As is usual for a Python script, we start by importing what is needed, and initializing the hardware. Most of what we need is in the (Neo)TrellisM4 Express class. However, the accelerometer has to be set up separately.
import math import time import random import board import adafruit_trellism4 import adafruit_adxl34x import busio # Set up the trellis and accelerometer trellis = adafruit_trellism4.TrellisM4Express() i2c = busio.I2C(board.ACCELEROMETER_SCL, board.ACCELEROMETER_SDA) accelerometer = adafruit_adxl34x.ADXL345(i2c)
Since we want to display numbers on the Trellis's pixels, we need to define the bitmaps. The approach used is to use a string of three characters (the width of each glyph). Here we use spaces and asterisks to denote unlit/lit pixels. A 3x4 grid isn't much to work with, but this font does ok. See http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/24172.htm by Adam Simpson.
number_patterns = [
[" * ", "* *", "* *", "***"], # 0
[" * ", "** ", " * ", "***"], # 1
["** ", " *", " * ", "***"], # 2
["** ", " *", " **", "***"], # 3
["* *", "* *", "***", " *"], # 4
["***", "* ", " **", "***"], # 5
[" **", "* ", "***", "***"], # 6
["***", " *", " * ", " * "], # 7
[" * ", "* *", "***", "***"], # 8
[" * " ,"* *", " **", " *"] # 9
]
Now that the look of the digits is decided, we need to display them. First we need a function to display a single digit. Since this will be used for both the ones and tens place, it will need to have a parameter telling it where to display its digit; that's offset. Since each type of die will have it's own color, that needs to be passed in as well. Finally there's a flag to specify whether a zero will be displayed or left blank. Why? If the number is less than 10 it would be nice to suppress the leading 0.
The display_digit function simply gets the pixel pattern for the value of the number parameter, and loops through the rows and columns setting each pixel based on the pattern.
def display_digit(number, offset, color, force_zero):
"""Display a digit.
number -- the number (0-9) to display
offset -- the left-most column of the displayed digit
color -- the RGB color to use to display the digit
force_zero -- whether to leave a 0 blank (False) or display it
"""
bits = number_patterns[number]
for row in range(4):
for col in range(3):
if bits[row][col] == " " or (number == 0 and not force_zero):
trellis.pixels[col + offset, row] = (0, 0, 0)
else:
trellis.pixels[col + offset, row] = color
Now that a single digit can be displayed, that function gets used in another that is responsible for displaying the entire number. This displays the ones digit, and then the tens digit (suppressing it if it's a leading zero). Note that if the number is 100 or more, the tens digit is always displayed.
What happens next is a bit different. Since a roll with several larger dice could result in a number greater than will fit in two digits, the hundreds place uses the otherwise unused pixels on the far left to indicate 100, 200, 300, or 400. This is just a matter of scanning through, lighting the appropriate one.
That's it other than a bit of range checking on the number being displayed.
def display_number(number, color):
"""Display a multi-digit number.
If the number is > 99, the hundreds digit (1-4) is indicated on the far left column:
100 is the top pixel, 400 is the bottom.
number -- the number to display
color -- the RGB color to use to display the digit
force_zeros -- whether to leave a 0 in the tens place blank (False) or display it
"""
if number >= 500 or number < 0:
return False
display_digit(number % 10, 5, color, True)
display_digit((number // 10) % 10, 1, color, number >= 100)
hundreds = number // 100
for h in range(4):
if h + 1 == hundreds:
trellis.pixels[0, h] = (255, 255, 255)
else:
trellis.pixels[0, h] = (0, 0, 0)
return True
While we could just slap a number onto the display without fanfare, it's far more interesting to have some animation suggesting rolling dice.
That's what the animate_to function does. Simply, it displays 10 random two digit numbers with a slight delay between them. After that's done, the number to be displayed is shown.
def animate_to(number, color):
"""Perform an animation (displaying random numbers) before displaying the requested number.
number -- the number to eventually display
color -- the color to use (indicates the type of dice used)
"""
for _ in range(10):
trellis.pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))
display_number(random.randint(10, 99), color, True)
time.sleep(0.1)
trellis.pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))
display_number(number, color)
Now that we can display numbers we need numbers to display.
That's where the roll function comes in. It has parameters for the number of dice to roll, as well as the number of sides those dice have. It generates the specified number of random integers between 1 and the number of sides and returns the sum.
def roll(number, sides):
"""Generate a random dice roll.
