GC47PV9 – Numbers by JanH – completely stuck, looking for a hint
Hi everyone!
My father and I are trying to solve GC47PV9 – Numbers by JanH, an old Belgian D5 mystery cache, but we're completely stuck. We're hoping someone here might be able to give us a nudge in the right direction.
The cache description basically only says that the cache is not at the posted coordinates and that we need to solve the puzzle to obtain the final coordinates. There are no hints or additional information.
The puzzle is an animation of 15 number wheels. They all cycle through 0–9 at the same speed, but they start at different positions. I have included a screenshot from the animation. I can't upload the full video, unfortunately, but the digits continously cycle through 0-9 at the same speed while starting at different positions
The posted coordinates are:
N 051° 16.000 E 004° 26.000
The old finder logs seem to contain some clues. In particular, one finder says that the clock was asynchronous, and another talks about the numbers/letters and says:
“IOIIOOII”
and
“binary code as the alphabet”
We have tried looking at the digits, their movement, their starting positions and binary/ASCII interpretations, but we haven't managed to determine what we're actually supposed to do with them.
We're completely stuck at this point, so we're happy to receive either a hint or the full solution. What matters most to us is understanding how the puzzle works and how the final coordinates are obtained, rather than simply getting the coordinates.
If you know the intended solution, please explain the reasoning/mechanism behind it if possible. We'd really like to understand what JanH intended rather than just being given a coordinate.
If anyone has an idea of what the intended mechanism is, we'd really appreciate the help!
Thanks!