Darwin473

I'd consider myself a casual cacher as I'm averaging 2.5 finds per week since I started in July, but I've got my eye on a challenge in the area (one of the few I can actually do) which involves finding 28 caches in one day. There's a power trail near here which has over 28, but it's also the only power trail I can see within driving distance. I've got that on my wish list, but I also don't want to do it yet as there aren't that many caches in this state and I don't want to rush around and find all of them in a few months. From context, I take it you've already found the majority of the cahces near you? That's what I'm trying to avoid. Like savouring a meal rather than bolting it all down in one gulp.

The Australian section of the global forum seems to have a very low participation rate, my assumption is the Aussie cachers are more active on the regional Facebook / Reddit / Instagram / private website places rather than here on the global. I believe Adventure Mazes count as a type of regular event, so theoretically anybody with the money and time can set one up. I've never attended one, but from what I've been able to gleam, it's basically a display stand on a trailer that goes to events. I wonder, if somebody was to put a bunch of gadget caches on a trailer and set up a local event, how can people participate by logging? An event can get logged as "attended', a cache can be logged as found, but for a bunch of temporary gadget caches on a mobile display stand - how can people log those? The only thing I can think of would be to buy a couple of TB codes, and have one in each cache. After the display is retired, those codes could be released as a regular TB. Maybe?

AFAIK the "correct" action is to log a few NM (Needs Maintenance) reports on the cache, and if the caches degrade far enough, an NA (Needs Archive). After the caches are archived, someone else can place new caches there, either "inspired by" (read: copied) from the cache that was there previously or something new. What often tends to happen is that the community will do some ongoing "helping hand" maintenance, by updating / replacing the log sheets and sometimes replacing the container. Both ways can be good and bad, depending on the situation. If the CO has just stopped playing, gotten caught up with something, fallen ill or passed away then the caches can't be adopted as both the account giving up the cache and the account receiving the cache need to do their bits for an adoption to happen.

That's an evil suggestion that will terrify people. Do I have enough bits in the shed to do it...

To find how and where you scored on Memory Lane: Go to your Dashboard on the website - click on Leaderboard on the left (should be below "Souvenirs" and above the Geocaches / Friends options). Once on the Leaderboard, click on yourself (should appear as "You" and your current score), and it'll expand into a list of the caches that gave you points for Memory Lane. I wasn't able to find the Leaderboard option in the app, but I'm a Basic member so it may be visible for Premium accounts.

I did a cache of opportunity this morning, and there is no user action required to "catch" a Wonder. When I was looking at the cache page prior to logging, it showed that there was a Wonder there with "Collected: 0 / 1" beneath it. While doing the logging, there was nothing different. After logging, the cache page showed the same Wonder but it had changed to "Collected: 1 / 1". This was on the website, not the app.

If you wanted to use a reed switch, you remove the push button from the device, the reed switch takes its place. So when the magnet moves away (the lid / door is opened) then that "pushes" the button, completes the circuit and the sound file plays. Same principle if it's a light sensitive switch, the light sensitive switch replaces the push button switch. Most of the BYO battery caches that I've seen (such as this one) use simple bolts as "pins" for the battery, thus avoiding the wear and tear on batteries being inserted and removed by multiple players. For your application, you could put in some simple reverse-polarity protection (you can get some information here or Google "how to protect reverse polarity") though keep in mind that you lose a little bit of voltage doing that. So if the sound chip can get away with 1v, if the person brings a 1.5v AA battery then it may work without issue, but if they bring a rechargeable AA (which are normally 1.2v) then you may run short of voltage to run the circuit. Depending on how much power the circuit needs, that will tell you if you can get away with 2 x 15.v batteries or if you'll need to ask for a 9v battery. Which would then need a voltage reducer. You might be able to get a simple prebuilt unit or make one if you can find a simple diagram online to go from 9v input to whatever your sound chip needs. I do admit that this can be a bit daunting, especially if you have no prior experience with electronics, but once you start dabbling it can be quite rewarding and you might surprise yourself with what you can achieve. Alternatively, if you find it too hard, you can try teaming up with your someone from your local area (technical colleges are good places to find students who are into electronics, or you can try places like Freelancer or Facebook). Or as ecanderson said, you could opt for putting in some watch-type batteries which usually last a long time and periodically replace them during cache maintenance. If that's the case, then what you want is a chip that will play the sound file once, then shut down. If somebody doesn't close the lid properly, you don't want it sitting there playing the file over and over again and draining the batteries in a day or two. Worst case scenario, you can put this idea on the backburner and try out some other cache ideas then circle back to this one when you figure out how you want to proceed.

