2.09 Fix The View-O-Scope

Status

::FINAL-READY::

Location

Name And Address: Outside of Peninsula Clock Shop, 2440 South El Camino Real, San Mateo

Parking: free street

Bathroom: No

Food: No

GC PoC: (415) 475-8463, lab@trenchwood.com

Type

Optional Puzzle

Plot Setup

• All evidence of Trenchwood Institute and its timeline has mysteriously disappeared.
• Peach Frontier Laboratories has taken its place
• Iconoclast scientist Prof. Chronos has attempted to demonstrate her time machine before an audience of VIPs.
• But it malfunctioned due to faulty key components--four "quantum chronomentometers."
• The malfunction is causing the Professor to bounce around randomly in time from era to era, facing untold dangers!
• The players have submitted designs for replacement chronomentometers--a key step towards fixing the time machine
• The players have discovered the password to Prof. Chronos's supercomputer--another key step
• The final key repair step is fixing View-o-Scope
• The players have decodes a secret message hidden by Prof. Chronos while she was in the past: she wants to be sent to May 31, 1986 at 2:15 PM

Detailed Description

Two cables inside the viewoscope's "alternate signal processor" got accidentally swapped. (Janitorial staff saw they had come loose, and put them back wrong.) Study a photograph/diagram of the tangled cables, and figure out which two got miswired. Swapping them solves the puzzle and activates the viewoscope.

How To Give To Teams

Lab assistant sends email

The time machine is almost working. But we need to get the View-O-Scope repaired before we can lock onto Prof. Chronos. Can you help?

Our colleagues at Central Peninsula Applied Physics can help. Please go there and ask for the View-O-Scope repair information.

Research Project Title: Fix the View-O-Scope

Objective: Enable to View-O-Scope to see into the past, not just this evening's video feed from the lab

Location: Central Peninsula Applied Physics, 2440 South El Camino Real, San Mateo

Upon Completion: Email repair instructions to lab@peachfrontier.com

Parking: free street

Personnel Required: As many as possible, but driver may stay in vehicle

Bathrooms: No

Snacks At Location: No

Short Description

The teams need to help Doctor When repair the time machine's View-O-Scope.

Open Time Period

Approximately 3 AM to 4 AM

Staff Instructions

Your Role: Lab assistant at Central Peninsula Applied Physics

What To Wear: lab coat + Central Peninsula Applied Physics name badge

What Your Character Knows: Nothing except that Doctor When needs help fixing a View-O-Scope

Puzzles At This Site: Fix The View-O-Scope

Where To Get Materials: GC HQ

Setup Instructions:

• Call GC when you arrive

Handout Instructions: Lab assistant says words to the effect of,

Oh, you're here! We were just putting together a document of what's gone wrong with the View-O-Scope, to send back to the lab. But since you're already here, we'll just give it to you directly. We hope you can solve the problem; we're really underqualified for this kind of stuff.

Hints: Teams may call GC, or ask you. It would help if you familiarize yourself with the attached hints.

Answers: Teams have been instructed to email their answer to the Laboratory. If they try to give you the answer, remind them to follow instructions. ("That's great! Could you email that to the lab?")

Site Close Down:

• Call GC
• Return any unused materials to GC HQ
• Return your name badge(s) and lanyard to GC HQ at the end of your shift

Other Instructions:

• Stay in character.
• Except ... if a team says "time out," break character and help them.

Puzzle Answer

Swap the "70" and "GCD output" plugs. Alternatively, swap the "50/50 input" and the "left AVG input" plugs (they're the same cables).

Puzzle Solution

The "PHASE DRIVER" block supplies the signals, which exit at the "YINTEGRATOR" and "YANGLE" blocks.

Perform simple arithmetic on the numbers: GCD = Greatest Common Denominator, AVG = average (arithmetic mean), 50/50 = split into two halves.

The current wiring yields 180 and 180 (in phase); they should be 90 and 270 (opposite phase). There are only 55 swaps possible, and many of them can quickly be ruled out. The rest is trial and error.

Manager

Sean

Hints

Have you determined what the system is currently outputting? (180 and 180)

They may ask which plugs are inputs and which are outputs. The PHASE DRIVER supplies input to the system, which eventually exits on the sides through the YINTEGRATOR and YANGLE blocks.

They may ask for confirmation of the math operations.

• GCD takes two inputs, and outputs their Greatest Common Denominator.
• AVG takes two inputs, and outputs their Average (arithmetic mean).
• 50/50 takes one input, and splits it into two halves (50% each) to output.
• The YINTEGRATOR and YANGLE blocks apply multiplication and subtraction to their three inputs, then sum the results to their sole output.

No, they may not unplug the two side cables. Only where there is a dark black box at the connection.

No, they may not open the boxes and alter their internal wiring.

Did you notice two words in the top part stand out? ("right" and "opposite")

Do the words "phase", "alternate", "right", and the current outputs suggest anything? (Think in terms of circles, degrees, values summing to 360)

Have you noticed the little symbols on the two side blocks? (They are the two halves of a Yin/Yang symbol)

How do you pronounce those two side blocks? (one way is to say YIN-tegrator and YANG-le)

If they can't make sense of YIN/YANG and "opposite", say "You know, I think I remember Professor Chronos saying something about the outputs having to be in opposite phase, 180 apart."

The word "right" suggests degree values of 0, 90, 180, 270. Specifically, the outputs must be made into 90 and 270.

Response to Correct Answer

Immediately send the appropriate email at the beginning of 2.10 Christmas Party