We went to Carmelo's Ristorante here is St. Paul and we went with fellow coffee bloggers Kinda Different. So the restaurant has a European feel to it, with lots of photos of Italian scenery. And the decaf had a European flavor to it. Very distinct flavor, it was really good.
So we'd give it a number 4. It was hot, so a number 4 for that one too. For refills we'd give it a number 4 and for price it was only $1.95. The link to Carmelo's, is carmelos.com but link for another great coffee blog is kindadifferent.net.
We went to the Chanhassen dinner theater to see the show Newsies, it was a really good show, and the coffee service was super!
So I got my decaf right away and it was hot. The flavor was okay, a number 3. But the incredible thing is that I had coffee with dinner then, at intermission, they brought a fresh pot of coffee! It was great. I was just thinking that I could use another a cup of coffee during intermission and then there she was, a whole pot. It was tremendous. The other thing was the coffee was included with the meal, there was no extra charge for all of that coffee.  And they did a great job with the production of Newsies.
We went to Carbone's. Of course you have to have coffee with pizza too right. I ordered a decaf and they made a fresh pot for me, so it was really hot. Like a number 5. And the flavor was alright, it was a number 3. For refills I'd have to give them a number 3 for that too, because I had to ask a couple of times. But the price was really good, it was only $1.50. So we'll give them a 1 and a half for that ( ;) ). The only thing is they have powdered creamers. I don't really care for that too much. But it worked out okay.
They have really good pizza there at Carbone's. It's the one in St. Paul on Randolph. It's been there since the 50's. And the kids always liked that pizza too. It is a thin crust and they cut it in squares. So we really like the pizza there. And the decaf? Well it was okay.
We went to Fabulous Fern's on Selby Avenue.  And they do a great job with big groups. We've done that before a couple of times. They do have the 18% gratuity for 8 or more people, but they have lots of room. They have a big dining area, great french fries, and really good desserts too. But I'm here to talk about the coffee.
So the decaf coffee was really hot. It was a number 5. It had a pretty good flavor. A number 4. And for refills, I'm only going to give them a 3, because I had to ask for refills a couple of times. The price was $2.95, so we'll give them a 2.95. So I guess we'll give them 3 dollar signs on that one.
As a sad update, Fabulous Fern's is now permanently closed. I can't believe they are closed because it was always busy. I hope my #3 refill rating wasn't part of their downfall. We will have to find a new place for our group.
We went to Applebee's, the one in Eagan, there are a lot of Applebee's around lately. So I ordered my decaf. They made me a fresh pot. They had a nice ceramic mug and a nice presentation, with the creamers and spoon on a little plate.
It was really hot. And the flavor, well, it was average. Like a #3. For the refills I'd give them a #4, they were really good about that and they brought a fresh mug out every time. So they didn't bring a pot and fill your mug, they'd just bring another mug of coffee out. The price was $2.39, so we'll give that a 2. It's always nice to have a fresh pot of hot, fresh decaf with your dinner.
The Cherokee Tavern. I went there on the week of my birthday because on Thursday on the week of your birthday you get a free steak dinner at a $20 value (!) I ordered my decaf coffee and it was pretty good. It was a number 4 for flavor and the temperature was a number 4. It could have been a little hotter. Could have been better with the refills. Although, he did make me a fresh pot of coffee, so that was great. But for the refills I still have to give him a 3 for the frequency. The price was $2.75, so that would be a $$ for the price.
Also for your birthday you get a little piece of cake for dessert. It's kind of neat, they write "Happy Birthday" in chocolate sauce on your plate. That's when I had my fresh pot of coffee, at the end with my cake. It was really good.
We went to Valley Natural Foods in Burnsville. So they are the food co-op for the South metro. I heard that they have the "best" decaf, so I had to go check it out. And I must admit, it was pretty good. I had an Americano and the large was only $2.50, so I thought that was a pretty good deal. It was very hot, a number 5, and yeah, pretty good, so a number 4.
It was a nice spot in the front of the store with tables, chairs, and a lot of natural light. They have a lot of windows and the sun was out. Of course it was a cold day, but it was nice and sunny having our coffee inside. I'm not sure what the coffee was, but the cream was an organic cream. It is a place that promotes eating healthy and community. They have a lot of things going on there about organic foods, eating healthy, classes, and things like that. And there are no refills, so we can't give them a score for refills, but it was very good coffee.
There's a new restaurant in Highland, Agra Culture, on Cleveland and Highland Parkway. Great. Place. All of their booths have plug-ins for your electronics, it's pretty neat.
So with my food I ordered decaf and they made me an Americano. It was really hot, a number 5, but the flavor, well, it was like a 3 and 1/2. It seemed a little watered down and it was $3 so that would give it a #3 on the price. And for refills, they didn't have any refills but they had their regular coffee out, a light roast and a dark roast in an airpot (SP?), so I had refills of regular coffee. So on refills for the decaf we'd have to just give them a number 1.
We went to the Louisiana Cafe on Selby Avenue. They have the same menu as the Grandview Grill, except their specials are different. They have a little more cajun feel to their specials. They serve Morningstar coffee, they have a nice sized mug which I like, and it was $2.75 so we'll have to give it a 2 for the price. The temperature was hot, like a number 5, but the flavor was only average, like a 3. But they did have a really good flavored creamer, caramel macchiato which was "mmm mmm good." The refills were great, I'd have to give them a number 5 on that, and they have a parking lot there which is a nice thing on Selby Avenue. They also have a large dining room so I remember we've went there with a big group before.
We went to the Highland Cafe and Bakery and the coffee was really hot. They had this great thermo-karaf, so I'd have to give their temperature a number 5. Because I got a whole karaf of coffee, I have to give the refills a number 5 as well. However, the flavor was only a number 2, so luckily there was regular coffee there too. Although the half-caff was good, the decaf was only a number 2 for flavor and it was $2.50 so it'd be a number 2.5 for price. We usually go there for brunch or breakfast, but it's also a really good place for lunch or dinner too so we've done that a few times. They have a lot of really good bakery stuff too. They bake it right there and they have all kinds of pies, cakes, caramel rolls, and cinnamon rolls. So, it's a good place to go but make sure when you order the decaf, somebody else orders the regular coffee so that you get a really good cup of coffee.
We were in of the University of Minnesota area so we stopped at Kafe, with a "K," 421. It's in Dinkytown actually. It's a very nice restaurant and we wanted to stop there to celebrate an academic achievement, so that was pretty neat. As the decaf coffee, hmm, the best thing about it is that they are really good on the refills. So I'd give them a number 5 for that. For flavor, it was a 3, so I guess it was about average. But then it wasn't that hot, so I'd have to give it a 3 on temperature. And 2 for the price because it was $2.50. So it was a nice place to go for a celebration but the coffee wasn't the best, but the refill service was fantastic.
We stopped at Augustine's Bar & Bakery last night for dinner. It was kind of a late dinner but there were still a few tables there. It's over on Selby avenue and it used to be laundry mat but they've transformed it into a great restaurant. So we ordered our dinner and I ordered my decaf coffee. She said she would make it an americano (!) I guess they have a different coffee service there. The flavor was good, it was fresh coffee, and it was nice and hot. Wo we'll have to give it a 5 for flavor and a 4 for temperature. And for refills, they offered me a refill on my americano which was great for me. When I was there once before, they made a pot of decaf for me when I asked about refills. So I'd have to give them a 5 for refils because they are going above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that I had a refil on my coffee. As for price, it is a number 3 because it's $3 coffee.
We went to the cousins' lunch today and we went to Lucky's 13 in Burnsville. And the decaf was good. I'd say, I was debating between a 3 and 4, but I guess we'll go with a 4 on that one. And it was hot. For the refills, they always brought a new mug out. Which, I don't know, was kinda neat. Instead of bringing a pot of coffee, they'd brought a fresh mug out for you. As for refills, it wasn't the best. You always had to ask or refills, but I did have enough. So I guess we could give them a 4 on that one too. And they also have their breakfast specials go until1 o'clock on the weekends. So some people had lunch and some people had breakfast. They had some really neat breakfast specials. And of course, it's always good to get together and talk about the good old days over a cup of coffee and breakfast or lunch.
Stopped at Peace Coffee today for free coffee. I got a coupon from the Chinook Book, a coupon book where you can get all kinds of things when you buy the book. And the coffee was fantastic. It was really hot. I had to put a sleeve on my cup it was so hot. And the flavor was good. They called it "blanched almond and golden raisin". That may be a little dramatic, but it did have really good flavor. So I'd definitely have to give the flavor a 5 and a 5 for temperature. You'll have to check on the price when you go, I got mine for free. One suggestion for improvement, they didn't have the decaf server labelled so the barista had to help.
A real steak house: they have 4 menu items and 3 of them are steak. The other one is shrimp. You get potato, salad, and bread with your steak dinner (unless you want the shrimp of course).
I got the decaf coffee and it was really hot, so a number 5 on that one. And they kept it full. They brought me a pot and then they brought me another pot. The flavor was okay, so that'd be a 3. And for the price I'd give it a 2.95 ;) It was $2.95 for the coffee.
It said Folgers on the coffee pot, but i'm not really sure if it was Folgers or not. But it was okay coffee.
They do have a birthday club there too, so I would sign up for that. Then you can get a steak dinner for free if you get one that's a certain price, or you get a certain amount off on your bill. So that's a pretty good way to celebrate your birthday: a steak dinner and a pot of decaf coffee.
1818 Grand Ave, St Paul, MN 55105
So the Grandview Grill has Morningstar Coffee and it is $2.75 so I guess that would be a high 2. The regular coffee was good, but the decaf was only so-so, a little weak. But it was nice and hot, like a number 4. And the refill service was excellent, so I'd have to give that a number 5. They didn't give us a pot of coffee, but the waitress was already right there whenever you needed more coffee.
1570 Selby Ave, St Paul, MN 55104
The Neighborhood Cafe. The flavor was a 3, no, we'll go for 4. The coffee was really hot, so I would say it was a 4 for the temperature. Also it's hard to find a parking spot over there on Selby and Snelling.  So that was the only bad thing about the Neighborhood Cafe is that it's hard to park. They are really fast. They had my coffee at the table right away. When she came back to check on us, I asked for the refills. And we had a couple of "farmer's breakfasts," which are a really good deal. So it was a great experience at the Neighborhood Cafe
I have a Neighborhood Cafe update:
I found out they use Dunn Brother's Coffee which is roasted like 3 blocks away from the restaurant, so that's why their coffee is so good!
