Weather Page Graphics

Posted on
Wed Dec 17, 2014 12:10 am
RogueProeliator offline
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Weather Page Graphics

My wife has wanted a nice weather station display for a long while, ever since our Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 kicked the bucket (said wife moved it from the yard to mow and was placed behind the wheel of my truck. That did not end well.) OF COURSE I am not going to go buy a weather console when it can be built myself! SO I have secretly obtained and configured into Indigo several Oregon Scientific instruments, weather plugins, a cheap Android tablet and HousePad. Except there is not yet a good "Weather Console" control page built.

I have a general framework of an idea in mind, but Christmas is fast approaching. Anyone care to share their weather-specific pages, especially if it has wind speed and direction indicators (as graphics) as that is what I am struggling to nicely express. I'm thinking something in the ballpark of how Davis does theirs -- with a polar coordinates type view, an arrow to indicate direction and maybe wind speed in the middle. But open to ideas as well.

Outside of that I'll likely use local radar images, NOAA or WUnderground (or combo of the two) for forecasts with local instruments providing the "current" as a weather station would.

Thanks!
Adam

Posted on
Wed Dec 17, 2014 4:41 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Weather Page Graphics

Hi Adam - I have a graphic available in the file library (WUnderground Wind Direction Graphic). The arrow points to the direction that the wind is coming from. Room for speed in the middle. I believe that the Adobe PSD file is in the archive as well. It looks better on a black background. You've seen my weather page. :D

Dave

Edit: better looking version of the graphic.
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Posted on
Wed Dec 17, 2014 8:18 am
RogueProeliator offline
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Re: Weather Page Graphics

Thanks, Dave... that looks pretty good, might be what I'm looking for if I change the purple up a bit! I pulled down your other WUnderground graphics (I think they were ones you posted) and I will likely use those in a slightly resized version for the 7-day forecast. I'm pretty happy with the weather page I have now, but it is WAY too big for this tablet; which likely means I will add some elements from this back to mine at some point! ;-)

The wind direction has always been a source of confusion for me... the arrow usually points basically INTO the wind, but the arrow point is kind of opposite the wind direction. I mean, makes sense, but I always have to stop and think about it. Of course, for us it is more just the speed than direction anyway.... unless maybe you want to know when you've hit the other side of the hurricane! :-\

Thanks for the pointer to the graphic.

Adam

Posted on
Wed Dec 17, 2014 8:30 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Weather Page Graphics

Thanks Adam. That was a design choice on my part. Wind direction has always confounded me. It should be pointing the direction the wind is blowing not where the wind is coming from. When I am traveling, I don't talk about where I'm coming from...

Weather Underground has the arrow in the same place, but the pointer reversed. That also makes sense to me. Who knows why that's the convention. As an American, I blame the British. :D

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Posted on
Wed Dec 17, 2014 1:48 pm
ckeyes888 offline
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Re: Weather Page Graphics

Have a a couple like these. The base image is transparent outside the gauge frame.
When the wind speed is 0 I have the direction arrow disappear and is replaced by "Calm" text.
The other is just a light meter.

Carl
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Posted on
Wed Dec 17, 2014 2:07 pm
RogueProeliator offline
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Re: Weather Page Graphics

Weather Underground has the arrow in the same place, but the pointer reversed. That also makes sense to me. Who knows why that's the convention. As an American, I blame the British.

LOL, now that makes sense to me too... but my Davis had a dial that looks like yours (arrow pointing away from center), now I don't know where the hell the wind is blowing from. :-o

Maybe I'll make the "tail" of the arrow opposite the arrowhead... and put a big cloud blowing air from the tail towards the arrow so I can remember!

Oooh, Carl, I like those too, maybe I will do a combination of the two... so many possibilities, so little time...

Posted on
Wed Dec 17, 2014 3:06 pm
rvarela offline
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Re: Weather Page Graphics

Just to add my 0.2. As I understand, the meteorological and oceanographic convention says the wind should be referred to "where it comes from" and the current "where it goes to". The pointers should reflect that.


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Posted on
Wed Dec 17, 2014 4:33 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Weather Page Graphics

Nice Carl!

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