The MAX7219 component comes with a edge connector and a connecting cable
This edge connector needs to be soldered onto the Web Rd Module to connect the components
The ESP8266 01S Programmed for Niche-tec Web Connect is supplied preprogrammed with test software that displays a test pattern on the Dot Matrix display and is ready to connect to your LAN using one of the Free Web RD software packages available on the play store.
Assembling these three components will create the Consumer Web RD Display
Web RD or Web Remote Display is a stand alone display unit that has the ability to get data from the internet (LAN Required) and display it. This kit is a minimalist set of hardware to support this functionality. We have reduced the cost so you only need to buy the Kit you intend to use. We offer links to other providers that sell the components so you can source them at the lowest price. The Housing of the display is left to the user we have partnered with Xen Dragon 3d Printing to offer a 3d Printed housing:
We offer a free download from Cricut that creates a housing from cardboard that is free of any cost.
The formal method for calculating the experience award for a character has changed in many ways over the versions. But it still remains one of the most contentious issues as each GM is required to moderate the results and players generally argue that more experience is required. This article lists all the prescribed methods in one place.
Basic D&D
Sum up the Gold Piece value of the treasure taken the add 100* Hit dice of the monster then divide by the Characters Level
AD&D
Calculate the Gold piece value of treasure taken. Each GP taken adds 1 exp to the total Experience award
For each monster Add its BXPV to the HP*(XP/HP) add the SA*SAXPB and the EA*EAXPV to the total experience Award (These values are derived from a Table)
Divide the total Experience award equally between players
AD&D 2e
For each creature calculate the Hit Dice or Level of the Creature
Add the additional Hit Dice or levels from the Hit Dice Value Modifier table
Multiply by the number of Creatures of that type
Divide by the number of the characters
D&D 3.0
3.0 and 3.5 used the same experience calculation
D&D 3.5
Find each characters Level accounting for monster characters ECL
Find the CR for each monster defeated
Lookup the XP award for a single monster in a table like:
** Note this table is an approximation not the exact values
4. Divide by this number of Characters in the encounter
5. Add up this EXP awards for all the monsters defeated by each character
D&D 4e
Each Monster description has an experience point value
Total the experience points for all the monsters in an encounter
Divide by the number of characters
D&D 5e
Each Monster description has an experience point value
Total the experience points for all the monsters in an encounter
OK the poll is now closed. We asked 12 of the most popular Facebook RPG Groups “What TTRPG (Table Top Role Playing Game) have you played in the last year ?” and the the results are shown below.
The most popular by far was D&D5e (Definitely the Cocoa Cola of RPGs The surprise was that AD&D still appears to be the 2nd most popular with 3.5,2e and Pathfinder being less prevalent. The next amazing revelation was the sheer number of RPGs that are played.
Our draw for the lucky winner of a GMLight Core will take place today and they will be informed via Facebook Messenger.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and pandemic free new year.
Selling on Amazon proved to be a lot more work than I was anticipating I started to create a sellers account on the 27th of November and had finally created and account by the 5th of December the supporting documentation required was “extensive”. I then found that I should really register the GMLight Brand before selling items on amazon otherwise other sellers could hijack my amazon listing. So I started the Brand registry process. I also found out that I have to buy Bar codes to do this if I don’t want to create an amazon listing that may have issues later on ! when I get a Bar Code. Specifically all the reviews and ratings may become “lost”. So this was all done in time for Chistmas (but not in time to sell stuff) GMLight Core
The Web RD PCB has been updated to reduce the cost of the Web RD by removing the CP2102 USB to serial adapter and replacing it with a onboard voltage regulator. It does mean that this version wont be able to monitor UART debug from the ESP8266.
These have put into testing service and we anticipate release in the new year
Development of the CUMonitor hardware is progressing and the first boards acceptable for consumer release have arrives and are going thru soak testing.
CUMonitor PCB changes
The major changes have been to add the facility to power the board through a micro USB connector adding onboard voltage regulation of the 3.3v. The new A to D circuits can run without the the addition of a burden resistor so these have been removed. This means that the CUMonitor consumer PCB assumes that the 30A 1V current clamps will be used. But this should be OK form most household use cases. The surface mount spaces for the burden resistor have been left in case 100A clamps are required. There was a missing resistor on the previous board that is also fixed.