Returns the total of the roll.
number -- the number of dice to roll
sides -- the number of side on dice to roll (4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20)
"""
total = 0
for _ in range(number):
total += random.randint(1, sides + 1)
return total
As mentioned earlier, we want to roll the dice when the Trellis is shaken. To know when that happens we need to use the accelerometer. The approach to detecting a shake is inspired by this article. Put simply, look for sudden significant changes in all accelerometer axis. To do that we keep track of the previous reading, and compare the new one to it.
The bound variable is the threshold for axis change.
previous_reading = [None, None, None]
bound = 4.0
def shaken():
"""Detect when the Trellis is shaken.
See http://www.profoundlogic.com/docs/display/PUI/Accelerometer+Test+for+Shaking
TL;DR one or more axis experiences a significant (set by bound) change very quickly
Returns whether a shake was detected.
"""
global previous_reading
result = False
x, y, z = accelerometer.acceleration
if previous_reading[0] is not None:
result = (math.fabs(previous_reading[0] - x) > bound and
math.fabs(previous_reading[1] - y) > bound and
math.fabs(previous_reading[2] - z) > bound)
previous_reading = (x, y, z)
return result
Finally, we have the main loop.
Each time through, we start by clearing the display and initializing the shake detector.
Next we have another loop that cycles until a shake is detected. In this loop we check for presses in the top two rows and process them into the number and type of die to roll. By looping until a shake is detected, we can keep adjusting count and die until we're ready to roll.
Once a shake is detected, we confirm that both count and die have, indeed, been selected. If so the dice are rolled and the result displayed in the appropriate color. It's displayed for 5 seconds, or until any key is pressed.
Then the outer loop restarts.
selected_count = -1
selected_die = -1
while True:
trellis.pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))
previous_reading = accelerometer.acceleration
while not shaken():
# update selected count/die if a respective selection has been made
pressed = trellis.pressed_keys # Get the pressed buttons
count_selector = [key for key in pressed if key[1] == 0] # first row presses
die_selector = [key for key in pressed if key[1] == 1] # second row presses
if len(count_selector) > 0:
selected_count = count_selector[0][0] + 1
if len(die_selector) > 0 and die_selector[0][0] < 6: # only 6 types of dice
selected_die = die_selector[0][0]
# update the pixels to reflect the selections
for i in range(8):
if i < selected_count: # Display a bar for the count
trellis.pixels[i, 0] = (128, 64, 16)
else:
trellis.pixels[i, 0] = (0, 0, 0)
if i == selected_die: # Just the selected dice, in the appropriate color
trellis.pixels[i, 1] = die_colors[selected_die]
else:
trellis.pixels[i, 1] = (0, 0, 0)
# Only do the roll if both count and die have been selected
if (selected_count > -1) and (selected_die > -1):
animate_to(roll(selected_count, sides_per_die[selected_die]), die_colors[selected_die])
timeout = time.monotonic() + 5.0
while len(trellis.pressed_keys) == 0 and time.monotonic() < timeout:
pass
The full code is below. Save it as code.py on your Trellis's CIRCUITPY drive.
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2018 Dave Astels for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
"""
Dice roller for the NeoTrellisM4
Adafruit invests time and resources providing this open source code.
Please support Adafruit and open source hardware by purchasing
products from Adafruit!
Written by Dave Astels for Adafruit Industries
Copyright (c) 2018 Adafruit Industries
Licensed under the MIT license.
All text above must be included in any redistribution.
"""
# pylint: disable=global-statement
import math
import time
import random
import board
import adafruit_trellism4
import adafruit_adxl34x
import busio
# Set up the trellis and accelerometer
trellis = adafruit_trellism4.TrellisM4Express()
i2c = busio.I2C(board.ACCELEROMETER_SCL, board.ACCELEROMETER_SDA)
accelerometer = adafruit_adxl34x.ADXL345(i2c)
# a 3-wide, 4-tall fonts for 0-9
# Each string is a row with a space being unlit, and anything else being lit.
number_patterns = [
[" * ", "* *", "* *", "***"], # 0
[" * ", "** ", " * ", "***"], # 1
["** ", " *", " * ", "***"], # 2
["** ", " *", " **", "***"], # 3
["* *", "* *", "***", " *"], # 4
["***", "* ", " **", "***"], # 5
[" **", "* ", "***", "***"], # 6
["***", " *", " * ", " * "], # 7
[" * ", "* *", "***", "***"], # 8
[" * " ,"* *", " **", " *"] # 9
]
sides_per_die = [4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20]
die_colors = [
(255, 0, 0), # d4
(0, 255, 0), # d6
(0, 0, 255), # d8
(255, 255, 0), # d10
(0, 255, 255), # d12
(255, 0, 255)] # d20
def display_digit(number, offset, color, force_zero):
"""Display a digit.