1420 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55403
We went to Salsa a la Salsa which is in the Midtown Global Market. The coffee was super!  They were clear, glass mugs that are kind of tall. So the coffee even looks good in it.
They made a fresh pot of decaf for me. It was nice, hot, and fresh. So I'd have to give it number 5 for temperature. The flavor was good so, let's see, we'll give that a number 4 and the price was a number 3 because it was $3 bucks. And then the refills, I'd give that a number 5, they were really good about keeping my cup full. They used to validate parking which was a bonus, however the last time we were there they did not. So that was a plus. So it was good coffee, we had a nice lunch, and free parking so that was super.
2239 Ford Pkwy, St Paul, MN 55116
Baker Square coffee! We went to Baker Square today. I must say we go to Baker Square quite a bit. Because we like breakfast and brunch I guess. But their coffee isn't as good as it used to be. And my decaf panel of experts agreed with me, that years ago Baker Square coffee was better. It lacks flavor. So for flavor I would give it a number 2. But I will say, they are terrific on refills because they give you a pot of coffee right away. The coffee is really hot and the price is reasonable. Talk about hot coffee! At Baker Square they even give you a hot cup. The last couple of times I stopped there I noticed that the cup is actually hot before you even pour your coffee. What a great idea!
So if they went back to how they brewed in the 90's, I think they'd be all set. It seems like they used to grind their beans fresh then. They had a different coffee service in how they had it set up. Now, they brew the coffee in the back, they don't have it out by the customers so I can't tell how they do it. But it definitely doesn't have the flavor it used to have.
Update: I found a new favorite pie to go with my coffee, chocolate hazelnut silk. So this is Decaf Doug ™ from Baker Square. We usually go to Highland, but I guess they have a few around. Okay! Bye.
232 Fairview Ave S, St Paul, MN 55105
So I went to SuperAmerica for coffee and got a free coffee, but they didn't have any decaf! So I got the regular Colombian Supremo. It was super hot, so I'd have to give it a number 5 for that. I had to wait a minute before I could actually start drinking my coffee (!), which is really hot. The flavor was okay.  And then the price was super, because it was free for Coffee Day. But it's usually a dollar, 99¢ is what they advertise. It was kind of disappointing that they didn't have decaf. It's the afternoon so I was really looking forward to drinking decaf. So I can't really drink all of my regular coffee. So I'll have to pace myself and maybe save some for tomorrow morning.
Happy Coffee Day!
123 West Market, Bloomington, MN 55425
So Holiday coffee, I can't believe they have a shop set-up just like if you went into the gas station, but it's at the Mall of America! So you can get your Holiday coffee right there. The flavor of the decaf was only about a 2, but it was hot and it was fresh. This was in the afternoon, but they were still making more coffee. They had flavored creamers, so I was able to flavor up my decaf with hazelnut. So that was pretty good. There were no refills, but I had a coupon for free 20 ounce cup, so that was a pretty good deal. It's a pretty good price I would think in general, I don't usually get Holiday coffee
981 Sibley Memorial Hwy, St Paul, MN 55118
We went out to I Nonni in Mendota Heights along the banks of the Mississippi River. We asked for a window seat, they had the curtains closed but you could still kind of see out the window. The coffee was very good, number 5 for sure. It was hot so I think that would be a 5 on temperature too. And she kept my cup full so that would be a 5 again (!), but the price was high.
It was a bigger cup, maybe a 12 oz cup, but it was a nice shaped coffee cup. The waitress would fill it around 3/4s full which was good because then you could put your cream in there with a little spoon to stir with. And I think it stayed hotter until you got down to the bottom of the cup because it wasn't so full And we had a Groupon, so we got a good deal on the food. But, of course, the decaf was the most important thing and that was excellent.
2186 Marshall Ave, St Paul, MN 55104
We're in St. Paul at the Heirloom restaurant. The coffee flavor was really good. I'd have to give it a 4. But as for the service, they didn't always keep my cup full. So I had to ask for a cup. Once a waiter did offer me a cup and he talked about decaf, but afterwards he brought me a cup of regular instead. He realized what he had done and I did get my decaf. So for refills I'd have to say it was about a 3 and for temperature I'd say about a 4.
9008 Cahill Ave, Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076
We stopped at Caribou Coffee for decaf today and got a flavored coffee. It was a decaf milk chocolate mocha. They have a Tuesday special in August: 2 menu items for $5 dollars. So it was a really good deal. And it was hot and delicious. That's the nice thing about a coffee shop, when they roast the coffee and grind the coffee fresh it always has a great flavor. But then again, you don't get any refills. Although I could have drank both coffees instead of giving one away ;) hmmmm...
So let's see, taste was really good, it was a delicious coffee, and it was hot But there were no refils. $2.50 is kind of a high price if you don't get any refills. So it kind of depends on what you want This is Decaf Doug ™ signing off.
1100 Grand Ave, St Paul, MN 55105
Hello, this is Decaf Doug ™. The flavor was about average. I guess we could give the temperature a 5, it was really hot coffee. The refill frequency was good. They didn't give me a pot, and they were really busy, but when my cup was empty they were still there within a minute. But the price was kind of high. It was $2.95 which I think makes them in a higher price range. The regular coffee did have a little more flavor than the decaf, but I don't know if that's a typical thing. So the Uptowner was very busy but still kept my coffee filled, it was hot, and it had a good flavor. They had a higher priced coffee but they had a coupon for my food, so it was like getting free coffee. Also, as a side note, they have free parking in the back before 3 o'clock which is always a good thing on Grand Avenue. This is Decaf Doug ™, signing out.
244 Cleveland Ave S, St Paul, MN 55105
Hello, this is Decaf Doug ™. I stopped at Snuffy's today and even though the coffee was average tasting but they were exceptional in refills. In fact, they even gave me a to-go cup and made two fresh pots of coffee! My cup was always filled so I never ran out of coffee. Even when I left I had coffee. The temperature was great, it was very hot, just how I like it. I think I covered everything. I'd recommend it. And then if you go for food they usually have a coupon, but that may be another story.
2231 Killebrew Dr, Bloomington, MN 55425
The IHOP coffee was hot and fresh and they even brought me a second pot when I asked for more coffee. They were quick about it so I never had an empty cup. The coffee had a good flavor but wasn't very strong coffee while still robust. It was hot and fresh and good tasting coffee. It was an average price at $2.29. The last time I was at an IHOP they even gave me a to-go cup for my coffee, so they are super about getting you all the coffee that you could possibly drink. And that's important for Decaf Doug ™, to be able to have a sip of coffee all of the time.
393 Selby Ave, St Paul, MN 55102
I liked the size of their mug. It was a great size, probably a 16 ounce mug, and the coffee was fresh. They made a fresh pot for me and the flavor was pretty good.
1096 Grand Ave, St Paul, MN 55105
The Lexington had the best coffee service ever. My cup was aways full. They had a little coffee server with about 2 cups of coffee in it and the coffee was always fresh too. And it was good tasting coffee, with fresh cream in a little pitcher. Very nice.
1580 St. Clair Avenue St. Paul, MN
Hey coffee lovers. I went to the Broiler today and I had an empty cup for a long time. Usually they are pretty good. Sometimes they bring a pot, but the waiter wanted to serve one cup at a time. And they had a lot of servers so I don't know what the deal was. But their coffee is pretty good, it was hot, and freshly brewed.
 Lifestyle
Decaf Doug's Wisconsin Wedding
A little too hot for a tuxedo, but never too hot for coffee
We went to a wedding in Salem, Wisconsin at Stein Farms. It's a big wedding center, it's a beautiful setting. It was catered by the Stowell's Catering Service out of Burlington, Wisconsin, not to be confused with the Burlington Coat Factory as the groom did when he first met the bride.
After the wedding the first thing I looked for in the dining room was the coffee. It was at the cake table with their wedding cake and cookies. The wedding cake didn't have the usual decorations and I heard that they call that a "naked cake." It was okay coffee, a number 3, it had a decent flavor. In fact it was better than the IHOP coffee we had earlier in the day on the drive down. It was really hot, a number 5. And the temperature outside was really hot too, it was over 90 degrees and the wedding was outside. We had all kinds of record highs for Memorial Weekend this year.
The coffee was in a percolator pot but it didn't get bitter over the course of the day, my last cup of coffee was almost as good as my first. It was enough coffee, I just had to go over and keep filling my cup. And I was close to the coffee so that was pretty handy.
All in all it was a great wedding. Best wishes and congratulations to the lovely bride and the groovy groom.
We went to the St. Mark's festival last week. It was a really neat deal. They have rides for the kids, food, and music. They also had decaf coffee!
So I thought the first thing I would do is get a cup of decaf coffee and it was a dollar. But they didn't have refills. However, the interesting thing is that they were sponsored by Coffee Bené which is down on Cleveland and is part of Davanni's pizza and hoagies.
It was okay coffee, I'd give it a 3. The price was low, but you only got one cup, there were no free refills. But the temperature was a 5, it was really hot coffee, I was kind of surprised. They've got a really good air-pot there that kept the temperature really hot. Overall, it was fun to sit outside, listen to the music, and have dinner. They have a lot of different foods there. It was a fun time at the St. Mark's festival.
Decaf Doug "Sip of the Day" ™
Cover your coffee
Now that the snow's off the roads, we are finding all these potholes and running into them!
It's bad enough you could damage your car, but for sure you don't want to spill your cup of coffee.
For coffee nuts like me!
With the cold weather and the holidays coming, another tradition is We Are Nuts. They are only open October to January and they freshly roast nuts each day. It is a really good place for your holiday baking. And this year they are roasting coffee! We tried the coffee from We Are Nuts, but I must say, it lacks flavor. It lacks body. It wasn't that great. We got the regular coffee to try it and decided it would be better to make it half-and-half with decaf. Because it really doesn't have the flavor. So I think they'll have to keep practicing with their coffee roasting.