The CU Monitor PCB upgrade has involved quite a few changes. Moving to the ESP32S2 processor has meant completely revamping the build to use the newer and faster processor. Aside from doing away with the with the ADS1115 chip and reading the A to D values across the I2C bus the board has simplified in a number of other ways.
I’m pleased with the upgrade process even though the PCB board will have to be recreated. The porting meant using new libraries and did away with the I2C bus. There is lot more space on the chip for expansion and the number of samples per second has risen to more than 9000 from the few hundreds we had with the old design. The current run of PCB’s have burden resistors that are now redundant and one missing resistor from channel 2. But otherwise appear to work great. I’m soak testing them now before ordering some production quality boards and to see if there are any “undocumented software features” in the new libraries.
One change to go in is adjusting the recess of the jack plug sockets these need to be less as when the jack plugs are inserted thru the case they experience an ejection force because the case pushes the jack plugs away from the PCB. Also I need to add pylon holes to allow rapid alignment when the PCB is inserted into the case
A group of friends meet up in the idyllic setting that is a well converted barn in the rural wilds of the Isle of Wight on the 24th October(already sounds like a Plot from the ICFTLLLS). Instead of roving picturesque countryside that surrounds us we drag out of dusty bags and carryalls, pieces of paper and dice that have not seen the light of day for a dozen years and start chattering about characters long not used. Generating new characters and starting to a prepare for the week ahead
Two games a planned for the first weekend with two others in the wings in case there should be a gap in the gaming.
It came from the Late Late Late Night Movie Show
Golden Heroes
Space 1889
Melee,Magic and Maelstrom (my system)
It came from the Late Late Late show (ICFTLLLS :Saturday)
Is a tongue in cheek role playing game set in the world of American B movies where players play vapid and silly characters through suspect plots with hilarious consequences. Not at all serious this game resounds of with shouts of “Stunt Double !” as players try to muddle their way through a plot where cinematic treats such and red eyed zombies, EMP Bombs and cursed crystal skulls try to eat,blow up or possess the characters
The scenario: The players characters are attending an audition for a Movie set in the grounds of Rochester Castle which also happens to be the site on an Archaeological dig when a crystal skull is dug up by the Archaeologists! …. this explodes with an EMP blast which beside being inadequately explained resulted in black out of Rochester! and most of the population of Rochester being converted into Red eyed Zombies. The characters are then pursued through the streets of Rochester by Zombies…… After a charge up and down the A2 in a double decker bus the characters are pursued by supernatural forces and the movie climaxes with the characters detonating the SS Richard Mongonery on Nore sandbank in the Thames estuary near Sheerness to destroy the crystal Skull… A hugely cinematic ending to a days gaming.
Golden heros
Never a sensible game we played a mixture of eclectic Superheros through a meandering set of encounters where the players failed to deal with two different alien races some mainly marital/martial super villains and failed to stop the end of the world plot that was only saved by one players misspelling of martial meaning they were a marital expert rather than a Martial Arts expert and therefore could save the day. Far to little alcohol can be used as an excuse.
Melee Magic and Maelstrom
The climax of the high level parties trip to hell culminated in the return of the high level characters to the prime material plane only to find the BBEG laying in wait to ambush them with a fight including dragons and spell jamming space ships bombarding evil nasties with cannon fire. Suitably apocalyptic with my attempt to run two intersecting time lines where the away teams return from Hell was being intercepted by the BBEG and the characters left behind on the spell Jammer Charging in all guns blazing to rescue the beleaguered away team.
Space 1889
A game set in the Victorian era exposed the whole gamut of Victorian opinions, bigotries and inhibitions. The party, a mixture of minor nobility, anarchists , domestic staff and common tradesmen foiled a Prussian plot to steal “secrets” that would tilt the balance of power. With cameo appearances from Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. The party followed the trail of breadcrumb clues down the Nile to a mysterious pyramid.
Unamed
A system that still remains unnamed after more than 35 years of existence. A table top FRP game set in a bespoke medieval fantasy world with magic and combat with 35 years of player lore and campaigning. The players were tasked with finding out why NPCs were disappearing from a local community …. A classic and almost traditional trope for a fantasy setting. Resulting in a delve into local limestone caves populated by Bug Bears and Spider themed bad guys.
Nuclear Armageddon !!!
A number of table top board games were played through out the a week:
The game Warlord apparently “the Original game” that the Games Workshop game of the 1980-90s previously known to me as Apocalypse was based on.
