Giving the next coordinates in a Wherigo

[+Nighthawk700]

I'm thinking of creating a Wherigo in a nice large park nearby. However, I've seen from from my using of a Wherigo player on my Android phone that it can be draining on the battery. One idea I was thinking of doing is at each stage, besides pointing to the next stage, also giving the coordinates. Then if the player chooses, they could punch that into a regular handheld GPS, (wouldn't even need to be the type that runs Wherigo cartridges) then turn the phone app off for a while until they get close, then turn it back on so they enter the zone and continue the cartridge. The only downside I can see is you wouldn't be able to spring anything on them with "hidden zones." Just wondering if other, more experienced builders have tried this or know of other disadvantages that I may not be thinking of.

 

Thanks for any feedback.

[Ranger Fox]

I'm seeing more cell phone geocachers these days. Whatever you decide, make sure people without handheld GPS receivers can still play. Instead of coordinates, you might just want to point the person to a particular landmark in the park (as well as showing the zone). The user could determine whether to close the app.

 

With regard to your question, all timers you might set will automatically expire if the user closes and restores the cartridge. Other than that, the user would have to wait until the app reacquires a GPS lock. I'm not as familiar with the intricacies of player app implementation, but this leads me to wonder what will happen in an app if the user is standing with a zone when the app receives the user's current coordinates. Will the app trigger OnProximity and then OnEnter?

[+Isonzo Karst]

I've done it on a cart with far flung zones and some heavy swamp bushwhacking. it both saves battery and allows the phone to be put into a safe container. Some struggle then getting the phone to find signal again.

 

Your text is readily hackable - ie, your coords if typed as a message can be seen simply by opening the cart in any word processing software.

 

I spend very little time worrying about people hacking the cart, but I mention this. I've seem coords offered as an image, rather than as text. This adds one more step to the hack.

 

Mostly, people will just do the cart, assuming the cart works...;-)