Caribou Coffee Medium Roast Decaf
A great decaf to enjoy at home
We got some good decaf at the house now, it's whole bean, medium roast coffee from Caribou. So at Sam's Club you get a 40oz bag, so that's 2 1/2 lbs, for $17.98. And it makes a great cup of coffee. It has a lot of flavor, so i'm using it for half-caff too with a regular coffee that isn't so flavorful.
Decaf Doug™ at the country club
We had the good fortune of being invited to a dinner party for a retirement at the Town and Country country club (300 N Mississippi River Blvd, St Paul, MN 55104). This country club is the oldest in Minnesota and the first country club in Minnesota. It was inspired by the clubs in St. Paul formed because of the annual Winter Carnival, which is coming up soon -- so buy your Winter Carnival buttons now!
We had outstanding service and fine food along with pretty good decaf. It was hot, they had a really good thermos that kept it hot the whole time. I had as much as I wanted, so we'll have to give it a number 5 for refills. It earned a number 4 for flavor, it was pretty good. And the coffee came with dinner so we don't have to put a price on it. Also, the room was decorated for the holidays, which reminds me to send my seasons greetings to everyone!
Caribou Coffee holiday treats
various locationsThere's a chill in the air, it's getting cold outside, and the holidays are coming. So we thought we'd stop at Caribou for a 'Ho Ho Mint Mocha'. It was very good, but it was really sweet. They have peppermint candies in it and white chocolate. Of course, Caribou Coffee is really good. They brew the coffee right there. We got a 'Ho Ho Mint Mocha' so it was really hot and delicious. Like a dessert. It's a dessert coffee. The medium size is $3.69 and there's no refills so it wouldn't be my everyday choice but it would be good for holiday dessert.
 We used to go there quite a bit over the 40 years we've been in the neighborhood. They had pretty good coffee. It was a great place to meet, they had good food, a good atmosphere, and of course the Friday night fish fry. But then there was the "square plate controversy"... :) Most of everything was good about the Broiler. We're going to miss the place.
Okay, bye bye Broiler :'(
Decaf Doug ™: JUST BREW IT.
Seattle's Best Ground Coffee (Seattle should have the best! That's where they essentially started the coffee roasting revolution)
Our best morning coffee so far has been Seattle's Best. It comes as a ground coffee. We've been getting it over at Sam's Club so they usually have the "number 4" and it's a medium dark. We also got this "6th Avenue Bistro", well that also says "number 4"... Well, it says it's "dark roast, smooth roasted ground coffee."
I saw the number 4 on Amazon and they have a special deal where you can get two 2lb bags and it's like $37.96. And if you have Amazon Prime you get free next day delivery. So it's a better price than buying 1 bag at a time, it saves you like $5 bucks on the two bags.
So it'a ground coffee with a great flavor. You can even use a little less coffee and still get a great flavor. So it may get you a little farther if you measure it out every time.
Decaf Doug ™: JUST BREW IT.
Dunk your mornings in Dunkin' Donuts Ground Coffee
So yeah, the Dunkin' Donuts coffee was pretty good. And I was actually surprised because we got the ground coffee but it had as much flavor as when we get beans and grind them. So i was really impressed with the Dunkin' Donuts coffee. And that's on Amazon which is convenient.
And then I noticed their bakery series flavored coffees, they have a cinnamon coffee that's $6.63 for the 11oz package. So they have quite a few different flavors there in their bakery series.
We had their original coffee and that was $7.19 for 12 ounces, so that's like $9.50 per pound. So that's not a bad price. So i'd recommend the Dunkin' Donuts coffee for your morning coffee, especially if you don't have a grinder so you can't grind beans. It has a great flavor for a ground coffee.
Decaf Doug™ and the Defeat of Jesse James Days
The Decaf of Jesse James
We were in Northfield for the deca--I mean Defeat of Jesse James! The parade was Sunday morning so we went to the VFW(516 Division St S, Northfield, MN 55057) for their all you can eat pancake breakfast. They had coffee included, so i had regular and decaf. The decaf was so-so, so I I give it a number 2, but it was hot and fresh. We did have to fill our own cup once, but otherwise refills were pretty good. So I guess we could give them a 3 or 4 or the refills. The price was low because the coffee came with breakfast, which wasn't that much. Especially with an all you can eat deal! Okay, bye!
Decaf Doug™ visits Wisconsin
Not Justa Bar & Cafe review
In Wisconsin we went to the Not Justa Cafe(850 N Knowles Ave, New Richmond, WI 54017), but the decaf was so-so. Luckily my sister got regular coffee, so I was able to drink her coffee by mixing up my half decaf. It wasn't that hot either, I'd have to give it a three. And then again the regular coffee was hotter, so I mixed that in with my decaf. But the refills were good because each one of us got our own pot of coffee. The price was like a number 2.
So the decaf wasn't the best, but it wasn't too bad when I mixed it with regular coffee and it was a nice day to visit with family over in Wisconsin.
Happy Coffee Day from Decaf Doug ™!
...except every day is Coffee Day for me...
Happy National Coffee Day! The 29th of September is National Coffee day. I got an email from Super America for a free coffee, any size. So I'm going to be going over there. I noticed that Kwik Trip offers a free 16 ounce coffee if you're on their text program. So be sure to check around in your area where you can get a free coffee for Friday the 29th of September, National Coffee Day. This is a go-ahead for free coffee from Decaf Doug ™.
Decaf Doug ™ Goes to the Fair
Nativity County Fair review
We went to the Nativity County Fair where they have coffee and desserts. The people of the parish bring in baked goods, like a bake sale. So that was really neat. But the coffee this year was the best I've ever had at the fair. And I've went to the fair quite a few times as the fair's been around for 25 years.
It was a Starbucks decaf and it was even better than the regular coffee (!), so I would give it a 4 for flavor. And even though it was in one of those coffee servers, the temperature was hot. So I would give it a 4 for that as well. We did get a refill, but i only got one, so we'll have to go for a 2 for refills. And the price was low, only $1.
There was beautiful weather and it was great to get out and support the Nativity School
Decaf Doug ™ Goes to a Wedding
Grounds for Celebration
We went to a wedding this weekend outside of Northfield in an airplane hangar! I wasn't really sure about reviewing their decaf, but the hostess asked me to. However, I'll unfortunately have to say, sorry "Mrs. Olsen" :/ , that the decaf coffee flavor was only a 2. The proportions of Folgers Decaf sounded good, so it must have been that the coffee maker wasn't brewing correctly. But it was served hot, we had plenty of coffee all night from a lovely coffee server, and real cream. So I got a really good cup of coffee when I mixed my half decaf with half regular and cream. It's always great to celebrate with friends and family for the terrific occasion of a wedding, even if the decaf coffee flavor only gets a 2. The coffee price was non-applicable because it was included with the invitation.
Congratulations Aimee and Matt! May you have a long, wonderful life together with plenty of decaf
Decaf Doug ™ Up North
Vannelli's by the Lake review
We have one more lake, Forest Lake, where we stopped at Vannelli's by the Lake (55 Lake St S, Forest Lake, MN 55025). We were out on the patio. We were on the street side though, it seemed like the patio might wrap around to the lake. But it was pretty nice to sit outside in a beautiful Minnesota summer evening. The decaf was good... I'd give it about a 3 for flavor. It was in a coffee server, a thermos, so it was about a 3 for temperature too. But the amount was good, because they made me an extra pot. So I had plenty of coffee
Decaf Doug ™ Up North
Grand Buffet Mille Lacs review
And of course since we were up there at Mille Lacs Lake, we had to go to the Grand Casino (777 Grand Avenue Onamia, MN 56359). They have their buffet and Monday through Wednesday is their prime rib night. So that was really good. But anyway, back to the decaf, ha! The decaf, you know, was just kind of average... But our server Jennifer kept my cup full. If I went up to get more food with an empty cup, when I came up I had a full cup waiting for me. I'd have to say it'd be a lower price because the coffee and desert were included in our dinner. So it was hot and fresh, but I guess I'd have to give it a 2 for flavor. And the frequency of refills was excellent. Plus, we were right across the road from Mille Lacs Lake.
Decaf Doug ™ Up North
Izatys Resort review
This is Decaf Doug up at the lake, Mille Lacs Lake, at Izaty's (40005 85th Ave, Onamia, MN ) for fish and chips, eh? So the decaf coffee was really cheap, it was $1.87, which I thought was really good, that's one of the lower prices I've seen. They made me a fresh pot, but they had a big group so she didn't get to my cup too often. I still got 3 cups of coffee and she still filled it pretty regularly, but it wasn't as fast as I'm used to. The flavor was about average. The temperature was hot and the price was really good. The price was on the low end so it was a bargain. And we got a view of the pool from the restaurant.
Decaf Doug ™ Up North
The best decaf we had at the lake was at a place called the Wharf Resort (5101 Whistle Rd, Isle, MN 56342), it was very hot and delicious. She made a fresh pot for me too. So our server Sue said that a lot of people, even regular coffee drinkers, get the decaf because when they smell her brewing a fresh pot of decaf they order the decaf. They like it better than the regular coffee! And this was dinner time for me so of course I wanted the fresh decaf. The price was only $1.85 so it was lower price, and it was very good. It was the best decaf on the lake. Another interesting thing, I looked them up on Facebook and Governor Dayton was there in July because they have a big resort there with lots of boats, ice houses, and things like that.
So the coffee was hot, it was fresh, and she kept my cup filled too. They had a nice mug too, I liked those mugs. And they even had their name on them.
Decaf Doug ™ Up North: JUST BREW IT.
So after we had our lunch and decaf in Brainerd, we walked next door to the Coco Moon Coffee Bar & Gift (601 Laurel St, Brainerd, MN 56401) and we picked up a pound of some Sumatra dark roast coffee. Oh boy, that was really good. We got it ground because we were taking it to the cabin, so we had some really good coffee that we could make in the morning. The price, you know, was a coffee shop price, over $10 per pound. But it was really good coffee.
Decaf Doug ™ Up North
Northwind Grille review
We did have some decaf in Brainerd another day. We stopped for lunch at the Northwind Grille (603 Laurel St, Brainerd, MN 56401). It was about an average flavor, I'd give it a 3. It was nice and hot, so I'd give it a 4 for the temperature. And it was $1.80 in price, so that would be like a number 2 for price. But refills were great!
