PiClock - A Raspberry Pi Clock & Weather Display

#RaspberryPi #Piclock

fter introducing some dimming features to the PiClock last week, and including a dimmer configuration example, I was asked if the dim config could be swapped out at night, and then back again during the day.

Well it didn't seem too tough a challenge, so the PiClock now includes swapper.sh, which is meant to be run from cron. It restarts the main python script with a config that you specify.

So my bedside piclock now switches between day and night modes.

Previously it was continuously dimmed. Of course the project is on GitHub ( https://github.com/n0bel/PiClock ) and switcher.sh has been added. The Install instructions have been updated.

Language support

The config file now contains a wuLanguge setting (set according to the API's language codes), which will change the language of the forecast and current conditions. In additon, DateLocale has been added to specify the locale for showing the date. The locale must be installed in the Pi before it works. Also new in the config for supporting languages are several variables that can be changed to reflect a language specific word. Previously words like 'Pressure' 'Humidity', etc were hard coded. Now they can be tailored for the proper language.

Satellite Images

Some areas of the world aren't covered by Weather Underground's radar api. I'm assuming it has to do with access to weather radar data that must be obtained from various European services. In those cases the Satellite IR images are available. I've included a new config variable 'satellite' set to 0 or 1. Set it to 1 to use satellite images instead of radar images. The satellite images are IR images showing the temperatures (height) of the cloud tops or ground.

Dimmable Radar Images

When I made the bedside version of the PiClock, it was way too bright. Turning down the LCD made the other parts of the clock less readable, so I added the ability to overlay the radar image with a dimming mask. You can set the color, and the alpha (transparency) in the config.

Yes, Jessie has been around for a while. I finally updated things to work with Jessie. Interestingly, it was only instruction changes that I found were needed.

https://github.com/n0bel/PiClock/blob/master/Documentation/Install.md

Raspbian Wheezy is no longer on the download page. https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ Jessie is rolled into the latest download for Raspbian. and Wheezy has been removed from the download page. Some hardware functions (temperature, buttons, ir) won't work if you use Wheezy. (Yes, I need to get to updating some of the PiClock software to get this to work). The last version of Wheezy is archived here: https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/images/raspbian-2015-05-07/2015-05-05-raspbian-wheezy.zip

This probably won't work on a PI 3. For that, see here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=138149

I've added a few minor updates since my last log entry here. Check out https://github.com/n0bel/PiClock, and if you've not done an update for a few months you might check the commit log and see if you'd like the improvement. Also the issue tracker (mostly closed ones) have some useful information about additional hacks for specific features some people made/wanted.

I've been battling random crashes on my PiClock, but I think its fixed. I've left the issue open. I've had no crashes for 12 days now. I've also fixed a bug with metric display when using temperature sensors. git pull peeps!

/K

If you pulled an update in the last hour... pull it again... oops!

The software as originally written used up the 500 api calls allowed by weather underground using free api keys in about 8 hours. OOPS! sorry...

I never noticed this because I pay for a key because I have several friends I've made clocks for, as well as other apps and usage of the api.

I've done several things to insure this works now within the free 500 api calls per day. 1) new config variable radar_refresh default 10 minutes. 2) new config variable weather_refresh default 30 minutes 3) stopped radar api calls when the radar is not visible, and corresponding restart when pages flip to make it visible. 4) ensure at least 2 seconds between radar api calls (getting them too quickly causes failures) This combines to make a total of 336 calls per day ( (2 per hour forecast + 6 per hour per radar * 2 radars) * 24 = 336/day

But thats all fixed now. The latest version includes an option to display the weather data in metric units.

I've added a set of instructions for installing just the clock part. So in case you're not a Pi person, and using it on a desktop OS, you have a guide.

https://github.com/n0bel/PiClock/blob/master/Documentation/Install-Clock-Only.md