When the Crazy Cacher has some free time, he thinks about improving the caching experience by creating innovative machines to save the coordinates of the caches. As he wanted to impress his girlfriend, he needed to create something impressive. After he saw some documentation about encryption machines, he got inspired and built the Electric Cache Coordinates Encrypter. This, he thought, would keep the coordinates of his mystery caches safe from other cachers. Here we see the proud Crazy Cacher with his fantastic machine:
To retrieve the coordinates, he needs to connect the contacts in the Switch Panel in certain patterns with Plus and Minus by means of switchboard cables, so that a current can flow and the Display Panel shows the data. For each cache, he records the necessary connections and once he wants to retrieve them later, he only needs to connect the cables and then he can read the coordinates from the display.
Here is an example of how he records the necessary connections with the connection protocol:
plus–12 36-18 24-minus
This means that there is a switchboard cable from plus to contact 12, a switchboard cable from contact 36 to contact 18 and a switchboard cable from contact 24 to minus. After all cables are connected, the Display Panel shows a number of the coordinates (Please note that this example does not create meaningful output, it simply shows the principle).
Fortunately for us, he lost a copy of the schematics and a copy of the encrypted coordinates on his last caching trip, where we found them. How lucky we were! This means, that we can retrieve the coordinates as well, if we use the schematics properly.
Here is the connection protocol:
plus-32 45-35 25-29 19-21 10-28 13-23 30-16 38-24 11-33 18-7 34-2 6-minus
plus-37 42-24 11-32 45-16 38-28 13-7 34-21 10-35 25-23 30-33 18-29 19-minus
plus-37 42-24 11-32 45-16 38-28 13-7 34-21 10-35 25-23 30-33 18-29 19-minus
plus-29 19-2 6-28 13-16 38-23 30-minus
plus-32 45-2 6-29 19-33 18-28 13-7 34-16 38-24 11-23 30-35 25-21 10-37 42-minus
plus-23 30-16 38-28 13-2 6-29 19-33 18-32 45-minus
plus-32 45-35 25-29 19-21 10-28 13-23 30-16 38-24 11-33 18-7 34-2 6-minus
plus-32 45-37 42-21 10-22 39-35 25-24 11-23 30-16 38-28 13-2 6-29 19-33 18-minus
plus-29 19-2 6-28 13-16 38-23 30-minus
plus-7 34-37 42-21 10-32 45-28 13-2 6-29 19-16 38-23 30-minus
plus-32 45-33 18-29 19-2 6-28 13-7 34-21 10-22 39-35 25-24 11-23 30-minus
plus-7 34-37 42-21 10-32 45-28 13-2 6-29 19-16 38-23 30-minus
plus-32 45-2 6-29 19-33 18-28 13-7 34-16 38-24 11-23 30-35 25-21 10-37 42-minus
plus-32 45-2 6-29 19-33 18-28 13-7 34-16 38-24 11-23 30-35 25-21 10-37 42-minus
plus-29 19-2 6-28 13-16 38-23 30-minus
… and here are the schematics. The upper area shows the contacts of the Switch Panel with the contact numbers and the lower area shows the lamps of the Display Panel.
Each line of the protocol gives one number of the coordinates. Connected in the right order, we should be able to find the cache.
Let’s go and get the cache and hope that the Crazy Cacher is not too angry that we managed to crack his encryption method!