They kept filling up my cup. I was right by the coffee maker so that was good. I couldn't see what kind of coffee they were making, but they used pre-measured packets. That's always good if you have a waitstaff of people who don't drink coffee, then they at least use the right amount of coffee to make it. Another interesting thing about the Northwind Grille is that they had a coffee shop right next door. I didn't have coffee there, but we did buy some beans there though. So maybe I'll review the beans in the next post ;)
Decaf Doug ™ Up North
How to caffeinate your mornings, even on vacation
This is Decaf Doug ™ out at the lake, up here at Lake Mille Lacs. In the morning I gotta have regular coffee, so we went to a few places for breakfast and had coffee. The first place we went was in Isle, the Country Corner Cafe (485 W Main St, Isle, MN 56342). It was only a dollar for coffee and it was the Folgers Decaf I believe. So it wasn't too bad.
But the next day we went to Eddy's Launch Bar and Grill (41334 Shakopee Lake Road, Onamia, MN 56359) which was right on the lake, so that was kind of nice. We got to eat outside. The coffee was a little better. They had flavored creamers too so I tried the hazelenut creamer in my coffee.
But the best place we found was in Onamia so we went there twice. They had real cream that they served in a pitcher. It was a farm-to-table kind of restaurant called Farm Market Café (Trailside Center 108 W, Onamia, MN 56359). So the food was really good. Eddy's was $2.00 for coffee, they were all bottomless cups, and the farm-to-table restaurant was $1.75.
We stopped at Bobbies Kitchen (1202 S 6th St, Brainerd, MN 56401) in Brainerd. They didn't have decaf at all, which was disappointing, but they had a pretty good regular coffee. And it was served by Bobbie's sister. It was pretty hot but it just had an average flavor. It was $1.75 for a bottomless cup and it wasn't decaf, it was regular coffee. So the price was lower, it was hot, and it was an average flavor. But the biggest thing is that Bobbie's sister served us. I think that's all I have to say about those places with regular coffee in the morning!
So then on our drive back from the lake, which was Gull Lake, we stopped at this place called Adirondack Coffee (25469 Main St, Nisswa, MN 56468). It was a great place. The main reason we stopped there was to use the bathroom so we could drink more coffee. We had an americano, it was very hot. It was a higher price because it was the espresso that they made. We got regular coffee for the drive but I noticed some interesting decaf packs.
Decaf Doug "Sip of the Day" ™
The mysterious "half-caff"
Okay, Decaf Doug ™ tip of the day: I'm driving this afternoon so I'm making a half decaf. You don't want all decaf when you're driving!
So that's my tip of the day.
Decaf Doug ™: JUST BREW IT.
Tim Horton's Canadian coffee, Eh
So Tim Horton's coffee is new to the Twin Cities. I think they're from Canada, Eh? So it was a good value for ground beans, for ground coffee, which is okay. It's a convenient thing. The best thing to do is to grind your own coffee, but it was a good price. $8.99 for a pound a coffee, so it was a good deal and it had good flavor. I had a "half-caff." So what I do sometimes is I'll put the decaf together with regular when I brew my coffee to get a half-caff. And tonight I'll try an all decaf pot of the new coffee to the Twin Cities.


Mario Balotelli leaves Brescia training after having a bust up with the manager
by Tom McNeilIt seems we got about two weeks of a honeymoon period with Mario Balotelli’s attitude on his return to Serie A before it reverted to everything we are used to.
It all started so well, he looked motivated and scored some nice goals. There was even some brief talk of a possible international recall ahead of Euro 2020, but that all looks to be out the window now.
READ MORE: Olympic lure could force Liverpool to start next season without their star player
To offer some fairness and context to his struggles, he has had to deal with the horrific incident involving the Verona fans racially abusing him and his own fans refusing to stick up for him afterwards. Perhaps that’s taken some of his enthusiasm away, which is totally understandable.
According to Gazzetta Dello Sport via Football Italia, he left Bresica training early after falling out with the manager, Fabio Grosso. They go on to say that the club is denying this version of events, but he was described as being very angry about something.
They even suggest that his availability for their game away to Roma at the weekend is in doubt, so it’s a huge blow for the team. They took a gamble on the former Liverpool and Milan star to be the man to fire them to safety this season.
It’s a distraction they could do without. If he does miss the Roma game, it could raise serious questions about where he goes from here. This move was seen by many as a last chance to prove himself and salvage his reputation, but this has done the opposite.


QuantConnect has a large open source community driving innovation in the LEAN Algorithmic Trading Engine. We have collected relevant tutorials here for community members learn from and use with their local installations of LEAN.
Explore different methods to debug python algorithms.
Configuring your installation to pull financial data from the QuantConnect website repository.
Create polished professional reports from backtest results.
Generate random data to use for backtesting with LEAN
Guide to implementing your own brokerage in LEAN.


French Montana Rushed To Hospital After Possible Medical Scare
by Biz JonesNew York rapper French Montana might be on the road to recovery. New reports claim the hip-hop artist received medical treatment this week in California.
According to reports, Montana was hospitalized Thursday afternoon.
A Public Information Officer with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirms to PEOPLE that deputies responded to the rapper’s Calabasas home just before 1:30 p.m. for a medical call. After arriving at the scene, French, 35, was transported to a hospital, but the LACSD officer could not disclose what he was treated for or where he was taken. (People)
French is reportedly on the road to recovery following the medical scare.
Despite the alarming hospitalization, we’re told French is awake and alert. He is currently undergoing treatment and is expected to be released sometime later Thursday. (E! News)
Some media outlets speculate what could have ultimately caused the hospitalization.
Our sources say French has been traveling a lot over the last couple of weeks — including trips to the Middle East and Europe. We’re told some around him suspect he could have been exposed to contaminated food. (TMZ)
French recently traveled to Africa to see family and celebrate his birthday.


@DoNotImplement interface Party : AbstractParty
The Party class represents an entity on the network, which is typically identified by a legal name and public key that it can sign transactions under. As parties may use multiple keys for signing and, for example, have offline backup keys, the "public key" of a party can be represented by a composite construct – a CompositeKey, which combines multiple cryptographic public key primitives into a tree structure.
For example: Alice has two key pairs (pub1/priv1 and pub2/priv2), and wants to be able to sign transactions with either of them. Her advertised Party then has a legal X.500 name "CN=Alice Corp,O=Alice Corp,L=London,C=GB" and an owningKey "pub1 or pub2".
Party is also used for service identities. E.g. Alice may also be running an interest rate oracle on her Corda node, which requires a separate signing key (and an identifying name). Services can also be distributed – run by a coordinated cluster of Corda nodes. A Party representing a distributed service will use a composite key containing all individual cluster nodes' public keys. Each of the nodes in the cluster will advertise the same group Party.
Note that equality is based solely on the owning key.
Communication with other parties is done using the flow framework with the FlowMessaging.initiateFlow method. Message routing is done by using the network map to look up the connectivity details pertaining to the Party.
See Also
name |
abstract val name: CordaX500Name |
anonymise |
abstract fun anonymise(): AnonymousParty |
description |
open fun description(): String |


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READ
The READ function is a GET method. There are 3 ways to use the read function method:
1. ClientID parameter
Using the ClientID parameter will get all both of client's chequing and savings account details.
Here is an example using from the postman's app:
2. SavingsID parameter
Using the SavingsID parameter will get the client's savingsID and savingsBalance.
Here is an example using from the postman's app:
3. ChequingID parameter
Using the ChequingID parameter will get the client's chequingID and chequingBalance.
Here is an example using from the postman's app:


Hi.
For some time that I've reading this website pages to get more information about Emon PI and I have a few question that I would like to have answers for...
Since I would like to spend the least money I can, what are the real differences between Emon Pi and Emon Pi - Solar PV, is it only the additional clip-on current sensor CT?
I've read that the AC-AC transformer shell be connected in a "socket outlet within approx. 1 m of the electricity supply meter or distribution board / consumer unit". In my case I would connect it in the same cable that goes to the Solar PV inverter and will be approx. 1m form the distribution board in a box where I will put the EmonPi hardware (without the aluminum box). Is there a problem with connecting the AC-AC transformer this way? Shell I get a separate line from the sockets breaker for it?
I have some other questions, that I will certainly ask in the future... For now this two.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
As far as I know, there's only one hardware version of the emonPi, so for additional clarification I suggest you email the shop.
The 1m distance is the approximate length of the low voltage cable on the ac adapter. There's no other reason to restrict the placement of the adapter, and as there's next to no current drawn, you could if you wanted extend it significantly. Obviously, it should measure a representative voltage, i.e. don't put it at the end of a long heavily and intermittently loaded spur where the voltage will jump about due to the effects of one load. But you still need a separate 5 V dc adapter to power the Pi, so budget for two socket outlets.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
Thank you for your answer.
So, from what I understand from you answer, there is no problem to connect the AC-AC transformer and the 5V USB power supply on the cable that comes from the inverter after the sensor clip.
My idea is to clip the live/positive wire that comes from the solar panels Inverter (in the box where I will put all the material) after the clip create an shunt with two simple outlets for the transformer and the 5V power supply.
Continue with the cable to the distribution board along with the cable to the second sensor clip (the one to put at the line cable that comes from the consumer unit) and connect the cable to a breaker for the solar system.
Is this the correct approach?
The sensor has one meter of cable, can we extend this cable or is it a case where the measurement precision will suffer too much because of that?
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
what are the real differences between Emon Pi and Emon Pi - Solar PV
Could he be referring to this? http://shop.openenergymonitor.com/emonpi-solar-pv/
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
I'm referring exactly to that product compared with this one:
http://shop.openenergymonitor.com/emonpi-1/
What are the physical/logical/real differences?
I haven't noticed the note "Expected release date is 30th Sep 2015" before, it gives the idea that these are new products that aren't available yet, but I've seen videos made by users that are already using this products, strange...
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Let's deal with the power wiring first. We have two standard configurations, they are shown here. From what you write, I think you're describing a "Type 2" system, so your PV infeed will be a spare MCB on your distribution board.
Personally, I would not supply the Emon system from the same breaker that your inverter is connected to, because if you need to isolate it for any reason, you'll lose all monitoring. But if that's OK with you, you can do it that way. Don't say "create an shunt", because "shunt" has a quite specific meaning to us and I hope it's not what you mean here.
