Topic: Personal Weather Tablet - An Android tablet app to show your GW1000 data

[Pax]

Another option is to use Olicat's great software FOSHKplugin. That will allow you to send to multiple tablets with just one console device.

While I'm interested in doing this, I am completely unknowledgeable as to how to such a thing. What hardware, if any, is needed, how to use the plugin and so-forth is one of my current deep and dark mysteries!!   Is there a thread here, or a web site that can direct a fellow down this road?

Thanks

[olicat]

Hi!

Is there a thread here, or a web site that can direct a fellow down this road?

Check this link please.

Oliver

[KC5JIM]

Another option is to use Olicat's great software FOSHKplugin. That will allow you to send to multiple tablets with just one console device.

While I'm interested in doing this, I am completely unknowledgeable as to how to such a thing. What hardware, if any, is needed, how to use the plugin and so-forth is one of my current deep and dark mysteries!!   Is there a thread here, or a web site that can direct a fellow down this road?

Thanks

If you need any help feel free to PM me. The only hardware you will need besides your weather station, is a Raspberry Pi.

[Pax]

Check this link please.

Oliver

Thanks Oliver........that gives me some direction.

If you need any help feel free to PM me. The only hardware you will need besides your weather station, is a Raspberry Pi.

@kd7eir, thanks for the offer of help....... I'm sure I'll be taking you up on that. But for now, just a quick question, what Pi is needed? Any additional modules needed with the Pi? On Amazon i see Pi 2, 3, 4 and Zero's for sale.

I have an arduino and have a tiny bit of experience with it, but have not gone into the Pi world yet. 

Thanks again.

[olicat]

Hi!

I would take a Pi 3B+. Also think of a case and a suitable power supply.
I have no experience with the 4-models yet. They should work of course.
The Zero Pi with WIFI is a bit slow at all but should fit for this. But probably you will run there (in future) not only FOSHKplugin but also weewx, PWSDashboard or other software. So take a more powerfull device like 3B+.

Oliver

[Pax]

Hi!

I would take a Pi 3B+. Also think of a case and a suitable power supply.
I have no experience with the 4-models yet. They should work of course.
The Zero Pi with WIFI is a bit slow at all but should fit for this. But probably you will run there (in future) not only FOSHKplugin but also weewx, PWSDashboard or other software. So take a more powerfull device like 3B+.

Oliver

Thanks Oliver. i had a look at the differences between the 3b+ and the Zero and you are sooooo right about expandability down the road. While processor speed difference isn't huge, 4 core vs single core is, as well as 1GB vs 512MB differences as well.

thanks for the quick response.

[chris-s1]

Hi guys, cracking app, is thair away to show multiple data on a chat? For example  wind speek and wind gusts? Is this something we might see in a future version or am I thick and not seeing the option for it.

[Gyvate]

"It will in time be moved to a service, so that the user doesn't have to have it open"
Any timeline for this, as I don't have a "spare" tablet but use it here and there for other purposes too ?
Then the data and logging get unfortunately lost for that period when the app is not in the foreground ...

[KC5JIM]

I understand that PWT runs it's own webserver. Will installing a webserver such as NGINX interfere with it?

[olicat]

Hi!

Will installing a webserver such as NGINX interfere with it?

As long as these are addressed via different ports, probably not.
But why do you want nginx on a tablet?

Oliver

[KC5JIM]

I do some very esoteric stuff with my tablet.

[Goldguru]

what screen resolutions are supported?
IPS LCD
Size   8.0 inches, 185.6 cm2 (~69.1% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution   800 x 1280 pixels, 16:10 ratio (~189 ppi density)
OS   Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)
Chipset   Qualcomm MSM8909 Snapdragon 210 (28 nm)
CPU   Quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-7
GPU   Adreno 304
Card slot   microSDXC (dedicated slot)
Internal   8GB 1GB RAM
    eMMC 4.5
would that display correctly & have enough POOP?
Thnx

[Gyvate]

what screen resolutions are supported?
IPS LCD
Size   8.0 inches, 185.6 cm2 (~69.1% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution   800 x 1280 pixels, 16:10 ratio (~189 ppi density)
OS   Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)
Chipset   Qualcomm MSM8909 Snapdragon 210 (28 nm)
CPU   Quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-7
GPU   Adreno 304
Card slot   microSDXC (dedicated slot)
Internal   8GB 1GB RAM
    eMMC 4.5
would that display correctly & have enough POOP?
Thnx

@Goldguru
with me it runs nicely on a Samsung Galaxy S8+ smartphone (with a rather small display, 1 440 x 2 960 on 5.8") -
and on a 10" Amazone Fire HD tablet with 1920 x 1080 resolution (was about 50% reduced at Amazon Prime Day  ).
So I have sort of the extremes (sizewise - the processors of both are rather strong).
Of course it looks better and is better readable on the 10" screen.
You can also run it in an Android emulation like NOX on a Windows PC or laptop or on a MAC OS machine.

