Questions regarding Maps Rotation and stock XML templates

[123qweasd]

Hi Jeff, got everything working in HS touch, just some questions:

- Map rotation works but displays static images even for animated maps, is this the intended behavior or is there a way to get a rotation of animated maps (I did enable "is video" in image HST element) ?

- The XML templates you provide with the updater seem to still have links to WU (hourly forecast) I guess this is related to Darksky not providing the hourly data, correct?
probably the XML have not been updated since the WU to Darksky change. no big issue as I guess I'll build mine from scratch.

- Looking to get more "regional" radar/IR maps (around one city for instance) but can't find anything
I saw some references to using weatherunderground to download regional maps but couldn't get it to work; Maybe not feasible anymore
Can you point to any " how to's " or forum threads for that purpose?

here's what I have so far from a more "global" perspective if it can help other users:

https://weather.com/maps/currentusweather
https://www.wunderground.com/maps
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/satellite.php
https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/index.php
Noaa composite maps https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/we...help-with-maps
https://weather.gc.ca/satellite/inde...oes_composites (can't get the full animated maps - they seem built from multiple static images)

I know maps sources are getting rare so if you have any other recent references let me know.

Thanks for the great plugin,

[AllHailJ]

Got your PM.

I have not done much with maps. This did trigger something with me and HSTouch. You can display HTML and have the website come up on a dedicated screen. I use this feature to display my vortexbox squeezebox server to control my music. I had not thought about tying into a weather site and displaying the web page but that would give a lot of flexibility. All features of the site would be available. I'm going to try a mock up and see how it works. Will share when I get it done. Only problem might be tablet screen size.

Thanks and sorry I could provide no guidance on your issue.

[AllHailJ]

I just did a mockup and it is very simple. I created a screen and drug a text element to the the screen. I made it almost the full size of the screen and the pasted the URL into the text on the element properties. Worked like a champ. I am thinking that if you build elements you can have the element modify another element and change what you see. The screen on the tablet allowed me to navigate and run simulations. You can see the setup in the screenshot below.

[AllHailJ]

I have been playing with maps and have learned quite a bit. I set up a virtual device and changed the status graphics to include these files. I have set up a page that will display downloaded maps but am not quite finished to be able to swap the different maps. I will display maps by incrementing the device value to show the correct map. I wrote an event that runs every 6 hours that uses wget, which is available for free and has both linux and windows versions, to retrieve the maps. I have not gone to the canada web site to see how to retrieve the maps but will. The wget -O option allows you to rename the file and where it is placed. Also the files say they are .gif but they are really .png.

Some snapshots below



Here is what the screen looks like - in progress

[123qweasd]

Thanks for the feedback, did you manage to integrate animated maps or just static ones? will do some more testing on my end and post results. Cheers.

[AllHailJ]

just static ones so far but I am working up to the dynamic. Those will likely be .gif's.

EDIT AHJ - They are .gifs but they are coded to each time period from NOAA. I can display the web site and view it that way but not just the file. Alot of the pages at the site are .php which are not viewable by homeseer. If I can work out NOAA well coding, I think there might be a way to download just the .gif's. No promises!

[123qweasd]

ok keep me posted as this was the original question/issue, Thanks!

[AllHailJ]

OK here is how they name the file

20193502346-20193510351-GOES16-ABI-CONUS-GEOCOLOR-625x375.gif

it is year,Day of year, Start Time (UTC) - Year, Day of Year, End Time (UTC) - all the same. The file is 6.4 MB. Not huge but will put a load on the client. I will make sure I can display this and it works. Then I have to figure out where NOAA store the file so I can do a wget. Still noodling on the problem. You can load the website into a text element and see the animation. It just looks cheesy in HSTouch.

UPDATE: This methodology displays an animated gif. It takes a few seconds to load and then it endlessly loops. I also noticed that you were using an image element "(I did enable "is video" in image HST element) ?" did you try a text element?

2ND UPDATE: the file names change everyday at the NOAA site. The methodology works but requires consistency in naming.