What you need to end up with is the "grid" CT sees the nett current flowing to or from the supply grid, and the "PV" CT sees only the current from your inverter.
For the CT, provided it is the 100 A YHDC one, 10 m shouldn't be a problem, and it can't lose accuracy because it works on current. Get a length of two-core screened "microphone" cable, e.g. something like http://spiratronics.com/cable-and-connectors/cable-and-wire/screened-aud...
At the Pi end, don't connect the screen and use the two inner cores, connecting to tip and sleeve of the plug (which you've taken off the CT). At the CT end, earth the screen to your mains earth, on the CT cable, forget the screen and connect the red and white wires to the cores of your new extension cable. Solder the joints if you can, otherwise a small screw terminal block is fine.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
First of all, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
About the Emon Pi - Solar PV, I already know that the difference is in fact the addition of a second CT sensor.
My installation is the TYPE 2 of the link you referred and I will add an circuit breaker (or check for a free one) in the distribution box for the solar system.
About powering the EmonPi on the same breaker, I will add a small power bank between 5V power supply and the EmonPi to act as an UPS and prevent SD card corruption on power failures (I have used Rasps before, and know that happens), at the same time I can switch the breaker off for a while without cutting the power to the EmonPi.
About the shunt, as you can see my English is very poor and I may have use the inappropriate word for the situation. What I want to do is some kind of connection with 2 outlets for the transformer and power supply.
My main concern is where the AC-AC transformer is connected to. I know that if we don't take in account the wires' resistance and the breakers, virtually all the installation is in parallel, but I don't fully understand what will the reading be from the AC-AC transformer to know if it makes any difference for it to be connected at the inverter cable or at another outlet closer to other consuming appliances or closer to the grid input.
About extending the CT sensor cable, I think I understood your explanation, by wire screen you mean wire braid/mesh, don't you?
A new question:
Since the CT Sensors are 100A (and at least in my case it will never pass 30A), wouldn't it be a good idea to pass the live wire twice (or even 3 times) around the CT sensor to double (triple) the reading and tell the software to divide it by two (or three) and this way obtain a more accurate reading?
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
If your installation is properly designed, where you connect the ac adapter will make very little difference. Having it close to the distribution board will be better, but not essential.
Yes, it will be a good idea to use a 2 or 3-turn primary winding for your CT.
The cable "screen" is, in the picture on that catalog page I linked to, the silver strands immediately under the outer black cover that surround the inner red and black wires.
Don't worry about using the wrong word, in the UK we would use a "2 gang socket outlet" to connect both dc and ac adapters.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
I was referring to connecting two of this
http://www.fermat.co.ao/fotos/produtos/121160_735005050548f188d15439.jpg
on the cable inside my box to connect the transformer and power supply.
Best Regads.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
know if it makes any difference for it to be connected at the inverter cable or at another outlet closer to other consuming appliances or closer to the grid input.
I think it depends on how big your PV system is, how long the cable run is from there to the distribution panel for the consumer circuits and the grid, and how over-rated that circuit is. To give you an extreme example, if I load up my kitchen circuit (20A breaker) with 21A worth of appliances, I see a full 9.5V drop down that leg. I think that works out at about 1/2 ohm resistance in the breaker+wiring, and means they're dissipating an impressive 200W under those conditions. Something is probably getting warm, I suspect the breaker as it warms up its thermal trip mechanism.
Your setup is the opposite to that. By picking up the voltage right as it comes out of your inverter you'll potentially see a higher voltage when it's sunny, but only to the extent of the voltage drop across that run from your inverter to your distribution panel. If for example you had a massive PV array on the roof of a very distant shed, and a long run from the inverter back to the house, then the voltage you read down at the shed could be a bit higher than the voltage the house is seeing.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
"I was referring to connecting two of this"
I have never seen one of those before. I cannot see what it does, so I think I have not understood what you are trying to do.
Voltage drop and cables:
Yes, dBC is right. In the UK our regulations list the voltage drop for each cable size in millivolts per amp per metre, therefore if you know how long the cable run is, and the current, you can calculate the voltage drop. Here are the tables, which give current ratings as well as volt drop: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Figures/Tab4.6.htm or https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Figures/Tab4.7.htm (for unsheathed single core or sheathed multicore cable - the volt drop is of course the same).
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
LOL.
Robert, I didn't thought you wouldn't recognize an European plug, but I forgot you there have those funny plugs...
The image I posted is a cable mount female to connect the "Type C (CEE 7/16 Europlug)" shown in this link, that will be the kind of plug found on the AC-AC transformer and the 5V DC power supply.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country
In Portugal we use this types:
Type C (CEE 7/16 Europlug)
CEE 7/17 2-pin plug & CEE 7/1 socket (Only the male version)
Type F ("Schuko") CEE 7/4 plug & CEE 7/3 socket
and
CEE 7/7 plug, (combines earthing methods of Type E & Type F)
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
It's not us who have funny plugs, it's you.
I think you probably want something like this then. It would not be a good idea to use a cable mounting female connector on a permanent installation.
[A serious point: had you put your country on your member's profile, I would have known more about your wiring, mains voltages etc.]
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi,
I can't find country setting in the profile, only the time zone.
I have limited space in the installation in the box, I have to fit in this material:
Base EmonPi (without case);
AC-AC transformer;
5V DV Power Supply;
Transformer cables for the AC-AC T. and 5V P.S.
USB Power Bank
Sockets for the AC-AC T. and 5V P.S.
CT sensor for the solar cable;
Excess length of some cables, including the ethernet one;
The kind of outlets I referred don't represent any kind of hazard and average quality ones make good connection. It will be more than enough for the purpose, it is not a professional installation and I've seen far worse out there...
Anyway I will probably pass a separate cable for the AC-AC+5V DC from the electrical outlets section breaker as suggested.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
I've got all the hardware I need now.
I want to calibrate the sensor readings before starting using.
Is there a step by step how to for EmonPI?
I've seen one guide for emonTx, but it is a bit vague about where we put the values and I don't know if it applies the same way to EmonPI.
I'm thinking about passing the line wire a few times in the CT sensor to get more accurate readings, where do I configure this? (Since it is a 100A sensor and at the Mains line I will get at most 30A and at the solar not even 5A, I think it would be good to do that)
Thanks in advance for your tips.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
To calibrate the emonPi in the same way as you do the emonTx, you must either install the Arduino IDE on the Pi, edit the sketch and then copy the compiled file into the correct place, or compile the sketch externally and transfer it to the Pi.
If it's only a scaling problem with your current, it's probably a lot easier to do the scaling inside emonCMS, i.e. multiply the power by 0.2 assuming a 5-turn CT primary winding.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
Thank you for your reply.
You seem to imply that there is other way to calibrate that is not the same as emonTx.
I assume that it is a good practice to calibrate it, what is the easiest way to do it?
I have most things I need to do the calibration (eg. multimeter and Load), I assume that I will still need this things to calibrate the EmonPi, Is there a how to for this procedure?
I bought the bulk EmonPi because I have a spare rasp, an AC-AC transformer and a 100A CT sensor. Maybe the full EmonPi comes calibrated to be used with the supplied peripherals, but at least for me this is not the situation.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
The emonPi front end is a cut-down emonTx, so the same procedure applies. The difficulty will be operating the Arduino IDE unless you have a keyboard and screen attached.
If you are only interested in real power, then as I said, the easy way is to do it inside emonCMS and on the Input page, multiply the power by an appropriate factor. (See the emonCMS documentation.)
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
The main purpose is to monitor the grid vs solar panels consumption, but I would like to have accurate readings at least of Voltage.
Are you saying that for this purpose I don't need to calibrate the readings?
You said that I cannot operated Arduino IDE without Screen / keyboard, can't that be done by SSH, or if graphical something like VNC?
This is pretty new to me, but I'm a computer geek and I believe that with the right documentation and help from experienced users I can do it.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
I'm only just getting to grips with the emonPi myself, so I can't help you with the finer details.
The voltage calibration should be no worse than ±6%, and hopefully somewhat better than that.
(Details are here: Sources of error in the emonTx voltage and current inputs. Look at the EmonTx V3 values - the emonPi is essentially the same.)
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
After my last post, with the default configuration (without any changes) I get Voltage readings about 4 to 5 V above my multi meter readings (it is an UniVolt that states that it is True RMS Multi-meter with new batteries) and about about 3V above the reading of a Veleman power meter I have.
I'm using a 9VAC 1A transformer from a retired Dlink Router.
I will investigate my way, the problem is that I can't find many information about the EmonPI, it is all about EmonTX and I don't know where to go for accurate literature for my project.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
"The emonPi front end is a cut-down emonTx, so the same procedure applies."
Did you miss that? All the information is in the same sort of places - Github and the Wiki. What more do you need?
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
I'm reading http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/modules/emonpi that is the best information I found until now about configuring the EmonPi but haven't get yet to any information about calibration (it must be there).
I think that, even the information to calibrate EmonTx is vague.
A step by step with command line instructions on how to install the Arduino IDE, what files to edit, etc etc, would be a very important plus for this project that would help the ones that are not familiar with arduino or this project.
This is only my first day making tests, with patience I will get there.
Can you please point me to the correct documentation about this:
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
We do assume that anyone who feels the need to calibrate the Emon system will have the necessary equipment and with that sufficient general knowledge about basic electrical engineering. What is vague about the step-by-step instructions?
Regarding installing the Arduino IDE, how are the instructions here not complete?
The instructions for configuring the inputs are in the emonCMS Input API Help, which you should see on the Input page - in short, click on the spanner and add the process ×.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
OK, I will read an make tries and later I will post my (more) specific questions if I still have them...
One thing that keeps me intrigued is what you say about calibration
I general I would think that calibrating the devices to get the most accurate readings possible should be the first step, but you don't seem to think like me.
In general, I would expect a section in EmonCMS where we would put the real different readings at the several moments so it would calibrate automatically based on that real readings.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
I've found the files and made the changes to correct the readings.
Now I can't find information on how to build/compile the .ino file.
I can find information about compiling the whole project with the "ino build" command but to do that some kind of project file should be present and I can't find it, and also I'm not being able to find info on how to compile a single .ino file.