I had a look last night at a cache that's on the way to work and it had a Wonder, had a look at it again a few minutes ago and it had a different Wonder. I'm guessing which Wonder is there is randomly (or semi-randomly) generated - though I'm curious if it is generated each time you load the cache page (in which case you could just keep refreshing until the Wonder you are after pops up) or if they change every X hours (on the hour, once a day...). Edit: I had a quick scan of the map, looks like every cache has a Wonder or two (or at least all the ones I sampled did). That'll make it easier to get the first few, possibly a little harder to get the last one in the set when you're looking for a specific one.

I just picked up a TB (Froschprinz if anybody is curious) which someone picked up at the start of 2016, and then dropped it in another cache in February this year. Four years and two weeks or so that person had it. The owner said in their goal for the TB they wanted it to do a tour and to hopefully return home … by 2017. I've sent them a message asking if they'd like it posted back to them, or if they prefer it to keep travelling.

I've come across this before, and found that pasting it into either a text file on a laptop or my note taking app (may vary between apps and phones) will strip out formatting. Just need to paste it into the format stripper, then copy it again and paste it where it needs to go. I haven't done a multi yet, so I'll stay out of the main conversation.

One option is the old "print a bit of paper and laminate it". That's been around for a while - if you go this option, I suggest leaving space around the paper itself so that when you punch a hole in it, you only go through the laminate. If you punch a hole through the laminate and the paper, then moisture and dirt can get in to the paper and start attacking it. INTIMIDAT3R in this thread posted a Trackable that he added a tag on made with Shrinky Dink. It has the advantages of being easy and relatively rugged, though other people have suggested that it'll fail out in the wild. I haven't encountered a Shrinky Dink tag myself but I'd like to try it out. The popular suggestion is engraved aluminium - strong and durable, you can either get a tag professionally laser engraved (prices vary, depending on where you are) or you could DIY something like this tutorial or this other method. The tricky part is getting the level of detail you need for small writing. I've ordered some photoresist dry film to use this method to try and get the level of detail I want - though it hasn't arrived yet so I don't know how good the result would be on aluminium.

I'd never heard of these things. Do you need an inkjet printer, or will they work on a laser printer? I can see there being an issue with the heat if they go through a laser one. Do they need to be sealed with something after shrinking to stop the letters from coming off? Have you seen one of these tags after they've been out in the wild for some time to see how they've survived? Apologies for all the questions, I'm seeing lots of possibilities for a product like this. At around $3.50 per sheet (from what I've found so far) in Australia, they are a bit on the pricey side but still cheaper than engraving aluminium (which is what I was looking to do at the moment).

Do you have many issues with maintenance? Maybe it's my "everything burns" Australian mentality, but I would have thought that a log like that might get muggled quite easily. Or is it artificial? Around here, I could totally see it working though I'd make the log out of plaster or cement to help it last longer. Edit: it's a NSW cache, and from reading up it looks like most of the maintenance is more due to park closures. I like it!

A bit late to the party, but if I was the CO of this one, I would tape a laminated note at the bottom of the 5L container with either a cryptic or blatant "this is not the cache location" message. The finder would see that either when they tip out all the eclipse tins, or after opening them all and are about to start putting them back in. Yes, this is how I would think as well. I forget where I read it, but I recall reading somewhere (not sure if it was about geocaching or writing mystery novels) a quote along the lines of "you're supposed to fight with them, make them work for it, but ultimately lose". So in this case, as a CO we should be considering the spectrum of players from the highly experienced to the novice and try and make it possible for all of them to enjoy the cache. In this specific setup, one option might be to set the hint as "if you don't find the log, it isn't missing - you've got the wrong cache!" or similar. Good idea for a cache though! I only have a handful of finds so far, and none have had a decoy (or they had a decoy and I fell right into it! ).

My first instinct would be to try and contact the owner and see what they would like done. Assuming they respond, I'd figure that they'd either want it put back in to play, or have changed their mind about sending it out into the world and would like it back. Though if it's been a long time since they logged in, it then presents a double conundrum: what if I contact them, wait a year, put it back in to play and then they respond saying they want it back? I'd include an "I think it's reasonable to wait X months, after Y date if you haven't replied I will [do your preferred action]".