There is no big graphics capability needed for the display and the processor will not have too much to work on it either from what I experience.
On a tablet with your specifications (8", 800 x 1280) it should run nicely too.

On my Fire tablet it looks like this (see attachment) - choice of color is individual, that's my current choice (on my Samsung Smartphone it's all black and white - a matter of taste). The difference of the two pictures is on the right hand side where PWT scrolls through different sensors (Pic1 - soil moisture, Pic2 - WH31 sensors).
The little battery warning symbol in the middle of the bottom bar was actually one of my PM2.5 sensors accumulators which needed recharge as the solar panel wouldn't get enough energy these days with solar radiation below 100-200 W/m2. Tapping on it displays the error message with time stamp. Nicely done!

Storage you need for the history - how much I don't know yet because I haven't figured out yet where exactly the history is stored in the file system. But the history exports (ZIP files) are rather small.

The whole idea of PWT is to use an old(er) tablet as a console display for the GW1000 - and this job it does well in my opinion.

It's optically not as nice as a HP2551 console display, but that was never the goal I guess. And with the 10" or 8" in your case the display is bigger than the HP2551 display.
Nice piece of work. 

[olicat]

Hi!

It's optically not as nice as a HP2551 console display, but that was never the goal I guess.

I cannot agree with that. You don't have to depict it in such strange colors ...


You can design the surface yourself quite well; display one or two graphs and there are also different themes and the possibility to display certain fields in different colors.
Here are the photos of an ancient 8" Telekom Puls tablet (1280x800) and the 10" Amazon Fire (1920x1200).
The theme is always the HP2551 theme with identical settings - but two different locations are displayed.

In fact, the Puls can't be used for anything else - it's so slow that it's really no fun at all to use it.
But it is completely sufficient to display the weather data!
And that is exactly the purpose of PWT: Using an ancient tablet as a weather console instead of throwing it in the trash.

I would probably prefer the Amazon Fire for a new purchase - with a little effort you can easily install the Google Playstore.
You get a device that can also be used for other things at an extremely low price.
Especially in the context of a sale.

Oliver

[Gyvate]

Hi!

It's optically not as nice as a HP2551 console display, but that was never the goal I guess.

I cannot agree with that. You don't have to depict it in such strange colors ...


..............
Oliver

you don't need to agree with me on taste matters. 
That design remark was not referring to the colors which of course are, as said, a matter of taste.
But as for the general look, design etc. of the display of the HP2551 console, I find it optically more attractive. But this again is a matter of taste. That's not meant to put down Daniel's work in any way. 
To some extent you can rearrange sensor position and choose graphical displays etc., something you cannot do with the console display.
And economically speaking, investing 150 EUR/170 USD for "just" these minor design items is definitely not necessary. But then, the console can do a few more things like connecting to the Weather networks, so it's not completely useless/overprized. .
For the full economical footprint, you also needed to pay for the tablet once, however the advantage here is to use an otherwise outdated tablet and instead of it becoming  a candidate for being thrown away it can get new and added value.

[Goldguru]

Thnx Gyvate & Olicat
what ever I get it will be strickly for the GW1000
initial programing & then mounted to the wall some place.
I was mostly wondering due to some earlier post's where Dal9 said it didnt quite fit/look right on a 7 inch model.

this is going to be a pretty steep learning curve compared to my
recently demized La Crosse ws1613-IT it served me well since ~2003 measured ~ 17K-19K mm of rain during that time.

sadly I goofed & installed new batts in the transmitter other day backwards & kinda let the smoke out.didnt figure it out untill it wouldn't re-establish its connection,by then it was more than warm to the touch lol

[Gyvate]

Thnx Gyvate & Olicat
what ever I get it will be strickly for the GW1000
initial programing & then mounted to the wall some place.
I was mostly wondering due to some earlier post's where Dal9 said it didnt quite fit/look right on a 7 inch model.

this is going to be a pretty steep learning curve compared to my
recently demized La Crosse ws1613-IT it served me well since ~2003 measured ~ 17K-19K mm of rain during that time.

sadly I goofed & installed new batts in the transmitter other day backwards & kinda let the smoke out.didnt figure it out untill it wouldn't re-establish its connection,by then it was more than warm to the touch lol

@Goldguru
you can have a look at Daniel's PWT web page: http://cba.today/personal-weather-tablet/

[ramblinche81]

I've been very happy with use of PWT app and have it running at two different  locations with two different generic type tablets bought on eBay for $60 usa or less. I provide below as a learning and warning for anyone else buying a generic tablet as alternative to branded pwt pws monitor.

