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Tile locator


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The Tile locator is a small transmitter which emits a radio signal for near-field tracking and can be found by any smartphone.

 

Surely y'all can come up with some innovative ways to use a tile in geocaching. Let's hear your ideas!

 

Coords to a spot 20' from the Tile, perhaps? GPS to get to GZ and the Tile app to make the find? That's close enough to find it with just the GPS but still adds a bit of extra fun.

 

https://www.thetilea...om/how-it-works

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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I guess they would be used in a Puzzle cache for iPhones ( smartphones ? ) only.

I dug around in their site and found that they use Bluetooth, so any smartphone with Bluetooth and an operating system that can run their app would work. Right now they only appear to have an app for iOS 7, but they would presumably make an Android app if the product became popular.

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Other people's Tiles are not shown on your device. A Tile expires in one year, buy another for $25 (bad luck if you lose your Tilked object at the end of the 12 month period!). Distance is based only on an an approximation from signal strength. Tiles are still on pre-order, not available in most places. In order for it all to function as advertised, sign up with the Tile company, install and keep the App running.

 

But I have a question about such Bluetooth devices. Could there be an App that could measure signal strength of an unpaired Bluetooth device? If so, any old Bluetooth mouse, or whatever, could be used. But that part about the Tile expiring in one year... we could therefore use our expired Tiles for various games associated with Geocaching (using them in Puzzle caches, etc.), until the batteries go dead.

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Yeah, they are in development, looking for more funding I think, but if they become a thing then I think we can use them.

I have "Stick-N-Find" tags. I used one to keep track of a relative's cat, while visiting. Bluetooth devices must be paired to the phone before they work. This pairing process typically requires having both the phone and device in hand, at which point, you don't need an App to find it, you're holding it. :anitongue:

 

But searching "Tile Tracker" on amazon.com, I see a couple of systems that have transmitters and a detector, and that might make for a neat Puzzle cache.

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I rather stick with the Chirp. Same price and you can replace the battery.

 

Which lasts for years

That's entirely different from the OP. The Chirp device is not supposed to be "found", so it provides no directional guidance to it. Use coordinates to get to the general area of the Chirp. Or pass one on the trail, and receive the new waypoint data with no previous knowledge that a Chirp is even there. Which would not only be a pretty cool way to get coords, it may even be approved as a stage of a Mystery cache, where someday, someone just happens upon the data signal by chance. I shall ponder this.

 

But, yeah, due to the Tile being designed disposable, having a yearly expiration, and being findable only by the owner, see if some other "locator" option would be better suited.

Edited by kunarion
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come up with some innovative ways to use a tile in geocaching.

How do I set up the Tile for Geocaching?

 

Some considerations:

- All participants must have cell phones, data plans, be members of the Tile site, and have installed “Tile Apps” and have the App running at all times (at least while hunting the Tile caches).

- The Cache Owner buys a new Tile every year to replace the old one, pairs and activates the new one every year.

- The App does not notify the Geocachers that they're near the Tile. The App notifies the Tile owner only.

 

So let's say I'm the CO, and place a Tile as a stage in a “?” cache. How then does that stage work? When cachers arrive, I get the notification, the cachers don't. I have to cross-reference their Tile username with their Geocacher name, then they get credit somehow for finding that stage. But how? Do I then email the coordinates to each finder?

 

Here's one way it could work with the Tile device per the OP (completely hypothetical, don't do this). I'd have an iPhone hidden in a locked, secured waterproof box, on some property (garden or park or my own house, where there's an electrical outlet available). When cachers arrive, their phones send the discovery automatically to the Tile site, and my iPhone is then notified by the Tile site that my Tile has been found, and the phone in the box makes a noise. If it's a notification ringtone that speaks the coords for the next stage, that could be cool.*

 

Or would Apple add a feature? When someone finds the cache Tile stage, can the App display a message? If it were coordinates, it's just like a Chirp, just a hugely expensive one :anicute:. But even the most thrifty cachers (except me) seem to have no issue with phone data plan expenses (nevermind that the Tile replacement costs at least as much as a Chirp every year). So I don't need to compare the cost of a Chirp (and Chirp reader GPS) to the cost of an iPhone and data plan, when designing the Chirp version of the Tile App.

 

*The Tile itself is unnecessary in the above idea. When cachers arrive, have them text or call the phone in the box. The ringtone (or the screen display if the box phone screen is in view) could show the coords. There are numerous Apps that could do those things.

Edited by kunarion
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I rather stick with the Chirp. Same price and you can replace the battery.

 

Which lasts for years

My First one A Rare Birdwhich I was the first in California, was placed in 2010. Have only replaced the battery two times.

I own two others The Unique Birds in 2011 only changed the batteries once on both chirps and this one High-tech Hobo Stew I have yet to change the battery and was also placed in 2011

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*The Tile itself is unnecessary in the above idea. When cachers arrive, have them text or call the phone in the box. The ringtone (or the screen display if the box phone screen is in view) could show the coords. There are numerous Apps that could do those things.

 

Sounds like a neat idea - but how to keep the phone battery charged?

Use a power adapter. There aren't a lot of places where you can hide a cache and have AC power available for it. I know of a couple of places, and probably won't place a phone there. But I'd just have to design some kind of electrical device at a cache like that.

 

Some places, a solar charger might work. You'd need a place where the solar panels don't get taken.

Edited by kunarion
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I rather stick with the Chirp. Same price and you can replace the battery.

 

Which lasts for years

My First one A Rare Birdwhich I was the first in California, was placed in 2010. Have only replaced the battery two times.

I own two others The Unique Birds in 2011 only changed the batteries once on both chirps and this one High-tech Hobo Stew I have yet to change the battery and was also placed in 2011

Do you wait for the battery to go dead?

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I rather stick with the Chirp. Same price and you can replace the battery.

 

Which lasts for years

My First one A Rare Birdwhich I was the first in California, was placed in 2010. Have only replaced the battery two times.

I own two others The Unique Birds in 2011 only changed the batteries once on both chirps and this one High-tech Hobo Stew I have yet to change the battery and was also placed in 2011

Do you wait for the battery to go dead?

When I get DNFs from cachers claiming no signal I go out and check and most of the time it's just they need to reboot their device. No reason to replace if the battery is lasting longer then the year they claim.

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No reason to replace if the battery is lasting longer then the year they claim.

Yes there is :rolleyes:. I marvel how lucky people are. I couldn't get away with waiting for DNFs. I'm pushing my luck with a plan of changing the Chirp every 12 months (yes, swapping out the whole thing).

 

But I'm not really looking forward to changing my batteries. I wrapped each Chirp in hunter's camo tape onto branches (these Chirps are very aggressively hidden), and they'll be kind of a chore to access.

Edited by kunarion
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