number -- the number (0-9) to display
offset -- the left-most column of the displayed digit
color -- the RGB color to use to display the digit
force_zero -- whether to leave a 0 blank (False) or display it
"""
bits = number_patterns[number]
for row in range(4):
for col in range(3):
if bits[row][col] == " " or (number == 0 and not force_zero):
trellis.pixels[col + offset, row] = (0, 0, 0)
else:
trellis.pixels[col + offset, row] = color
def display_number(number, color):
"""Display a multi-digit number.
If the number is > 99, the hundreds digit (1-4) is indicated on the far left column:
100 is the top pixel, 400 is the bottom.
number -- the number to display
color -- the RGB color to use to display the digit
force_zeros -- whether to leave a 0 in the tens place blank (False) or display it
"""
if number >= 500 or number < 0:
return False
display_digit(number % 10, 5, color, True)
display_digit((number // 10) % 10, 1, color, number >= 100)
hundreds = number // 100
for h in range(4):
if h + 1 == hundreds:
trellis.pixels[0, h] = (255, 255, 255)
else:
trellis.pixels[0, h] = (0, 0, 0)
return True
def animate_to(number, color):
"""Perform an animation (displaying random numbers) before displaying the requested number.
number -- the number to eventually display
color -- the color to use (indicates the type of dice used)
"""
for _ in range(10):
trellis.pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))
display_number(random.randint(10, 99), color)
time.sleep(0.1)
trellis.pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))
display_number(number, color)
def roll(number, sides):
"""Generate a random dice roll.
Returns the total of the roll.
number -- the number of dice to roll
sides -- the number of side on dice to roll (4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20)
"""
total = 0
for _ in range(number):
total += random.randint(1, sides + 1)
return total
previous_reading = [None, None, None]
bound = 4.0
def shaken():
"""Detect when the Trellis is shaken.
See http://www.profoundlogic.com/docs/display/PUI/Accelerometer+Test+for+Shaking
TL;DR one or more axis experiences a significant (set by bound) change very quickly
Returns whether a shake was detected.
"""
global previous_reading
result = False
x, y, z = accelerometer.acceleration
if previous_reading[0] is not None:
result = (math.fabs(previous_reading[0] - x) > bound and
math.fabs(previous_reading[1] - y) > bound and
math.fabs(previous_reading[2] - z) > bound)
previous_reading = (x, y, z)
return result
selected_count = -1
selected_die = -1
while True:
trellis.pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))
previous_reading = accelerometer.acceleration
while not shaken():
# update selected count/die if a respective selection has been made
pressed = trellis.pressed_keys # Get the pressed buttons
count_selector = [key for key in pressed if key[1] == 0] # first row presses
die_selector = [key for key in pressed if key[1] == 1] # second row presses
if len(count_selector) > 0:
selected_count = count_selector[0][0] + 1
if len(die_selector) > 0 and die_selector[0][0] < 6: # only 6 types of dice
selected_die = die_selector[0][0]
# update the pixels to reflect the selections
for i in range(8):
if i < selected_count: # Display a bar for the count
trellis.pixels[i, 0] = (128, 64, 16)
else:
trellis.pixels[i, 0] = (0, 0, 0)
if i == selected_die: # Just the selected dice, in the appropriate color
trellis.pixels[i, 1] = die_colors[selected_die]
else:
trellis.pixels[i, 1] = (0, 0, 0)
# Only do the roll if both count and die have been selected
if (selected_count > -1) and (selected_die > -1):
animate_to(roll(selected_count, sides_per_die[selected_die]), die_colors[selected_die])
timeout = time.monotonic() + 5.0
while len(trellis.pressed_keys) == 0 and time.monotonic() < timeout:
pass
Page last edited January 22, 2025
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