First use is a very positive experience with dragontouch 10in and appears to function as fully valid android device. 2GB mem and 16GB storage with added microSD card. Display can stay on and charger keeps up. Device setup was smooth and trouble free overall.

Second is on a more generic, questionable heritage android by mediatek. Several apps won't load because the android version is not certified. App store will not load some apps to non cert versions of Android.  During initial setup of pwt, the device would pause or freeze and the wait/close error msg popped up. Wait worked ok. Once loaded etc a live charger connection will not keep up with screen power consumption which means continuous display is not functional.

The PWT app is wonderful to use and I dont believe is the root cause of display power consumption challenges on second device.

[GeraltLK]

Hello, I have a quick question with this app.

Is it possible to use it in a location other than where the weather station + GW1000 is?

I have an HP2550 on my grandparents' farm and I would like to have a tablet in my house that would show me its data. Is it possible with this app?

Thanks in advance and sorry if this has already been answered.

[olicat]

Hi!

Is it possible to use it in a location other than where the weather station + GW1000 is?

If you configure the custom server on the HP2550 accordingly and set up port forwarding to the tablet on your router, this should not be a problem.
Depending on your network infrastructure (static / dynamic IP, router model) this is feasible or not. Here I do that successfully with a Fritzbox.
So:

• Configure a DynDNS provider on your router (your location)
  necessary if the external IP address of the router changes (dynamic IP address)
• Configure port forwarding on your router (your location)
  Incoming port nnnn is remapped according to the tablet's IP address: 8572
• Configure the HP2550: custom server  (remote location)
  IP address (with static IP address) or DynDNS address (with dynamic IP address) and port nnnn as configured on your router

If there is a VPN connection between these locations, it's not a problem at all.

Oliver

[ran94]

I just joined to say the app is outstanding.  I have it running on an old Lenovo IdeaTab a1000 running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean).  I tried to embed different radar URL’s in a content box and always got 404’s, only because the tablet and OS are just real old.  I did buy a cheap $54 Walmart Tablet, which did display the different radar URL’s, however I had to return it because after 1 charge it died.  So I went back to the old reliable.   Maybe eventually I’ll buy a “newer” cheap tablet, but right now it’s doing exactly what I need it to do and use it as a display for my weather station, which it’s doing quite well.  Great job, Keep up the hard work!

[GeraltLK]

Hi!

Is it possible to use it in a location other than where the weather station + GW1000 is?

If you configure the custom server on the HP2550 accordingly and set up port forwarding to the tablet on your router, this should not be a problem.
Depending on your network infrastructure (static / dynamic IP, router model) this is feasible or not. Here I do that successfully with a Fritzbox.
So:

• Configure a DynDNS provider on your router (your location)
  necessary if the external IP address of the router changes (dynamic IP address)
• Configure port forwarding on your router (your location)
  Incoming port nnnn is remapped according to the tablet's IP address: 8572
• Configure the HP2550: custom server  (remote location)
  IP address (with static IP address) or DynDNS address (with dynamic IP address) and port nnnn as configured on your router

If there is a VPN connection between these locations, it's not a problem at all.

Oliver

My router has dynamic IP.
I will try this option that you tell me and if not, I have a raspberry with which I could create a VPN between both locations.

Thanks!

[Mandrake]

Anyone having trouble with PWT?
As of a recent update to a webcomponent on my ancient Hudl2 Tablet, PWT has being playing up.
I get a errant grey box in the top right hand quarter when the web display I use in the bottom left updates/loads.

I have tried contacting the author but he seems to have gone silent.

[Gyvate]

Anyone having trouble with PWT?
As of a recent update to a webcomponent on my ancient Hudl2 Tablet, PWT has being playing up.
I get a errant grey box in the top right hand quarter when the web display I use in the bottom left updates/loads.

Nothing like that -  it just jumps off (from the always on and on top position) sometimes, but this could be due to the advertisement setup of my FireHD tablet

I have tried contacting the author but he seems to have gone silent.

Same here - for more than 3 months I have been trying to get hold of him, but no reaction to emails ...

[olicat]

Hi!

PWT is still working great here on all devices (including Android 11).
But I also lost contact to Daniel ...


@Mandrake:
Have you ever tried a new installation?

Oliver