Author Topic: An alternative to the Weatherlink application  (Read 3985 times)

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Offline vincenttoupet

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An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« on: September 21, 2021, 09:50:08 AM »
Hi everyone,

I've developed an alternative to the Weatherlink application called SmartMixin, available for both iOS (https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/id1257840938) and Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vtoupet.smartmixin). I've recently added support for VantageVue and VantagePro2 weather stations.

On top of data visualization, the app provides:
  • a weather map (containing SYNOP/METAR stations + Davis Instruments + Netatmo Weather),
  • a rain radar
  • a configurable alert system
  • advanced weather forecast based on several weather models (GFS, MF Arome, MF Arpege, DWD ICON,...)

See few snapshots of the app:
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Would you like to give it a try and let me know what you think?

Offline PaulMy

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2021, 12:06:01 PM »
Hi Vincent,
Very nice [tup]


I was able to get it quickly installed on my Samsung phone.  However it does not seem to want to install on my Samsung Galaxy Tab E.
Like the quick selection of my station and then the local METAR.


Enjoy,
Paul

Offline vincenttoupet

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2021, 03:53:15 PM »
Hi Vincent,
Very nice [tup]


I was able to get it quickly installed on my Samsung phone.  However it does not seem to want to install on my Samsung Galaxy Tab E.
Like the quick selection of my station and then the local METAR.


Enjoy,
Paul

Thanks Paul. That's weird that you cannot install the app on your tablet. Which version of Android is it? It should work on Android version 5.1 and above.

If you have suggestions to enhance the app, feel free to send me a message.

Kind regards,
Vincent

Offline Garth Bock

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2021, 04:34:08 PM »
Installed it, set it up but I don't get any temperature or trends at the top. Refreshed the page and waited about 5 mins. but still no temp. Tried closing the app and starting it back up and no change.  All the other stats are correct. I had the Weatherlink.com page in another tab and all the data is the same but no temp.

Update... Closed it while I wrote this. Decided to open it one more time and now temp is showing. Guess I needed to wait longer. Odd that all other stats were there except temp.
« Last Edit: September 21, 2021, 04:40:50 PM by Garth Bock »

Offline vincenttoupet

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2021, 04:40:06 PM »
Installed it, set it up but I don't get any temperature or trends at the top. Refreshed the page and waited but still no temp. All the other stats are correct. I had the Weatherlink.com page in another tab and all the data is the same but no temp.

I will have a look at this tomorrow and fix that. Support is still new and it needs some fine tuning.

Best regards,
Vincent

Offline PaulMy

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #5 on: September 21, 2021, 04:43:51 PM »
Hi Vincent,
It is on Android v 7.1.1
The install never gets past Installing.


Works fine on Samsung Galaxy S7


Can the Air Quality be shown from my Weatherlink.com AirLink?


Enjoy,
Paul

Offline ocala

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2021, 04:46:30 PM »
Tried it but not getting temp data. Under weather stations it shows my station.
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Offline vincenttoupet

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2021, 04:51:25 PM »
Hi Vincent,
It is on Android v 7.1.1
The install never gets past Installing.


Works fine on Samsung Galaxy S7


Can the Air Quality be shown from my Weatherlink.com AirLink?


Enjoy,
Paul

AirLink will be supported in a future release.

Offline Garth Bock

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2021, 09:09:41 PM »
Working and looks nice but doesn't update. I had to force a refresh to get current stats. Left it open on my tablet and after 2 1/2 hours nothing changed.

Offline Bashy

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #9 on: September 21, 2021, 10:41:24 PM »
    Works ok, thank you for the hard work, there are a few niggles..

    • Theres no soil temp, moisture or leaf wetness**
    • Alerts do not work for Davis**, only Netatmo or synop (or possible favourites)
    • Cannot search for Davis stations.
    • The weather map only shows Netatmo and some Metar/Synops, there's RAF Marham (EGYM) but no RAF Lakenheat (EGUL) or RAF Mildenhall (EGUN), those 2 are much nearer to my location.
    • No live updates, refresh needed and even then, the it can be a while before its got new data, so far 3 minutes old and not refreshing, temp is showing 8.2 yet its actually 7.7 now, i fear that this is a limitation of the API and not the actual app

**major downsides and are enough for me to cancel the sub as i already have the WL app and mobilize that does most of the above and more, adding Davis alerts and importantly leaf wetness and alert would be enough to carry on with the sub
« Last Edit: September 21, 2021, 10:46:57 PM by Bashy »
Kind regards
Bashy

Offline vincenttoupet

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #10 on: September 22, 2021, 03:17:29 AM »
Thanks for all your feedbacks.

Here is the list of things that will be added in the future:
  • Handling of additional sensors (AirLink, Leaf wetness, soil temperature,...)
  • Alerts for all weather stations
  • Addition of missing METAR stations (only METAR reporting SYNOP messages are currently present)
  • Lots of weather data statistics (Do no hesitate to suggest statistics that you would like to see in the app)

Concerning live update, as you thought, even if the application tries to update, no new data is retireved (API limitation). Refresh frequencies is between 5 and 15 minutes depending on the Weatherlink station owner account. Does anyone know a technical way to get live data?

