Author Topic: A new weather station software ? (Read 6891 times)

virusdunil · « **on:** March 27, 2015, 10:49:50 AM »

Hi..we all know the usual weather station software like WD Cumulus VWS,ect.

Have you heard or maybe someone here is cooking a brand new software for our stations ?

A few month ago i found a quite good looking one written in java named Weather Observer...my firs reaction when i launched it was WOW....the graphics were just beautyful to look at...i mean the main screen of the software.

this morning i tried to find pictures or maybe an update for it but,no luck...vanished...even the original website cant be reached. http://demo.blaasoft.com/wx2client/demo.html

im always ready to try,test,help and even translate for new things popping out

Josiah · « **Reply #1 on:** March 27, 2015, 11:15:26 AM »

I'm currently working on one called Add-InWx, or this forum thread.

I'm in the process of making several major changes to it. Namely Porting the code to Mono so that it will run on Linux and Mac in addition to Windows (and yes, it will officially support the Raspberry Pi 2 B), improving support for Davis stations and adding SQL Database Logging.

This kinda goes without saying but,
anybody who wants to check it out can go to the Website or the forum thread to find more information.

Website: www.addinwx.net
Forum thread: www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=24359.75

virusdunil · « **Reply #2 on:** March 27, 2015, 11:24:55 AM »

Thanks...il try it and give you feedback

Bushman · « **Reply #3 on:** March 27, 2015, 11:40:05 AM »

Blaasoft is still in business. http://www.blaasoft.com/en/demo/demo.xhtml

Jáchym · « **Reply #4 on:** March 27, 2015, 11:44:26 AM »

About a week ago I wrote here about my goal to completely rewrite my page and make it a publicly customizable template for anyone to use. It is not really a "software" but rather will be a webpage, an alternative to current templates with different design, features etc.

If you look at my web, I would like it to look similar, but I have to completely re-do it, make it customizable (design, colors, units, sensors, language etc. etc.), also fix many bugs that are currently there...

I started with the easier part and rewrote scripts for working with current conditions and forecast, yesterday I uploaded the climate analysis script - they can all be downloaded absolutely for free on my webpage.

Today Im planning to start a concept of the "weather station" section. It is likely going to take a couple of months, but I want to make it really sophisticated, with lots of customization and lots of stats, graphs, tables and functions.

it is going to be a long way, but Im sure I will be able to finish it. As I said, some scripts are already available, the weather station section will take much longer. But a sort of "demo" can be already seen on my web, but it still has bugs, no customization etc. And if you download some of my scripts I already made available, thats how I would like the weather station section look like - in terms of the settings option etc.

The final product will have also a menu, header, footer etc. But Im not a programmer, just started learning HTML etc. year and half ago and purely in my limited free time

But I got a few messages from ppl they would like to use my "template" and I had to reply to them, that I would be very happy, but it is not currently possible to implement elsewhere, as the original purpose was to learn PHP and I never planned to release it, just didnt occur to me and so I have to rewrite all the code now.

virusdunil · « **Reply #5 on:** March 27, 2015, 12:29:29 PM »

@ Jachym...wow...your website is darn well made

@Bushman...i got access to yours with no problems

virusdunil · « **Reply #6 on:** March 28, 2015, 03:52:17 PM »

Jachym...wheres your thread for your template ???

Jáchym · « **Reply #7 on:** March 28, 2015, 03:58:02 PM »

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=25544.0

Garth Bock · « **Reply #8 on:** March 30, 2015, 10:21:03 AM »

Quote from: Bushman on March 27, 2015, 11:40:05 AM

Blaasoft is still in business. http://www.blaasoft.com/en/demo/demo.xhtml

Beautiful site and software but.....$1200 a year ??????

Jáchym · « **Reply #9 on:** March 30, 2015, 10:46:17 AM »

Quote from: Garth Bock on March 30, 2015, 10:21:03 AM

Quote from: Bushman on March 27, 2015, 11:40:05 AM
Blaasoft is still in business. http://www.blaasoft.com/en/demo/demo.xhtml

Beautiful site and software but.....$1200 a year ??????