I wonder if there are any "your GPS should read XXXX" markers around? I know (at least in Australia) there are surveyors markers all over the place on the ground, road and sidewalks. I don't know if there is a little stone slab somewhere that gives you the correct lat / long for that slab. Might be easier to find a chart somewhere that says "survey marker XYZ is located at lat / long UVW" so you could check your devices' accuracy? Last year sometime I got the chance to have a bit of a play with a military radio which had a 10 figure gps receiver. I was able to compare it to my phone at the time and my Garmin Foretrex 304, and all three basically agreed on the map reference (though that used MGRS instead of lat / long). I was more impressed that my phone agreed with the Foretrex than anything - not that the Foretrex is a particularly expensive gps to begin with.

I had been thinking of having different designs every month or three. One of the good things about 3D printing is that you can do a few, refine the design, then do a few more. I had wanted to put in smaller writing such as the month / year I made that particular design, include the Geocaching website and other small writing. Just above the "D" in Darwin there is a little blob which is meant to be a number one (as in, first design), but it came out rather … blobby. The "a" in Darwin is also missing a bit. I assume so, or at least optimised for maximum number of prints per hour at the minimum acceptable level of detail. Or I needed to specify which settings I wanted them to use (finer detail means longer print time means higher cost - and most people would be looking at minimum cost options). If I had my own printer then I could tweak the settings to maximum detail and just leave it printing overnight … I'd just need to convince Mrs Unit473L that it was an economical option! I did have the idea of printing a master, then making a mold and using epoxy resin, but it turns out that getting that stuff is rather expensive in Darwin. I had also thought about printing some die masters and using it to squish clay into an instant coin shape, but that also requires high detail 3D printing. I might stick with customising poker chips for now.

Turns out that my local library offers 3D printing as a service, for reasonably cheap. I had these made up, cost 80c per coin: Overall, it looks okay. But considering that they have a $6,000 machine (or at least that's what its retail cost was when it was new, three years ago), I'm not too impressed with the level of detail. I'll be looking at other options to see what I can come up with. Also, I ordered these in June so there was a bit of a queue. on the plus side, now I now that it isn't a good idea to buy a cheapy $300 3D printer if a more high end unit can't get the level of detail that I want.

Awesome!

I'll add my name to that bandwagon My current style of play is "targets of opportunity" as I don't plan out when and where to go caching or look for specific caches or types of caches. It'll be interesting to see how many wonders (if any) I turn up. So far my Memory Lane score is 95, from a total of 14 finds - though ML started just before I started playing so all my finds have counted towards it.

The app "Coordinates for iPhone" which I linked to in my first post will show you the lat/long on your iPhone. As you have a Premium account, you can see your current lat/long in the Geocaching app. Open the Geocaching app, click on any cache on the map, open up that cache to look at the details, near the bottom you should see an option marked "Waypoints". Clicking on that should give you a new screen, and a plus symbol. If you click on that plus symbol, you'll get a new screen which will let you add waypoints but at the bottom it'll also show you the lat/long of your current location. If that location is way off from where you know you are, there may be an issue with your phones' GPS chip. Make sure you are outside with clear skies and no large structures nearby to give yourself the best chance of getting a good reading.

There's already instructions available on the proper way to collect a good data set, I think you're asking about how to get the actual numbers. If you go to Google Maps on a computer / laptop, pick a spot that's approximately where you want to place your cache you can right click and get an initial latitude and longitude. This will give you a rough starting point which will let you know if you're in the right ballpark. For Colchester, you should be around 51°53'N 0°54'E with the last few numbers on each being determined by where around Colchester you're looking to set up. There are a number of different apps (such as Coordinates for iPhone or Lat Long Location on Android) which will show you the latitude and longitude of where your phone is. With most of these apps, the limit is the hardware in your phone and a good way to get a reliable number is to keep the phone stationary for a few minutes each time you want to record the number. Then walk away and come back from a different direction and do that again. You should record the numbers that you get, and return at various times during the day / night as atmospheric conditions can lead to slightly different numbers. The ideal solution is to use a purpose built GPS unit, though if you don't have one, then I suggest asking two or three friends to bring their phones so that you can get numbers from several different devices (again, at various times). All the numbers you collect are then averaged out so that you can be reasonably certain that the number you provide on your cache page will allow many different people with many different devices to reliably arrive at the same location.

Those are brilliant!

I've recently bought my first four and waiting on delivery. At the moment, I plan to send them out as proxies with a hitchhiker. I've set myself up to etch aluminium, so I'll make a little tag with the code and instructions on one side, and the goal on the other. Plus a cheap toy as the hitchhiker. From what I've read, that seems to be the best way to try and give the bug a long life - though nothing is guaranteed of course. The right mentality is to treat TB's like kids - you give them as much of a chance as you can, then you send them out into the world to hopefully make it on their own.

I had to look this up because I'd never heard of it. Sounds interesting! Though I don't see it happening in the next few months.