Here is yet another offering in the Reverse Geocache puzzle arena. We’ve been getting a lot of tips about these projects but this one in particular stuck out from the others. [Mure] packed in a bunch of features, starting with the LCD screen seen above. You can just make out the single red button near the bottom of the image which is used to traverse the menu. The octagonal box has an octagonal PCB inside that includes a USB connector. As you can see in the video after the break, this can be used for charging the batteries, and communicating with the internals. An accompanying program is used to generate puzzle data, which can then be programmed via that USB connection to set a new puzzle location. This functionality certainly protects against accidental lock-outs which were a problem with the last puzzle we looked in on.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt4NVdbd2Ek&w=470]
Geometry fail. That’s a HEXagonal box.
Flash fail. Glare spot, ugh. There is a hex on the basics. Brush up on your Latin.
Dude, computers are designed to speed up monotonous tasks. As I type this the guy is copy / pasting from a text file into a second window, generating a string and then pasting that into something else. Make it so your program opens a comma separated text file and does the rest automatically.
I can’t say that I’m a fan of the look.
When using a large digital display, I think you should make the box look high-tech/top-secret/alien.
If you have a box that looks decidedly low-tech/antique/ancient, some similarly low-tech looking interface would be more intriguing.
These are just my own opinions though – I definitely give respect to the guy for actually building the thing and not just slamming others creations on Internet boards. :)
@echodelta, that was not a flash, ugh.
@Steve, this “GeoPoint Maker” app actually creates that csv-like string but without commas, so it wouldn’t make sense to make one. but if you are going for it, I would also suggest you embed google maps and serial port component into that application so by a single click you do the job. that’s why I released the source-code. this was just a demonstration of: 1. creating a GeoPoint string, and 2. copying it into the serial terminal application into the GeoGame device.
@3vi1, thanks :-)
Very interesting project, and an area of exploration I have yet to…uh…explore.
Closest I ever came to geocaching was tracking down a set of coordinates that were spray painted on the side of an old blueberry processing building deep in the New jersey Pine Barrens.
Turns out is was nothing but a hunting blind, but it was still interesting watching my GPS-savvy cohorts try to figure out what scheme was being used, etc.
Good stuff.
when I first came across a “reverse geocache puzzle box” project I thought it isn’t a bit deal and it actually isn’t. but when you give it to someone who doesn’t know what it is and not even tell him/her that there is something inside AND when he/she finally figures it out and solves it – the look on their face when the box unlocks itself is priceless!