Author Topic: App running on dedicated tablet for weather display?  (Read 4542 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline dtgriscom

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • Suitable Systems
App running on dedicated tablet for weather display?
« on: March 05, 2016, 10:08:57 PM »
I enjoy having weather information (outdoor temp, near-term forecast, wind, wind chill, etc) easily available at several locations in my home. At the moment I have several indoor-outdoor thermometers, plus an old Davis weather station with one anemic display, but I'm looking to have a more reliable, powerful system. I'd be interested in my own personal weather station, but as there are four WU stations within a half a mile of my house I'd be fine starting with internet-sourced weather only.

What would really float my boat is an app running on a dedicated touch-screen tablet (probably Android) showing continuous weather information. I'd have this always running on a wall-mounted tablet, e.g. by the front door.  Android tablets can be had for under $50 each, so I could have one by the front door, one in the kitchen, and one in the bedroom. If the screen could handle being always on I'd leave it on (plugged into power); otherwise a touch would turn on the screen.

The main view would show outdoor temp, cloud cover, wind, wind chill, humidity, precipitation. Touching would give access to radar, history, etc. etc. etc.. Important feature: after a timeout period the display should return to the main view (so the next person walking along wouldn't have to click multiple times to get back to the primary information).

The effect would be a high-powered, attractive, dedicated weather display such as the AccuRite color displays, but more flexible and powerful, and not necessarily needing a local weather station.

One possibility would be the Weather Underground app, but it seems to be designed as something you bring up whenever you want to ask about weather, rather than something you leave running all the time and always shows the key info on a primary screen, returning to that primary screen when not touched for a while. Another would be Weather Display on a Windows tablet, but the cost would be too high, and I'd really like something less cluttered and raw.

Are there Internet-driven weather apps that are designed to be used as a dedicated weather display, not as one of many apps that you switch to on your phone/tablet?

Offline erikmm

  • Senior Contributor
  • ****
  • Posts: 201
    • Hørning By Vejr
Re: App running on dedicated tablet for weather display?
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2016, 07:15:24 AM »
You could take a look at the template I'm working on for my iPad.
Just have in mind it's not in production yet.

I'm currently doing it so it can be used by everyone, look here:
http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=28787.0

Or take a look at either Leuven template or Meteotemplate

Cheers Erik
Erik M M
---------------
Hørning By Vejr
http://www.danmaach.dk


Offline dtgriscom

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • Suitable Systems
Re: App running on dedicated tablet for weather display?
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2016, 08:20:00 AM »
Thanks for the response, Erik. I saw your live demo at http://weather.danmaach.dk/: very cool.

So, your system parses the clientraw.txt file that's generated by Weather-Display, and then builds a web page from it? I see you're using Bootstrap for the web page; are you building the page with your own custom PHP code, or is there another clientraw.txt parser that you're using? It sounds like that blank area at the bottom right is usually your driveway; do you block that display based on the IP of the client? Are you expecting to share your system? (... so many questions!)

The general idea of setting up a mobile-ready web page and then pointing your tablet's browser at that webpage is a good one. I do embedded web UI development myself, so in theory I could build it all from scratch, but I'd dearly love to avoid reinventing the wheel if possible.


Thanks,
Dan

Offline Jáchym

  • Meteotemplate Developer
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 8605
    • Meteotemplate
Re: App running on dedicated tablet for weather display?
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2016, 08:21:37 AM »
It would not be difficult to create something like that if you are OK with the fact it would be a website not an app

Offline Jáchym

  • Meteotemplate Developer
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 8605
    • Meteotemplate
Re: App running on dedicated tablet for weather display?
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2016, 08:26:53 AM »
Just an example :http://www.meteotemplate.com/template/plugins/liveGaugesWD/

Offline dtgriscom

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • Suitable Systems
Re: App running on dedicated tablet for weather display?
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2016, 08:40:54 AM »
Thanks, Jachym. I'll be looking into that.

Offline erikmm

  • Senior Contributor
  • ****
  • Posts: 201
    • Hørning By Vejr
App running on dedicated tablet for weather display?
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2016, 09:03:14 AM »
Dan, all built with Bootstrap and own PHP code and CSS.

The driveway is only shown when acessing wiTh local IP adress.

And yes, when fibished I'm going to share it, just a lot of work to do yet.

I'm using Weather Display clientraw file, one thats adapted for the template.

But I'm far far away from Jachym and Wim's skills, I'm learning from them ;-)
Erik M M
---------------
Hørning By Vejr
http://www.danmaach.dk


 

anything