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An alternative hide and seek.

Former Member

Hi Ben/Crew

 

A while ago I had the idea to create an alternative to traditional hide and seek for my kids, as they get older the house magically gets smaller. I was using two baby formula tins with one with an arduino and RF transmitter and the other with an arduino with an RF receiver. The basic concept was that as you got closer to the transmitter, lights on the tin the kids had lit up. The closer you got the more lights until you found it.

 

There was a few problems and I hope this is where you might be able to help me. My coding skills are sub par so sometimes for reasons unknown to myself it would not work and I had to upload to the arduino again to restart. It was a mess. On one of my trials the target uno dislodged inside the tin when it fell from its hiding place and broke so I have parked the game ever since.

 

Despite my initial issues, I wanted to built a more complex version of this where they could challenged each other. I needed to make the component that is hidden (I call it the target) smaller than a tin of baby formula as it can be awkward to hide, plus I needed to make it tough enough to withstand a fall.

 

I was looking at giving each of my kids a finding device where they only get a general indication that they are in the area of the target device and then get three chances where pressing a button on their finding device would cause the target device to buzz, if in range. My idea of 'general indication' was that lights only go on if the hidden device is less than 10, 20 or 50 meters away. This way the kids learn about spatial awareness while using general problem solving skills.

 

My friend also suggested that I use wifi and have the hidden device unlock via a code on it that needed to be entered to win but this both over complicates the device and also creates an unfair advantage for the older kids who grasp the concept quicker.

 

I hope I explained this well and it may be something they you could help with.

 

Thanks in advance

Tom

Ireland

Parents

  • This reminds me of the hotter/colder game we played as kids. I love it! This would also make Easter egg hunts quite interesting. Could also be used for any number of scavenger hunts, where the next clue is hidden in the box with the target.

     

    Could you create a document with the Arduino code you used? Maybe there is a bug in there you missed and someone in the community can help you find it.

     

    What physical dimensional limits would you want this to have? ie. What is the largest it could be?

Reply

  • This reminds me of the hotter/colder game we played as kids. I love it! This would also make Easter egg hunts quite interesting. Could also be used for any number of scavenger hunts, where the next clue is hidden in the box with the target.

     

    Could you create a document with the Arduino code you used? Maybe there is a bug in there you missed and someone in the community can help you find it.

     

    What physical dimensional limits would you want this to have? ie. What is the largest it could be?

Children
  • in reply to makerkaren

    image

    This is one of the original tins I was using beside an UNO. As you can see, its quite big and cumbersome. The tin is 130mm in diameter and 170mm long.

     

    image

    I was going to try a soother box (I know, baby stuff everywhere) which fits an UNO perfectly but I had no idea if a full build would fit inside. The box is 90mm long, 50mm high and 60mm in width.

     

    I have had a look for the sketch I used but so far no luck. I basically went to different MAKE projects and gleamed the bits required which probably sheds light on why it didn't exactly work.

     

    I have no real fixed dimension requirement, only that the target box be easy to hide but also easy to find. The soother box seemed to fit the bill exactly.  As for the finding device, its ideal that it could be carried by a 4 year old so something in the dimensions of an xbox 360 controller is the right size. The formulae tin is just far to big and awkward. I had looked at using cheap controllers or old walkie talkies as the case for the finder devices but I never found anything that suited. I also like to recycle items so did not want to purchase just for this, its nice to give something a second life.