Any electrical whizzes out there?

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angboy

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Joined
Jul 29, 2005
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2,136
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North Las Vegas, NV
I know we have people on this forum with some great talents and knowledge outside of pen making and I'm trying to find out if anyone could make me a reverse geocache, for a reasonable price. Basically what is it is a box with "stuff" inside that one programs to only open at a certain location. So someone has the box and is told they have to go say 100 miles north- they go there, check to see how close they are, and are told they need to go 5 miles west. They keep going til they get to the correct location and only when they're within the "zone" will the box mechanism unlock. You push a button each time you want to check and are limited to 50 pushes. After it is opened, it can be reprogrammed to give to the next person to challenge them. It could be used for things like leading a loved one to some romantic spot and they get the box open and it has an engagement ring, or something like that.

Since all of my family is into geocaching, I'd love to have one of these for them, but they aren't commerically made. There are plans out there but when I looked at them, I really couldn't even tell what sorts of skills you need to have to build it. You clearly have to have some electrical knowledge and some mechanical skills. Anyway, if anyone would be interested, here's the link to the original one:

http://arduiniana.org/projects/the-reverse-geo-cache-puzzle/

This second one, though not nearly as nice of a box, has a key as a backdoor which seems simpler, so I like that feature:

http://imakeprojects.com/Projects/deluxe-reverse-geocache/

I found one guy who'll make the inner parts for $375, and the entire thing for $500 and another person who makes them for between $600 to $800, which is all way more than I can afford. When I look at the plans it really looks like Greek to me, but I'm sure some people can look at it and think it's easy. If you have the skills necessary to do this and would be interested in possibly making one, please contact me!
 
Thats a really cool project idea. Unfortunately I cant dedicate the time to this - or I would consider it! I've got the EE background. In reality the difficult part of this isn't the electronics or mechanics - its the programming of the microprocessor.

BTW - If hes willing to make the inner parts WITH the coding for $375 thats actually a really good price. With the GPS chip, you're looking at about $100 or so for the actual hardware components.

Good luck! I hope you find someone who wants to take this on. It could really be a fun projects.
 
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