TO BRIAN AND OTHERS INTERESTED IN WEATHER GRAPHICS DISPLAYS
This comment, by one person, is about the loss of VWS and what the future holds for modern weather displays – weather in the home and weather outside the home.
THANK YOU VWS...
First of all, VWS made a real contribution to weather tracking, records, and graphic displays of weather, adjustable to each weather client. I deeply appreciate the effort and massive coding required to create and maintain, VWS – I admire the work – I am a coder. Thank you VWS coders for all you did for weather displays of thousands of sensor output numbers generated everyday around the world.
TO DAVIS:
To the Davis people, I have been a Davis advocate and Davis instrument missionary for 25 years. But - It is time for a new look.
With modern screen graphics and Weather displays – your are not even close to a weather person’s need to view all weather variables and sensors.
Davis you have been deeply deficient in your attempt to summarize a day of weather events on a tiny, primitive, $10, 1980s screen, hard coded, and as bland as a weather display could possibly be displayed.
BETTER DISPLAY SYSTEMS AND NEW SENSORS
In this time, there are large, full color screens available at very low costs ready to display weather in a powerful, more dynamic and more sensor inclusive way. There are some very creative and beautifully done individual efforts around the world. But all Davis, AcuRite, etc can offer as a standard display is a simplistic, child-like graphics display of minimal sensors.
NEW SENSORS
There are many new sensors of value to observers all over the world. A simple but excellent sensor such as the SHT31D, is available from Adafruit, (please forgive the commercial here), for less than $10. This sensor is ASTONISHING! I have studied the measurement of temperature and humidity for 20 years and this sensor will deliver accuracy of both measurements to 1% in most cases.
There is a need to include whole new classes of sensors such as air quality, UVA, UVB, magnetic fields, seismic activity, and many air pollutants both outside the house and inside the house.
Some people need dangerous air pressure changes shown and tracked, some wind speed directions need to be shown by the hour, minute and even second to second. Even magnetic readings are of value to some.
Many communities need weather variables displayed in a quick and easy translation using colorful graphic styles – not for nice color but for life and death changes in their communities happening in minutes. Some people can digest numbers others need graphic displays of events. Some people are visual, others verbal, some are both.
All of this need for numerical and graphic atmospheric and earth science variable change needs to be on a simple 1000 pixel by 800 screen (or larger) and this kind of simple screen is available for a few dollars from specialty supply centers such as DigiKey or Mouser or other reputable, reliable, professional, electronics supply centers. Or the simple use of an old monitor will work as a weather display device.
CODING
Developing the coding for such displays requires specialized knowledge of modern languages such as JAVA or C++ but is not nearly as difficult at it sounds. There are “basic” versions of these compiled languages available to the common coder such as me.
I have included a basic display I have been working on for the past 6 months. My example is crude and personal to me – it is for my use in my area – please do not mistake my example of a system ready for the market. In fact it is primitive and has as many mistakes in the code as accurate displays.
My example is simply a statement to Davis and other weather display companies to demonstrate a need to modernize – get a grip, times have changed in the monitor and sensor and language display systems. There are easily 10 or 20 NEW sensors now useful in the 20s.
Home air quality is a simple example.
AGAIN - I have shown, in my attached, full size screen, what must be understood as one person’s idea. A good display system MUST be a community and local effort. For my air quality, I am using the amazing BME680 again from Adafruit. Spark fun also has a great array of new sensors.
On the subject of weather displays - each screen should be custom structured, as VWS was, but updated to and with modern displays. I can not emphasize enough, how important each room in a house must be monitored for pollution and health hazards. Modern new homes in the northern latitudes are so well built, especially in northern Europe; the outside doors are hard to close because of air pressure issues. So what are the CO2 issues in such a home in the dead of winter? How much fresh oxygen is being allowed into the home, etc? Where are the intake systems? Are they clean?
A LITTLE ABOUT ME
I will attach an explanation to my graphics example, attached, – if appropriate. If there is no interest in graphics updates, there is no need for more discussion. Some of my comments are written directly on the screen grab of a live example attached.
I live very near the northern California coast, in a 100,000 acre redwood forest. My personal blood oxygen is often at 100% saturation because I am in a sea of pure oxygen produced by millions of trees and 5000 miles to the nearest city considering the prevailing NW winds over the Pacific.
More ideas after a few views of my attachment…
Please let me know either publicly or privately – good and bad reactions. If there is a predominance of good reactions, I will talk about the reality of complex coding and how easy it can be for amateurs like me.
Steve (Wtronics)