Weather.py - A PyGame-based weather data/forecast display

Original code written by Jim Kemp http://www.ph-elec.com/

Downloaded from:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-Internet-Weather-Station/step4/Source-Code/

Dependencies

Python:

• pywapi - https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pywapi
• schedule - https://pypi.python.org/pypi/schedule
• pygame - https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Pygame

If there is no deb package for any of the above, try "pip install [package_name]".

Also, for buttons and usb-serial X10 interfaces:

• RPi.GPIO (should already be installed in Raspbian)
• python-serial

The Basics

The old behavior (see legacy branch) was to stay on the weather display all the time; using the keyboard to switch displays would automatically switch back to the weather display after five minutes. The new behavior is to switch between the weather and site-info displays once each minute (nominal).

The site-info (help) display starts on the minute and then waits for approx. one minute to switch. The weather data lookup is now run via scheduler (instead of being tied to the one-minute display cycle) and defaults to 15 minutes (since external observations are hourly).

The code still supports GPIO buttons (eg, for a small PiTFT display) but the X-10 serial interface is commented out.

The code requires a network interface for time and weather data sync (currently uses weather.com). On the updated master branch, set backlight_control to False if you don't want the display to dim during non-daylight hours. Use legacy branch if you want the original behavior.

To Localize

Edit weather.py and change the following as needed:

• Zip code in UpdateWeather function
• Display size depending on your display (see comments)
• backlight_control and tap_mode

To run from a console

Change to Weather source directory and run the command:

$ DISPLAY=:0 python weather.py

To run in the background with logging, try:

$ DISPLAY=:0 python -u weather.py > >(tee -a out.log) 2> >(tee err.log >&2) &

Keyboard and Touch Controls

The main keyboard and touch controls only depend on pygame, however, if backlight_control is enabled, touch_mode="backlight" depends on the rpi-backlight tool (see below). If you don't have the required display hardware, set backlight_control="False".

• Keyboard controls
  • q or keypad Enter - quit program
  • u or keypad '+' - raise backlight 10%
  • d or keypad '-' - lower backlight 10%
  • c - switch to calendar display
  • w - switch to weather display
  • h - switch to site info display
• Touch / Click controls
  • tap_mode unset
    • double-tap - quit program
    • single-tap - does nothing
  • tap_mode="backlight"
    • double-tap - turn backlight off
    • single-tap - turn backlight on

Note

The backlight min/max commands are controlled by schedulers according to sunrise/sunset.

Pi Foundation Touch Display

For rpi-backlight control on this display, install

• rpi-backlight

The rpi-backlight tool is available either via deb package or manual build/install; see the rpi-backlight github repo and the deb package build howto for details.

Mostly you can ignore the sources.list and other setup details, just install the build dependencies, clone the repo, cd and run the build command, then install it:

$ sudo apt-get install devscripts build-essential
$ cd ~/src
$ git clone https://github.com/sarnold/rpi-backlight
$ cd rpi-backlight
$ debuild -b -uc -us
$ sudo dpkg -i ../rpi-backlight_0.0.1-1-raspbian+1_armhf.deb

Note

rpi-backlight only works with the Pi Foundation touch display: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-touch-display/