HexenTronics Releases Electronic Dice, Timer, and Life Counter for Card and Board Games

Magic the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and other card/board game enthusiasts rely on timers, counters and standard or multiple-sided dice to play those games, and while analog equipment is excellent for these types of games, it can be overwhelming to keep track of all that equipment. To help alleviate those issues, some players prefer to use an all-in-one solution, such as HexenTronics’ LifeLinker electronic dice, timer, and life counter device, which can be used for both card and board games.

LifeLinker was designed around ST’s STM8L151F3P6 MCU, which packs 1Kb of RAM and 8Kb of Flash, and features a rotatory knob encoder with push-button function as the device’s only input. It’s used to power the unit on/off, change the function mode and counter value, as well as a stop/stop timer, dice selection, and virtual throw. HexenTronics states the dice function is capable of throwing a large number of combinations- including d4, 2d4, d6, 2d6, d8, 2d8, d10, d20, d30, d100, making it perfect for D&D style games.

As far as operations go, LifeLinker’s options can be accessed by pushing the button, which is denoted by several LEDs at the top of the device, which includes several counters (from -99 to 999), a timer, and dice that are displayed as ‘TIM’ and ‘DIC’ accordingly. Once a mode is selected, the parameters can be adjusted by turning the knob, allowing users to choose the amount of time or the type of dice needed for a particular game. The LifeLeaker is powered by a pair of AA batteries, which HexenTronics states will last for about 30 hours before needing to be replaced, and is available now for $23.00 on the company’s Tindie page.