If I cannot find the required information I will try to install the Arduino IDE on Windows to compile the .ino file, transfer the .hex to the PI and upload it from there, but it seems to be extra work that shouldn't be needed.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Update:
I've given up compiling through the command line and installed the IDE on Windows.
After that a lot of libraries that were missing and I find info about, but compared with EmonTX one is missing in the instructions:
Arduino-LiquidCrystal-I2C-library
I download it and I'm still getting errors:
There are a few LCD libraries, I used the above one, isn't it the correct one?
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
The correct library to use is specified in the comment in the sketch alongside the respective "#include".
[Note: if a sketch needs a different library to the standard ones, it is always listed in the comments near the top of the sketch.]
But for some reason, the zip download extracted 'flat' and did not keep the directory structure, so I had to move files and folders to restore the structure.
You must remove "-master" from the directory name.
Then, the sketch compiles for me on my laptop with no errors.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
This was the missing file library
https://github.com/openenergymonitor/LiquidCrystal_I2C1602V1
I made a few errors:
- Didn't noticed that it was mentioned at the include;
- Didn't noticed that openenergymonitor github has more than one page;
- The github search didn't helm me, I was searching in the right place;
Now I get:
I'm in the right track, I can now calibrate my Pi.
One unrelated strange thing that happened to me:
Yesterday the EmonPi stopped working: emonCMS started giving Mysql errors and things like that. After a while I found that the line in the next quote was missing from /etc/fstab causing the problem, I didn't change it, what could have cause the problem?
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
Updates for tonight.
I've made changes and now understand how the avr programing works and can compile changes I've made.
But cannot flash them (emonhub and emonPiLCD are stopped when I try to program)
It doesn't seem to be able to communicate with the AVR to program.
Any ideas?
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
There seems to be something wrong with your "rpi-avrdude" setup, each of those line should start avrdude-original. The name isn't important but it tells us the AVR probally isn't getting a "reset" signal via the gpio.
see Upgrading RFM12Pi Firmware Direct from the Pi
Paul
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
Thanks for the information.
Since I used an original ISO for Rasp + EmonPi, I thought that avrdude would be already fine tuned for this, guess it isn't...
Anyway, the instructions are for RFM12Pi V2, do they apply the same way for emonPI?
I did the instructions until line 10 and it doesn't seem to work... here is the output:
Update:
I noticed that the programer is not arduino on this instructions, and changed it to avrispmkII
Now I get this output:
Any more ideas?
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
I made a post before this one that vanished !?!? with info about my tries on programming the emonPI firmware.
I have a now few questions:
Based on this sentence: "Modify the autoreset script to use the pin that you wired up to the reset pin. See the line in autoreset where we do "pin = 4" and change the 4 to your gpio pin number."
Do I need to make any connection from the PI to the Emon board?
If not, what is the correct pin number I should configure?
If yes, from where to where?
I've tried 4, 7 and 11 with no luck (at least 4 required the next change to avoid an error)
Is the change "setmode(GPIO.BOARD)" to "setmode(GPIO.BCM)" necessary?
I expected this programming to be something "out of the box" like it is explained on the EmonPi wiki page, but somehow this easy task is failing...
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Pin P1-7 is permenantly connected via the gpio for the reset line, the pin 4 or 7 were different ways to reference the same pin and "BCM 4" was used, when the Pi 2B was launched there was some differences in the IO pin references and "BCM 4" could mean different pins on different models so the more universal "BOARD 7" was adopted.
The correct programmer is "Arduino" for a serial uart connected device, the shorter printout looks correct just not confirming any success (or fail) did you confirm the programming wasn't successful?
I too thought this was included and ready to go on all the emonPi images and now you have it installed it should work ok, it's been tried and tested on the rfm2pi, rfm69pi and the emonPi too.
Try the "Arduino" and "BOARD pin 7" again and if it doesn't work 1st time try it a second time, I have in the past experienced it not working first time following a restart but a fix was put in place for that.
Also sounds obvious but have you definitely stopped any serial software eg emonhub or serial terminal console etc, avrdude must have exclusive serial port access to function correctly.
Paul
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
Thank you for your reply.
I' done with this for today.
Summary:
- Restarted the EmonPI;
- Corrected the pin to 7 and BOARD, programmer to Arduino;
- I always get the output you said "printout looks correct just not confirming any success (or fail)": it is just too fast to do anything and in this case it a a read operation and the file aaa.hex isn't created.
This is the testing command I'm using:
avrdude -v -c arduino -p ATMEGA328P -P /dev/ttyAMA0 -b 115200 -U flash:r:aaa.hex
Is 115200 the correct baudrate?
I don't know there is any other access to serial port, when I do a "cat /dev/ttyAMA0" there is data coming in intervals, but I did
service emonhub stop
and
service emonPiLCD stop
It is a Raspberry 2 with a bulk EmonPi (no case or LCD).
Any more ideas I can try tomorrow will be good.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
115200 is correct for the emonPi, I hadn't noticed you had changed the command to read, the lock bit is set by default in the fuses so you probably won't be able to read the flash. Try using the same command line without any -U options to confirm communication, it should printout the fuse settings etc, except the actual values will be zero'd due to the lock bit, but it will work as a test.
Also to stop the EmonHub service you need sudo, the data seen with cat is possibly from the AVR
Paul
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
The user is root, so no sudo is needed...
Exits at the same point:
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi
Just solved my problem:
The solution was to up the sleep time, mine helped, but it was the one on autoreset script:
Changed 0.12 to 0.32 and now it always work, I tried .22 and it works sometimes.
I can now calibrate my EmonPI (already added Amperes values for Intensity that I can monitor on EmonCMS).
Best Regards and thanks to everyone that pointed me in the right direction.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Glad you got it sorted.
Paul
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
Today I stepped up into installing my Emon Pi into it's definitive box and found a bug in the construction.
There is a pad facing the RASP USB ports that causes a shot-circuit.
Solutions:
- Isolate the pads.
or
- use slightly longer plastic unions between the Rasp and the Emon.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
I have two new questions.
One about electricity basics: If I pass the live wire in thought the CT sensor 10 time I can predict that the Intensity result will have to be dived by 10 to have the correct amperes reading, does this apply to watts of real power? (I thought of this because the power factor may vary)
The second if about EmonCMS: how do I disable automatic updates? (The ones who have read this thread know that I have changed the EmonPi firmware and EmonCMS config and I don't want any of this to be changed without me knowing. If there is a new firmware I have the change it so it works correctly for my setup)
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
"If I pass the live wire in thought the CT sensor 10 time..."
Nothing will change.
Real power is the average value of all the samples of V × I, therefore the constant factor 10 can be taken out of the average calculation and applied to the result at the end.
Apparent power is Irms × Vrms. Vrms is not affected, Irms is the square root of the average of I2. Again, in exactly the same way, the constant 10 can be taken out of the squaring, averaging and square root and applied to the result at the end.
Power factor is not cos(φ) (except for a pure sine wave) - it is defined as the ratio (real power)/(apparent power), and that is how emonLib calculates it. So it will still be correct even when calculated with 10 × I.
(And if you think about it, even if power factor was calculated from the time difference (= the angle) between V and I, it would still be correct if I were 10 times bigger!)
"how do I disable automatic updates [of emonCMS]?"
EmonCMS does not update automatically. You need to start the update process. Therefore you can copy the changes you made to a safe place (a USB memory stick or another computer) and reapply them after updating.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
Thank you for the explanations.
About the update, I thought that, but while looking at the log I noticed this (isn't it checking for updates every minute?)
The script seems to be for that, it includes this:
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi there.
One more question.
Today I received a second CT sensor that I will use on my solar system. Don't have my solar system installed yet so I inserted this CT sensor in the same cable next to the one I already had.
I'm noticing different readings, some times 10 Watts or more. Can this mean one of the sensors is bad?
I tested the first sensor and was getting about 50mA less compared to my multi meter, and didn't worry about correcting that (at least for now, it is possible that the multi meter is also not accurate).
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
10 W in how many? Every component is subject to manufacturing tolerances, so I expect, even if you don't, to see some variation between the two channels.
You can read about component tolerances and their effects in Building Blocks.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
10 W in 300W - 500W.
I don't know but It seems to me something more related to the reading moment of each sensor because they do not read constantly the same difference it varies.
This is a plot of the measurements of the two sensors.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Regarding the updates question, Paul Reed says "I believe it updates on user demand, via a 'Update Now' button in the UI 'Administration' page."
The ATMega328 sketch inside the emonPi runs a version of the "Discrete Samples" sketch, so the two inputs are sampled one after the other. Therefore unless your load and your supply voltage are absolutely constant, I would expect to see small differences. In any case, 10 in 400 is 2.5% and that is well within the possible error band - the CT tolerance and the burden resistor tolerance add up to 4%, and in the worst possible case you could see a difference of 8% between the readings.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
It is very strange, I would expect that the readings wouldn't be accurate but what I notice is that they are inconsistent.
To confirm that I test changed the firmware to make 20 reads of the power at each CT sensor (ct1, ct2, ct1, ct2, ...) and returned the average of the readings and the inconsistence is the same as the graph I posted.
So the inaccuracy is present on every reading and is not consistent. I thought a CT sensor would read consistently an error of n% but what I get is a variable inaccuracy within n% on every read.
Can the trick of passing the live wire several times in the CT sensor help reduce this error margins to more steady reads?
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
"Can the trick of passing the live wire several times in the CT sensor help reduce this error margins to more steady reads?"
It might do, but that assumes the problem is in the current input. My voltage here bounces around a lot and if that is what is causing the two powers to differ (and if you have a linear load, ΔP = 2 × ΔV), then it will not help.
For information, did you average the readings over a long time, and what is the difference if you do? From your graph, it looks as if the averages are very close.
You might like to look at converting the "continuous" sketch for the emonTx to run on the emonPi. That samples the currents alternately at the sample rate, so if the problem is what I think, the results should be a lot closer.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
There are variations in the Vrms readings but that ones are very steady compared to the Watts or Amps readings.
Normally the voltage floats along the day, I rarely detect instant floats above 1V, of coarse that @2A 1V variation will create almost 5W of difference.