[AllHailJ]

I think your problem of not getting animation is using the wrong element in HSTouch. Try using a text element to display the map device status ad see if that works. I will try using an image element and see if I get failure.

Both elements display the gif correctly. I am wondering it the gif you are using is just the first image and the problem is the downloaded file.

[AllHailJ]

I got all files working. I took a different tact - I download the files I want to /weatherXML/maps. I convert .jpg files to .png with mogrify. On the gifs, I create a device for the .gif just like the .png

Here is my event to download the files that are updated more than once per day.



Here is my event to modify files that are updated only once per day.




Prior to displaying any maps on HS Touch, the maps are updated and I set the map to be displayed to the first map. I then display the screen. The element I display the map in is an image element.

Here is a screenshot from HSTouch.



I created up & down buttons to allow me to scroll through the maps.

Here are the devices I created through weatherXML

Here is how I set up a looping device



I hope this answers your original question. You can have weatherXML do the update work by using the URL where I have the full file name - I just wanted a little more control. I want to take a series of static graphics files .png .jpg .bmp (such as max temp forecasts graphics for day 0-6) and convert them to .gif and combine to make a loop of the 7 days. I will share when I have this working.


Regards

[AllHailJ]

More info - The images will not update from day to day unless the HSTouch client is shutdown and restarted. I don't exactly understand why.

This is true for weatherXML devices as well as setting the files to display directly on an hstouch screen.

This S**ks and I can't figure out a work around right now.

In addition, you can't do a reconnection to a server and have it update.

[CFGuy]

If you have the image in a device, you can change the device value. That will trigger HSTouch to reload the image. Typically in the plugin, I use 99 and 100. Nothing special about those numbers. It is just to toggle the device value. Doing that will cause HSTouch to reload the image.
Just make sure the image is in the Device Status setup using which ever number you set the device to.

[AllHailJ]

I could not get the maps to update even after upgrading to hstouch 3.0.77. I read somewhere in the forum, and now can't find the posts, where in HSTouch 3.0.55 they added update via URL. I used this solution and it is working. I will share my solution later today as there are multiple screen shots and a script to copy.

Jeff - Thank you for all that you do and share. It is appreciated and hope your family emergency resolved in a favorable manner.

Regards

[123qweasd]

Hi Jeff, I read your "weatherXML Map Devices" PDF but still have my original question unanswered:

when imported in HStouch, animated WeatherXML maps become static images.
is this the intended behavior or is there a way to get animated maps?

Tried tracking the WeatherXML device with "image" and "text" elements. no success

If I use the file located in HomeSeer HS3\html\images\weatherXML\maps, it weighs 29MB which is too much load on HStouch

source is:

https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov//GO...-1000x1000.gif

Also your "resize" option doesn't seem to work either for this link type.
Maybe I could automate some separate GIF resizer to make it lighter....

If I link the URL directly in a "text" element, it kind of works but there doesn't seem to be a way to "scale" it correctly, which makes it useless.

Is there any other way to get a scalable/animated element that would be light on CPU and usable in HStouch?


AllHailJ : saw references in your screenshots to "https://radar.weather.gov/Conus/northrockies_loop.gif"
This link doesn't work for me. I get "The requested URL /Conus/northrockies_loop.gif was not found on this server"
I could only find a php version of this map "https://radar.weather.gov/Conus/northrockies_loop.php" at "https://radar.weather.gov/Conus/"
how did you manage to get the GIF version ? where would be the source website if any?

Thanks!


EDIT: got it!

works by adding an HTM code to the HS HTML folder and referring to it in a text/url element.
Works perfectly. fast refresh and resizable in HSTouch

<html lang="en">
<head><META HTTP-EQUIV=Refresh CONTENT=600></head>
<body bgcolor="MidnightBlue" leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0">
<img src="https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov//GOES16/ABI/SECTOR/EUS/GEOCOLOR/GOES16-EUS-GEOCOLOR-1000x1000.gif" height="100%" width="100%"></img>
</body>
</html>


If you have other options/workarounds, feel free to share, thx

[AllHailJ]

https://radar.weather.gov/Conus/Loop...ckies_loop.gif

Try this.