Thats absolutely ridiculous.... I just looked at it and I cant believe it...like seriously 1200/year? It can do about 1/10 of most of us who offer scripts here for free.... I could do such graphs and tables in a few days and based on this model, if Ken was to sell his scripts and set price based on this, he would be a billionaire

Bushman · « **Reply #10 on:** March 30, 2015, 11:14:46 AM »

Quote from: Garth Bock on March 30, 2015, 10:21:03 AM

Quote from: Bushman on March 27, 2015, 11:40:05 AM
Blaasoft is still in business. http://www.blaasoft.com/en/demo/demo.xhtml

Beautiful site and software but.....$1200 a year ??????

That is for the Vaisala WXT 520 - a 2500 dollar wx station. "Only" $400 a year for a Davis.

virusdunil · « **Reply #11 on:** March 30, 2015, 11:19:52 AM »

That were also my taughts...1200 $ a year...but......of course its ridiculous.....and dont understand why the price is so high...and i dont wanna know.

Maybe...MAYBE if it was a super professionnal NASA-NOAA-Government- with ultra mega supra precision well....but ITS NOT and doesnt look like one.

WD is 70$...and it worth it for the quality AND all of its content.. I use WD since my first weather station in 2000 with my wx200....Ive paid for it and im damned satisfied.Ive done some translation on WD in the first years also.......And Brian is really listening to people,fast replyer and the most uptated/upgraded weather software ive seen. (if theres another one then let me know hahaha)

in the price range of weather station software,i taught it was WeatherView32 pricing at 100$.that was the highest then VWS.........

Like i said,im always looking for other's software (beside the known ones) like Josiah...its fun to see other's creation....

but not at 1200$.....

PaulMy · « **Reply #12 on:** March 30, 2015, 11:24:36 AM »

Quote

and the most uptated/upgraded weather software ive seen. (if theres another one then let me know

I've found Cumulus very satisfactory for me and Steve's support to be second to none...

Paul

virusdunil · « **Reply #13 on:** March 30, 2015, 11:31:47 AM »

Yes...cumulus is a good FREE one...but...ive asked him some things that would made me appreciate even more that software and always had negative answer so thats why ive stopped using it

ValentineWeather · « **Reply #14 on:** March 30, 2015, 11:33:11 AM »

This includes the hosting website also. If you choose you can embed on your own site, doubt the cost goes down though. Its $400 a year for the Davis stations. I pay around $300 for website now. I don't know anyone with a $10,000 Vaisala WXT520, if I did they may not care about the $1200 extra a year.

virusdunil · « **Reply #15 on:** March 30, 2015, 11:37:27 AM »

300$ for website ???....hosting ?.....why 300 $

thats what i pay...web package #1 http://www.rapidenet.ca/hebergement-web.php with a darn good service

Bushman · « **Reply #16 on:** March 30, 2015, 11:41:41 AM »

Quote from: virusdunil on March 30, 2015, 11:31:47 AM

Yes...cumulus is a good FREE one...but...ive asked him some things that would made me appreciate even more that software and always had negative answer so thats why ive stopped using it

It is DONATIONWARE, not free. And having developed software in the past, and dealing with user requests for non-paying customers I kinda see his point. TANSTAAFL

ValentineWeather · « **Reply #17 on:** March 30, 2015, 11:51:10 AM »

I'm thinking its innovative and great idea for no other reason then professional stations just don't interface well to the web for general public viewing. How many interfaced R.M. Young stations are out there where live weather is available? However the $1200 a year does seem steep.

Correction I had to look, $179 for website is what I pay each year. Includes (2) domain names, & privacy.

Jáchym · « **Reply #18 on:** March 30, 2015, 11:52:18 AM »

I pay about 15 dollars a year for my hosting.....

And also, you buy WD for 70, but remember you are likely to use it for more than one yr, whereas this, you pay 1200/yr and if you stop paying....