Later I will test if that is the origin of the problem by calculating all the samples in the average with the first Vrms.
My main objective os doing 10 or 20 reads was to be certain that the variation were not coming from the time that passes between reading the first and the second.
I could not find where we set the time interval of loop, I would like to make reads every second and return the averages at the 5 second loop, but I couldn't find where...
Best Regards .
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
It would be interesting to see the difference between the voltage readings that the two powers use. (Yes, you did read that correctly - CT1 will measure the voltage over the 200 ms or so that it samples the current to calculate power1, then CT2 measures the same voltage again over the next 200 ms and uses that value to calculate power2. It uses the same transformer, voltage divider and ADC of course, so there are no systematic differences, but it measures over a different time period.)
The duration of the sampling period is set by "no_of_half_wavelengths", the interval between samples (i.e. the main loop) is set by "TIME_BETWEEN_READINGS". The data is sent each time around the main loop.
Therefore to do what you want, you need to set TIME_BETWEEN_READINGS to about 599 ms - that's a guess for 1 s less 2 sampling periods less processing time for the results - then accumulate and average the values and call "send_emonpi_serial()" (and presumably read temperature and do the pulse count) every 5th time around the loop.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
If you imply that a full loop takes about 401ms to be processed why isn't the TIME_BETWEEN_READINGS set to by default 4599 so we get a 5 second loop?
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Don't ask me, I didn't write it. As "time BETWEEN readings", it is accurate, to get the reading frequency you need to add the time to make 1 or 2 readings, depending on whether you have the 2nd CT in use or not.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
For testing I've configured a 1000 millisecond TIME_BETWEEN_READINGS, because it compares between every start, so it seems right this way (I'm not the expert but I can program).
I've made the changes to send readings every 5 seconds that are averages of 1 second interval real readings.
Let's see how it goes until tomorrow.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
I've also made the live wire pass 3 times in the CT Sensor and it seems to improve slightly the readings (of course I've changed to firmware to take this in account).
I'm having some doubts now.
I've configured 2 feeds for testing, one with KWh and one with Wh, shouldn't the first read exactly the same read of the second divided by 1000?
All my feeds are configured to 5 secs, don't know if it affects, but the KWh (or the Wh/1000) are too high to be real. Can I be doing something wrong?
Update:
- Made 2 equal Wh feeds (one 10 and other 5 seconds) and have the same values, this don't seem to affect anything.
- Created a virtual output on the firmware of a 3rd power that always reads 1000W to check that the Wh and KWh count right (I would expect 1KWh or 1000Wh every hour) but this feeds are stuck on zero, I don't understand this behavior...
Update 22-10-2015 15:08
- I'm having one problem when I make changes to the feeds. Some times the feedwriter service stops and normally I cannot start it unless I reboot the whole EmonPi/Rasp. If I start it with "service feedwriter start log" I get this error: PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function prepare() on a non-object in (...)/feedwriter.php
- About the virtual feed that I made to test: I've made and remade it over and over again and don't understand why it don't work, this image shows how it appears in the Nodes and the result is always zero:
- Does a Wh or Power to kWh need a Log to feed to work? I don't yet fully understand how this node/feed config works...
Any ideas?
Update 22-10-2015 20:37
I think I'm getting dumber:
- For the sake of excluding possibilities, I altered the firmware to output a variation on one watt every 5 seconds, from 990 to 1010 and when I did that the Wh and KWh feed started counting. Shouldn't the Wh feed count anyway if the W of power are stable at a value? (I know it is improbable, but possible)
- After this, shouldn't a 1000W feed count 1KWh or 1000Wh per hour? Doesn't the term KWh mean the a specific load consumed 1Kw during one hour? But this isn't what I'm seeing at the emoncms results...
I'm confused...
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
I think I've overcome most of the issues I had.
I'm now trying to remotely log the EmonHUB data to an EmonCMS I installed on another LOCAL server.
I'm having trouble setting the EmonHUB to post the data every 5 seconds as it does to the local Pi EmonCMS (I want to have real time widgets and graph not just regular 30 second graphs).
I've added the option
interval = 5
to the remote emoncms config settings but it does nothing and it is not a case of now allowing lower values, if I set to 60 is keeps logging at 30 seconds.
I think it should work, don't know why it doesn't.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
To adjust the send interval on the emonpi variant you will need to edit the source code as the setting has been replaced with a hardcoded 30 secs.
https://github.com/openenergymonitor/emonhub/blob/emon-pi/src/interfacers/EmonHubEmoncmsHTTPInterfacer.py#L52
Paul
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi, Just received my emonpi last week. After setting up with my local network, only problem was not reading data which was eventually sorted with re-booting the box.
I moved onto emoncms.org for remote login, following the videos and setup. Although I can log on to the web page, I am not seeing the same displays as the "local" mode, esp. not seeing Inouts and Feeds.
I note the APIkeys are different for the local and remote conditions.
I have tried changing APIkeys in the EmonHub config in the local state, to no avail.
I suspect I am making a "schoolboy error" but the setup videos seem to jump from using emoncms locally to emoncms.org and I think I am in the "no-man's land" between.
I am pretty sure our ADSL router is set for porting, as I have remote monitoring of our Solaredge PV system and Salus iT500 Central Heating control.
The Sun is now shining over the Campsie Fells (North of Glasgow!), so we have conditions for checking out the Solar App, when we get there...!...
Comments, pls. (I do have sense of humour, so rude-ish ones accepted!)
Cheers
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi.
I'm not using EmonCMS.org, I'm using my own emoncms server.
From what I've seen that part of the configuration is easy, just configure this part "EmonHub Config" and the data should appear in the Inputs section of the EmonCMS updates at 30 seconds periods.
I've made a few changes to my config, but I believe you only have to put your emoncms.org write key where the xxxxx are.
You will also need to identify the inputs because the transmission only passes the values.
Best Regards.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Thanks, CiDiRome,
I've managed to see inputs now, without Name or Process List data
Onwards!
Cheers!
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Glad you sorted it out.
Cheers.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
er,...How does one identify the inputs?...(Real Newbie...)
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Normally they are in the same order, then name it in EmonCMS
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
That's the difference. The Process list has not been populated and the data is not being updated...!
Screenshot:
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
I don't know.
When I configured the emoncms Api write key in the emonpi emonhub config section the values started appearing.
I only had to add the names.
Cheers.
Re: Newbie questions About Emon PI
Hi,
Deleted the Inputs, re-booted the emonpi and went back through the whole process, giving everything a long period to update and got the system to work.
Many thanks for your assistance
Cheers!


Initialising Data Stuff
Ventnor Stories
The story you discover will appear on this page.
What next...


Introduction
Traditional setup of Denotational semantics: traditional structures are represented
by texts; space of structures is a space of grammar parsings; space
of corresponding meanings of these objects; semantic function [[ ]]
maps structure space into the function space; both spaces are partially
ordered: X <= Y means that we know all information about Y that is known
about X. Functions should be monotonous: the more information is taken
as an input, the more is given as an output. Also we want that if we
have an increasing sequence than there should be a point that has all
information in these point. We also want continuity - the function on
the limit is equal to the limit of the function - Scott continuity .
Topology: open set: every point should belong to it together with all
points that are greater or equal to it; also, if the limit of a sequence
belongs to a set, that an end of this sequence should belong to it, too.
There are several hundreds of works where such spaces are built for
simple programming languages, and studying consequences, such as equivalence
of programs.
Ideally, it would be nice to build a structure that would allow to apply
classical mathematics to programs and their meanings. There have been no
serious attempts to do it; Michael and Josh suggested generalized metrics
for such spaces; (relaxed metrics") - distance between any objects is an
interval number; if an object is partially defined, then the relaxed distance
between an object and a copy of it is not 0. Also, there have been some
results in the direction of theory of measure and integrals for such spaces
and relations of relaxed metrics to measures; one of the key open issues is
how to find reasonably effective realization for a given function.
Effective complexity of systems
Lets look at a structure and a function it implements.
Now lets try to build an optimal structure that realizes the same function
(or an equivalent function). Now let's estimate the complexity of this
new structure. We will call it the effective complexity of the original
structure (or any other structure that realizes the same function).
This is also Kolmogorov's complexity of the realized function.
Or in the case of equivalent functions, this would be the minimal
(reasonable) complexity of the first function.
In the practical case, we would be interested not in the complexity but
in the price of the implementations (considering breaking restrictions
infinitely expensive).
We may want to consider the distance between the original structure and
one implementing the same function optimally. Let's call it effectiveness.
We want to measure this distance in the structure space.
We may want to take into account that there are many similar structures.
If we have a limit of distances here, then the structure may have no limit.
If we have several optimal implementations, then the minimal distance should
be chosen.
If we have two similarly effective structures, than the one with smaller
distance to an optimum would be better - if we want to use distance for
optimization of structures.
Evolution of structures
There are two aspects of evolution:
- Change
- Estimation of efficiency
In the case of non-intentional evolution, the change happens in the
structure space. The efficiency is always estimated in the function
space.
The intentional evolution is different in that in many cases efficient
solutions are already known for some functions. The solution space
is now "mediated", as for many functions we know decently effective
implementations; let us call such structures "modules".
In the layered model, the change happens in the module space; of course,
there are still tasks of increasing the set of modules - this is the
intelligence of the evolutionary subject.
Note: in the module-based system, there is also an issue of interfaces.
Terms and topics:
- Denotational semantics
- AI
- Relation of function space to structure space;
- Topological structure of information spaces
- task of generating a reasonably effective structure inplementing
a given function
- effective complexity of systems
- Relation of function space to structure space
Goals
References


Nowadays, how to use solar energy economically and effectively becomes a big tech problem people face. The solar energy is only about 1% of the total energy used in the world. However, solar energy has a large capacity. The sun can give our earth very huge energy, we can get much more energy to use if we can exploit the solar energy.
So how to use solar energy more economically? I believe we can find out a new material that can be used to produce solar battery so that the cost can be reduced.
In addition, the way to expliot solar energy more effectively can be that people create a new technique to increase the use percentage of solar battery.
Many people are working on this tech issue: how to use solar energy more economically and effectively. Some of them have some achivements, but it's not enough. We need to work better and better until we feel it's not an issue.