Additionally, some of you will be able to see their full station history (I suppose users who subscribe to the Weatherlink pro subscription), while others will have access to history starting at the time of 1st connection with SmartMixin. If some of you do not have access to history and have some sort of normalised excel sheet with historical data, I could work on an import mechanism.

Do not hesitate to reply with problems you may have, or suggestions for making the app better.

Thanks,
Vincent

Offline vincenttoupet

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #11 on: September 22, 2021, 03:27:16 AM »
Working and looks nice but doesn't update. I had to force a refresh to get current stats. Left it open on my tablet and after 2 1/2 hours nothing changed.

It's not normal, I should update after few minutes. I will have a look at this. Thanks for reporting

Offline ocala

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #12 on: September 22, 2021, 03:36:19 PM »
Has promise but as Garth mentioned above it doesn't update in a timely fashion.
A suggestion.
Graphs could be displayed by tapping on the parameter on the main page.
Customized graph timespan. 
Also I have the app set to run in the background but when viewing graph data there is nothing there.
The blues had a baby and they named it Rock & Roll

Offline twcmaster

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #13 on: October 05, 2021, 09:20:22 PM »
Great app so far!! Love how it picks up all my Weatherlink stations!

Also, I am near the coast and far from an airport, but I am surprised how accurate the forecasts have been so far, at least for the near-term that I checked.

Offline vincenttoupet

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #14 on: December 07, 2021, 06:05:21 PM »
Hi Everyone,

There have been some updates on SmartMixin.
You can now make an annual comparison of all your metrics.
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AirLink is now supported and it replaces the data coming from AQICN.

Have a great day

Offline twcmaster

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #15 on: December 07, 2021, 09:57:09 PM »
I'm really loving this app. The way the data is presented on the analysis tab, I find it so much more useful than any of the other apps out there. Thank you for taking the time to create it!

Offline Chiky33

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #16 on: December 09, 2021, 04:55:58 AM »
Bonjour,

Au sujet de l'application Android, avez-vous pu finir le compatibilité du widget avec les Davis? :-)
C'est vraiment la fonction qui manque sur l'application Weatherlink...

Merci beaucoup et très bonne journée.

Offline cbull23

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #17 on: December 09, 2021, 11:37:59 AM »
Just downloaded the app and it is pretty cool. A few nitpicky suggestions, some of which might already be in the premium version:
  • Precipitation precision to nearest hundredth. Thousandths place is unnecessary. Includes the current observations and in the daily forecast.
  • Pressure in inHg should have two decimal places.
  • Rain radar should just be called Radar
  • Add speed controls to the radar playback and maybe add future radar
  • Additional radar overlays: weather stations, weather fronts, GOES True-Color Satellite, GOES Infrared Satellite
  • Maybe consider adding a one-time purchase for Premium
  • Create a tab that shows all the features you would get for upgrading to premium
My Sites
WU: KNJMONTV22
CWOP: FW2458
PWS: KNJMONTV22
NWS: FW2458

Offline Garth Bock

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #18 on: December 09, 2021, 12:13:56 PM »
I really like it. Lots of data presented very nicely. Mine is now updating properly on opening. Had only one problem. Mine started opening up on a station in Northern Illinois (I am in Missouri). I don't remember looking at that station. After some fiddling I managed to get rid of it and get mine back as the primary. I didn't see where there was a setting for default. No big deal. Besides, it made me get more familiar with the app. The other thing is the lack of stations in my area using the app. There are 4 stations close to me that are displayed on the WL app when I open it and can compare at a glance if mine is close to their data. It would be nice if on opening the app would display chosen local stations with just basic stats maybe in a side bar or something. Otherwise I really like what you have done.

Offline Aardvark

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #19 on: December 09, 2021, 02:19:16 PM »
Fortunately I have two console in addition to the Weatherlink Live unit.  When the Amazon servers went down this week,  i couldn't get any readings on my app but the consoles helped .    Having a mac I am limited now, I could bootcamp a weatherlink program but that is a pain in the neck to do .   yeah an alternative would be great and being able to tap into the IP address for their data too

Offline Mapantz

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #20 on: December 09, 2021, 05:58:18 PM »
I used to use this app when I had a Netatmo station, it was very good! I'll check it out again.. :)


Offline Oilswell

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #21 on: December 10, 2021, 06:05:55 PM »
Great app and I've subscribed to the premium version. So far the only thing I'm not seeing that would be nice would be on the dashboard, current conditions, to be able to see current precipitation rate.

Keep up the great work.

Offline Mapantz

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #22 on: December 10, 2021, 06:07:04 PM »
Sadly, I cannot use this app. I have a Davis station, but I don't send my data to Davis.


Offline vincenttoupet

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #23 on: December 20, 2021, 11:19:38 AM »
Sadly, I cannot use this app. I have a Davis station, but I don't send my data to Davis.

If you send your data to Weather Underground instead, you can still connect your station to SmartMixin

Offline twcmaster

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Re: An alternative to the Weatherlink application
« Reply #24 on: December 22, 2021, 06:12:28 PM »
Hi, On the monthly wind report, I noticed that wind gust data is showing on my Davis stations that use WeatherLink Live hardware, but the ones that use the older WeatherLink IP hardware do not show the gust data, just the regular wind data. Is this a bug or some time of limitation on the older hardware?

Still loving this app! Thanks!