I also think that offering stuff for free on the "donation" basis might actually be even more profitable. Ppl feel it is nice you offer it and yes, some will just download, use and not pay anything, but some might actually give you more than the price you would set it for.
Another thing is that once you sell something, you are sort of bound to offer some sort of support and you are "responsible" for it... for example I offer all my scripts for free, I would be quite happy if someone donated something - I would use it all for further development (meaning I could afford reducing working in my 2 part- time and one full time job and have more time for my web) and of course I would use it to pay hosting and domain, but I feel good about the fact it is for free, I know that there might be ppl lets say students, who just simply cannot afford to buy it and then there would be those that have enough to compensate for it.

virusdunil · « **Reply #19 on:** March 30, 2015, 11:53:47 AM »

Well....imo...you pay for what you get in return

ive paid for WD.....ive asked him to add something in the software and got it ...so made a good donation cuz i had what ive asked for and was very satisfied ......thats how it works.

Am i off the track

Look at it differently...you ask for something on a thing....but you tell the owner that youll do the job and he only will have to incorporate it...

I consider that a donation...of the time IVE spent doing the thing and OTHERS will enjoy

ericfynne · « **Reply #20 on:** March 30, 2015, 01:06:55 PM »

Quote from: virusdunil on March 30, 2015, 11:31:47 AM

Yes...cumulus is a good FREE one...but...ive asked him some things that would made me appreciate even more that software and always had negative answer so thats why ive stopped using it

Can you give links to the Cumulus forum posts where you've asked for something and had a negative reply, I'd be interested to know what they are? As far as I can tell, Steve very rarely turns down reasonable enhancement requests. Him getting around to doing them is another matter altogether

But he has been very busy over the last year or so producing the completely new version of Cumulus. He has been doing simple enhancement requests at the same time, and has promised to start processing the more complex enhancement requests again once this new version is out of beta. Perhaps the things you have asked for are somewhat 'unusual'?

Eric

virusdunil · « **Reply #21 on:** March 30, 2015, 01:12:19 PM »

That was in the yearly 2000 Before Cumulus 2 so...and mostly pv messages for the french translation of Cumulus...and he told me that there were no interest of Cumulus in french.

Does things and taughts changed today ?...i dunno....and personnaly have no interest anymore ...im happy with what i have today.

Jáchym · « **Reply #22 on:** March 30, 2015, 01:27:34 PM »

Now, I dont really know much about Steve, Cumulus and your conversations with him... but, there is one thing I would like to point out...

Just a little personal experience.... I have only just began writing my own scripts and offering them also for free. I do try to offer as much support as possible, but still, I have already spent hours helping people setting it up and, what is important, my scripts are far less known then Cumulus. I can quite well imagine how many requests, queries, bug reports, problems etc. he must be getting. And it is absolutely impossible to satisfy everyone, plus someone writes you an email, someone asks on the forum, someone posts somewhere else... it is even difficult to keep track of it... And unfortunately quite often ppl dont realize this, they just assume you will jump at their problem straight away, solve it and viola... it works.

And what is more, as far as I know, Cumulus is free so just like in my case, Steve has to dedicate his free time to do this. I dont know how much free time he has, but it surely is something that probably generates him mostly nothing (lets be honest... donations are quite rare...) and so he must have a normal job as well..

The reason I write this is for those that have never tried this themselves to just try realizing it - I probably also wouldnt imagine I would spend probably as much time developing as offering support etc. and that was just 2 little scripts...

virusdunil · « **Reply #23 on:** March 30, 2015, 01:41:38 PM »

..i know how much time i spend on just my website...its a never ending story hahaha...i cant imagine all the work there is in a software.

my taughts were maybe different 15 years ago so....anyway....

Lets stop stirring the old sh?t,were way out of the subject as the title say...

a new weather station software

Jáchym · « **Reply #24 on:** March 30, 2015, 02:32:56 PM »

I agree, just one last thing...

also programming is tricky in the sense that ppl that dont program or know nothing about it - quite often you might think something is just trivial, but in fact in terms of actually programming it it might take you hours. And likewise, some things which to a "usual person" seem quite difficult, are actually quite simple.

For example, I had quite hard time getting the sunrise/sunset calculations correct due to the timezones and DST, these are probably programmers nightmare... But to normal person, it just seems easy because they just see the result - one time value. And in contrast, for example you could have some task, which however is quite routine and you solve it by one simple loop, but because it generates lots of stuff, it might seem difficult to do. There is hundreds of examples like this.

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Author Topic: A new weather station software ? (Read 6891 times)