NEEDFUL THINGS A film review by James Berardinelli Copyright 1993 James Berardinelli
Rating (Linear 0 to 10): 5.0
Date Released: 8/27/93 Running Length: 2:03 Rated: R (Violence, language)
Starring: Max von Sydow, Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia, Amanda Plummer, J. T. Walsh Director: Fraser C. Heston Producer: Jack Cummins Screenplay: W. D. Richter based on the book by Stephen King Music: Patrick Doyle Released by Columbia Pictures
In the quiet New England town of Castle Rock, an unassuming elderly man by the name of Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow) has arrived to open an antique shop called "Needful Things." Most of Castle Rock's residents discover some rare and coveted treasures within--a 1956 Mickey Mantle baseball card for a young boy, a china figurine for a slightly off-balance woman, a magnificent chalice for a priest, and a necklace that can take away an arthritic's pain. The price asked by Mr. Gaunt is always more than reasonable, at least where money is concerned, and if a couple of pranks have to be played to round out the deal, so be it. The only one immune to "Needful Things" appears to be Alan Pangborn (Ed Harris), the local chief of police, so when the carnage starts, it's up to him to stop it.
How is it that a film with a good cast, stylish direction and camera work, and an intriguing premise can turn out mediocre? Perhaps if the production crew had known the answer to this question, NEEDFUL THINGS would have been a far more engrossing and satisfying motion picture experience than it actually is.
What at the outset is the film's strength turns into its greatest liability. The basic concept is solid: a gentle-seeming yet truly sinister old man comes into town and acts as a catalyst to incite people's greed to turn them against one another. Unfortunately, once that has happened, the movie doesn't know where to go with the story, so it turns to the old Hollywood stand-bys of a pyrotechnics show, a lot of dumb dialogue, and an ending that is unlikely to satisfy many.
The final scene isn't the problem; it's the one that immediately precedes it.  The big payoff in NEEDFUL THINGS is a gyp, and it takes the rest of the film down a couple of notches. Those that sit through this picture deserve more than they're given.
It's too bad about the climax, because the bulk of the overly-long film shows promise. There are the usual horror staples, like the meat cleaver in the head and the shock-tactic swell of music, but most of the story is scripted with the intelligent viewer in mind, and the villain of the piece never dirties his hands. The terror here is more psychological than physical, and the real root of evil lies in the cupidity of the citizens of Castle Rock. Leland Gaunt only causes it to surface.
Max von Sydow is an inspired casting choice, and the performance he turns in is by far the best thing about NEEDFUL THINGS. He manages a kind of gentlemanly wickedness that keeps the audience off-balance. He's the bad guy, all right--there's never any doubt about that--but he's so cultured and smooth, and delivers the one-liners so bitingly, that it's almost impossible not to have a sneaking admiration for him. Certainly, it's von Sydow's rendering of Gaunt that keeps the movie from becoming tedious.
Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia, and Amanda Plummer have shown great ability in the past, but none of that is evident here. The best of the three is Bedelia, and her role is relatively small. Plummer is so bad that she comes close to creating a caricature. Harris, who's supposed to be playing the heroic lawman, is about as potent as a limp noodle.
If he hasn't done so well with three of the four main actors, at least first-time feature director Fraser C. Heston (son of Charlton) can boast excellent cinematography (by Tony Westman) and a creepy atmosphere. NEEDFUL THINGS consistently looks nice, even during its most banal scenes. Some of the choppy pacing is clearly Heston's fault, but the editor cannot absolve himself entirely of blame.
In the three Kenneth Branagh films he scored (HENRY V, DEAD AGAIN, and this summer's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING), Patrick Doyle showed significant versatility and range. Sadly, the same ability is not in evidence here, where Doyle reworks his DEAD AGAIN music into an overwrought theme that, at best, does little for the film. There are a couple of effective musical sequences, but neither uses Doyle's work, instead relying on "Ave Maria" and Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King".
NEEDFUL THINGS is another example of a good idea gone awry. This seems to happen with alarming frequency when a Stephen King story is involved. Since I'm not a fan of Mr. King and can't claim to more than occasionally read his work, it's difficult for me to say whether or not this trait is indicative of his books. Whatever the case, in Leland Gaunt, NEEDFUL THINGS wastes one of the year's most intriguing villains. This is a case of a film building to an apex that isn't there. By the time the end credits roll, a lot of people will be wondering if that was really everything. Sadly, the answer is yes, but at least the time invested is repaid in part by the fine performance of Max von Sydow.
- James Berardinelli<EMAIL_ADDRESS>.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
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Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews


#!/usr/bin/env python
"""Provides a particle cloud to estimate target robber locatons.
The particle filter takes a brute-force approach to estimating target
parameters (starting with 2D position, but planned to move to 3D
pose, velocity, and anything else estimatable). It does this by
generating n particles, each one as a separate discrete potential
model of the target. Each particle has estimated parameters (i.e, 2D
position), weights (how important that particle is), and probabilities
(how likely the estimated value is). For many cases, weights and
probabilities are interchangable.
"""
__author__ = "Nick Sweet"
__copyright__ = "Copyright 2015, Cohrint"
__credits__ = ["Nick Sweet", "Nisar Ahmed"]
__license__ = "GPL"
__version__ = "1.0.0"
__maintainer__ = "Nick Sweet"
__email__ =<EMAIL_ADDRESS>__status__ = "Development"
from pylab import *
import logging
import math
import numpy as np
from shapely.geometry import Point
[docs]class ParticleFilter(object):
"""Particle-based representation of target locations.
.. image:: img/classes_Particle_Filter.png
Parameters
----------
target : str
Name of the target tracked by the particle filter ('combined' for
all targets).
feasible_layer : FeasibleLayer
A layer object providing both permissible point regions for any object
and permissible pose regions for any robot with physical dimensions.
motion_model : {'stationary','clockwise','counterclockwise','random walk'},
optional
The motion model used to update each particle.
n_particles : int, optional
The number of particles this particle filter has. Default is 500.
"""
def __init__(self, target, feasible_layer, motion_model='stationary',
n_particles=500):
self.target = target
self.bounds = feasible_layer.bounds
self.n_particles = n_particles
self.motion_model = motion_model
self.feasible_layer = feasible_layer
self.finished = False
self.generate_particles()
[docs] def generate_particles(self):
"""Generate uniformly distributed particles.
"""
bounds = self.feasible_layer.bounds
px = np.random.uniform(bounds[0], bounds[2], self.n_particles)
py = np.random.uniform(bounds[1], bounds[3], self.n_particles)
pts = np.column_stack((px, py))
for i, pt in enumerate(pts):
feasible_particle_generated = False
while not feasible_particle_generated:
point = Point(pt[0], pt[1])
if self.feasible_layer.point_region.contains(point):
feasible_particle_generated = True
else:
pt[0] = np.random.uniform(bounds[0], bounds[2])
pt[1] = np.random.uniform(bounds[1], bounds[3])
self.particles = np.column_stack((pts, np.ones(self.n_particles)
/ self.n_particles))
[docs] def update(self, camera, target_pose, human=None):
"""Move particles (if mobile) and update probabilities.
Parameters
----------
camera : Camera
A camera sensor object to update the particle weights and
probabilities.
target_pose : array_like
The target's current [x, y, theta] in [m,m,degrees].
human : Human, optional
A human sensor object to update the particle weights and
probabilities. Default is `None` for no update.
"""
if self.finished:
return
self.update_particle_motion()
self._camera_update(camera)
self._human_update(human)
# <>TODO: Resample particles
# self.resample()
[docs] def update_particle_motion(self, step_dist=0.05):
"""Update one step in the particles' motion.
Parameters
----------
step_dist : float, optional
A scaling factor for how large the update to the particles'
positions is. Default is 0.05.
"""
if self.motion_model == 'random walk':
self.particles[:, 0:2] += np.random.uniform(-2 * step_dist,
2 * step_dist,
(self.n_particles, 2),
)
elif self.motion_model == 'counterclockwise':
for particle in self.particles:
x, y = particle[0:2]
mag = math.sqrt(x ** 2 + y ** 2) + \
np.random.uniform(-step_dist, step_dist)
angle = math.atan2(y, x) + \
np.random.uniform(step_dist / 5, step_dist)
particle[0] = mag * math.cos(angle)
particle[1] = mag * math.sin(angle)
elif self.motion_model == 'clockwise':
for particle in self.particles:
x, y = particle[0:2]
mag = math.sqrt(x ** 2 + y ** 2) + \
np.random.uniform(-step_dist, step_dist)
angle = math.atan2(y, x) + \
np.random.uniform(-step_dist, step_dist / 5)
particle[0] = mag * math.cos(angle)
particle[1] = mag * math.sin(angle)
def _camera_update(self, camera):
"""Update the particle filter's values from a camera update event.
Parameters
----------
camera : Camera
A camera sensor object.
"""
camera.detect('particle', self.particles)
def _human_update(self, human):
"""Update the particle filter's values from a human sensor update.
Parameters
----------
human : Human
A human sensor object.
"""
if human.target in [self.target, 'nothing', 'a robber']:
motion_model = human.detect(self.particles)
if human.target in [self.target, 'a robber']:
self.motion_model = motion_model
elif motion_model == self.motion_model:
self.motion_model = 'stationary'
[docs] def resample(self):
"""Sample or resample distribution to generate new particles
"""
# sample distribution
# <>Constrain particle limits to map limits
# <>Always resample self.n_particles
self.particles = self.prob.rvs(size=self.n_particles)
# recalculate particles
self.particle_probs = [1 / self.n_particles
for i in range(0, self.n_particles)]
[docs] def robber_detected(self, robber_pose):
"""Update the particle filter for a detected robber.
"""
# <>TODO: Figure out better strategy when robber detected
# Find closest particle to target
# robber_pt = robber_pose[0:2]
# dist = [math.sqrt((pt[0] - robber_pt[0]) ** 2
# + (pt[1] - robber_pt[1]) ** 2)
# for pt in self.particles[:, 0:2]]
# index = dist.index(min(dist))
# Set all other particles to 0 probability
# self.particles[:, 2] = 0
# self.particles[index] = 1
self.particles = np.zeros([1, 3])
self.finished = True
if __name__ == '__main__':
# Run a test probability layer creation
pass