've never seen this, and I'm not sure how well it would work since there's that problem of the element being missing while someone's working on it, effectively disabling the cache. I don't have a conceptual problem with it, though. For example, if there were an effectively unlimited number of copies of the element for people to take and solve at their leisure, then that would be OK, although I'd be much happier if I knew in advance that I'd be unlikely to complete the cache in one visit. Basically to me, these are fine as long as they don't tend to frustrate people by being out-of-service too much or by the amount of time and effort involved being a surprise that's only discovered at GZ. I'll put up with a lot if I can plan when I want to tackle it. Are you going to provide multiple copies? I've done a multi-cache where the first stage had a stack of instruction pages. There were plenty available, and there was no expectation that they would be returned after completing the cache. Part of that cache's maintenance was replenishing the instruction pages with newly printed/photocopied instruction pages. In the case of the item they would possibly have to take home... There would probably be only one of them. It would be some sort of device that would probably cost a moderate amount to construct ($30 to $50), hence why providing more than one could easily become a problem due to price. I do understand the risks of putting such a device out into the field, having it damaged or go missing etc, and if such a thing were to happen, at least in the latter case it would not be replaced more than once. I do, however, have a few ideas that would be slightly less challenging but equally fun, that would not require said device to be removed from its location.

I've got another question for the geocaching community. I'm not certain if this is covered in the guidelines or not, but... I was wondering how people would feel about a puzzle cache with an element at one stage which is required to be removed and taken to the next stage, and then returned afterwards. Also, one step further... What about an element which the cacher would most likely have to take home and crack?

You may be on to something there. The corner to corner dimensions on both diagonals don't quite match up, about 1cm off. That also is consistent with the fact that one of the latches doesn't quite match up properly with where it's supposed to clip onto. Bar clamp it until corner to corner match, maybe a few smart whacks with a hand sledge, or wave a heat gun over to see if it springs or pops back, press against a flat concrete surface. Again don't make it a project because containersvareva dime a dozen I'll try that, if I can't get it fixed after a little work I'll just get a new one. Not that big of a deal, was just hoping I could give this can a new life.

You may be on to something there. The corner to corner dimensions on both diagonals don't quite match up, about 1cm off. That also is consistent with the fact that one of the latches doesn't quite match up properly with where it's supposed to clip onto.

Alright, so... I've got an old large ammo can that I got for free, that I'd like to reuse as a geocache container. The obvious first steps would be cleaning it, painting over the markings, and then stenciling on something along the lines of "Official Geocache, Contents Harmless" on the sides. However, I've got a bit of a larger problem before I can do any of that. The ammo can is a very, very tight fit, and requires putting my whole weight on the second latch to close. Once it's been closed, to open it again I need to unlatch both latches and then pry the lid up using a screwdriver. I just can't seem to do it manually. Obviously, this isn't very good for out in the field, because I doubt every geocacher is as strong or heavy as me, and I especially doubt most geocachers carry around a prying tool in their bags. It might also be helpful to note that if I just place the lid on lightly, no matter how well I align it, one side falls into place easily while the other requires pushing (or closing the latches) to get into place. The tightness seems to be on the sides. I'd like you guys to have a look at the photos of the ammo can that I've provided, and help me try and figure out what I can do to it to make it close and open a bit more easily. If you need any more angles or views, I'm happy to provide them. (Apologies on the location of the photos taken, it was the only room I had with a free surface and good lighting at the moment.) Link to the mentioned photos: http://imgur.com/a/Z6qg6 (Yes, a couple of the photos are failed, I wasn't logged into Imgur when I uploaded them, though, so I couldn't delete them. And yes, there are a few items in the bottom of the ammo can. I was previously using it for storage.)

That list was removed some time ago. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=328831 B. That's unfortunate. Thank you, though.

I recall several years ago, there was some section of your profile where you could input what GPSr you owned, possibly multiple. I don't really remember anything else about this feature other than that. If anyone has any clue what I'm talking about... Does it still exist? I ask because I'd like to access this information so I can remember what model the GPSr I lost a year or so ago was. (I remember having it listed.)

I do not understand the question. What they mean is a list of all letters and numbers, and a cache they have found that starts with each one next to each one. To the OP, you will need to use a stats website or a GSAK macro. I forget the one which I last used, but a google search for "geocaching stats" should do it.

I asked kindly in my first post for mods NOT to move it...

I know that guy personally, and trust me, he's a really nice guy.

I hooked up one GPS VIA serial, fired up GSAK from a USB stick, and nothing. GSAK would not launch due to some odd error. I found out after some googling that it was because I had installed GSAK tot he stick on a Windows 7 PC, but ran it on Windows XP. I secured a working WinXP laptop that did not have all the restrictions the school puts on about installing programs, installed GSAK to the USB stick, ran it on the PC with the serial port, and... nothing. I got an error about a missing DLL. back on the laptop, which I had to track down again, I copied the DLL from it to GSAK's folder on the USB stick, and put the stick back into the PC with serial port. I ran it, and voila. It worked. I inputted some caches, and they successfully transferred to the GPS unit. The only downside to this setup is that I need to remember to export the database to a GPX before closing GSAK, or else the whole database gets lost for some reason. The point is, it WORKS! We are going to do the geocaching tomorrow, and I will report on it in a new thread.

To enter a waypoint from the device itself, mark one at whatever location you're at, then edit the coordinates of the waypoint you just entered. These GPSR's do not have the "stick" that you use to edit the waypoints, sadly.

I am running the geocaching thing again at my school (Don't know if anyone remembers, but it was one of my first posts here) and instead of eTrex Venture HCX's like last year, this year we are using those clunky old yellow eTrex H's. There is no way to enter a waypoint from the device itself, except for marking one at the location you are currently at. You have to transfer them VIA serial. The computers at school have a serial port, and are able to run GSAK v8. I also have the necessary cable to connect the GPSr to the serial port. However, I cannot install any drivers, as that requires admin access. My question is this: To transfer waypoints from GSAK v8 to the Garmin eTrex H from a computer running windows XP, over serial, do you require a driver? Please reply quick, as I need a quick answer. To the mods: Please do not move this, as I feel that it will get more/better answers in it's current subforum.

What type of connection are you using? USB? Serial? Some sort of alien connection from the planet Venus?

I was just browsing one of my favorite websites to get neat and interesting gadgets, ThinkGeek. I came across a fake sprinkler intended for use as a hide-a-key. It can easily be used as a cache container, and only for $1.99. Grab them while you can! Link

Those waypoints you see that are not actually caches are "additional waypoints" that the cache owner has added to the geocache for reference. They may be a parking lot, a trail head, or a multitude of other things.

I am in Ontario, and I ahve always had very quick reviewer response times, whether they are publishing, or asking for an adjustment. I think the longest I waited before a response was 3 days.

But those stats were generated in 2009.

To the OP, note that you need to upload the image somewhere. I use photobucket, it's free. Edited for spelling

What exactly is the full text of the e-mail in question?

It's funny, I recieved "Found It" mag perfectly fine!

Like others have said, Groundspeak does not like discussion of competing products in these forums. IBTL