Nuclear war and Nuclear Proliferation
Bit of a Nuclear Armageddon theme I thought ! These games were played in a tongue in cheek Homage by those of us who grew up in the shadow of the mushroom cloud and now are nearing retirement. Much to the confusion of the Younger generation players.
The Little Barn, Dungewood lane, Shorwell IOW
A great place to holiday with friendly and helpful management, Richard and Susan were fantastic hosts we heartily recommend this venue for your stay on the IOW. They coped very well with our group of eccentric table top game players. Thank you both we had a fabulous time
My only regret was that we didn’t make the time to visit the stunning local scenery… Please pardon a bunch of philistines who don’t meet up often enough for not taking advantage of your fantastic local sights. The sunrises thru the patio doors are Epic !
GM Light is an actual product now, rather than an idea in my head! I suppose I need to explain what it is and where it originated, well I have been a player of fantasy role playing games since I was at university in the 1980s initially as a player but very soon after, a GM. I have run many campaigns over the years and one thing that struck me was the sheer quantity of papers and paraphernalia that a GM ends up carrying to a game session. This is my attempt to reduce the amount of stuff you have to tote. Also you can bet if you roll a random encounter you won’t have the exact figure for the monster.
GM light is my solution. I have sourced 310 tokens of all the typical monsters and bad guys to allow a phys. rep. of the monster to be placed down. The numbers of the tokens lend themselves to creating a random encounter for most encounters. Rather than have a fold out battle mat which has issues with the creases and laying flat I have created two sided dry wipe tiles.
Because I wanted to cover as many role playing game systems as possible, I came up with the idea of the flavour pack. The full GM travel set comprises the GM Light core set and a flavour pack.
The flavour pack will have all the extras that are specific to a game system like monster stat cards, a combat tracker, a GM screen and a spell template. This way generic monsters from myth, folklore and popular fiction can be reused with the flavour pack for each game system.
Possible flavour packs include :
DnD 5th Edition
Pathfinder 2nd Edition
DnD 3.5
Pathfinder
Chivalry and Sorcery
Runequest
Basic Fantasy RPG
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4E
King Arthur Pendragon
Middle Earth Role Playing
GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System)
GM Light core could support all of them (once the appetite for GM light Core is proven) but practically, before paying for the development of flavor packs for games that may no longer be played. I need find some way to identify which are still relevant. Comments on how to poll the community please !
The GM travel kit will provide most of the reference material and game mechanics required to run a fantasy role playing game in a handy pack, significantly reducing the amount of materials required to run a session.
The CU monitor senses the current flow at the two points marked. It’s important to realise that even if the voltage generated by the Grid tie inverter has exactly the same peak voltage as the National Grid the current draw into the house may vary throughout the waveform because the loads in the house are not perfectly resistive and the current consumption of devices in the house will not be linear with voltage. Practically, this may result in current flowing into the house at some parts of the waveform and out at others. This means that the current at the the solar panels and the Grid tie inverter input feed will have an ambiguity, adding a safe margin ensures that current flow in or out throughout the whole of the waveform can be accounted for.
The current will be in phase with the voltage for a purely resistive load, will lead the voltage for a capacitive load and will trail for an inductive load. We need to measure the current at the sensors throughout a full cycle so this can be assessed and we can do this by sampling the current multiple times throughout the 50Hz cycle to calculate the aggregate current.
Reasonable number of samples
Each current data point sample has to be individually processed (read, scaled and logged). To give a reasonable approximation of the current flowing throughout the cycle, I insisted that a minimum of 10 samples are taken each cycle
This means the sample frequency needs to be at least 500hz per channel to sample a 50Hz cycle. Both the output from the Grid tie inverter and Grid feed need to be sampled. My first design used the ESP8266 ESP01S card which was able to achieve this but the I2C bus connecting the ADS1115 to it was having problems keeping up switching between the two channels and all the other processing.
The Grid connection in my perception is the most dynamic link, potentially switching direction more times than the other sample point. I decided to over sample this link while maintaining the 500hz minimum for the Grid Tie Inverter so I started using the ESP12
This was marginally more expensive than ESP01S but provided access to a 12bit on board ADC that allowed for this oversampling.
This combination worked well but meant only one channel of the 4 Channel ADS1115 was being used.
Having two components is more costly. The cost of ADS1115 plus the cost of the ESP8266 ESP12 is more expensive than the ESP32-S2-WROOM (which supports multiple ADCs). So I have redesigned the PCB to use this processor.