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Other => General Discussion => Topic started by: boyercam on August 07, 2014, 10:10:13 AM

Title: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on August 07, 2014, 10:10:13 AM
Note: Due to changes with the Yahoo API, this application no longer works. However if you're looking for a working WxStar XL emulation check out http://www.cameronboyer.tk/wsxl (http://www.cameronboyer.tk/wsxl)

(http://i.imgur.com/mhbkaZr.png)
OK, after discovering Yahoo Weather's free API with data supplied by the weather channel I decided to embark on the task of making my own emulator, for the moment It's only going to be basic until I work out how to open multiple forms for different products.

So let's begin.

If you have any knowledge in VB.Net and emulation construction (especially in VB.NET) I may need your help in the future.
Boyercam
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on August 07, 2014, 11:23:55 AM
 OK, progress seems to be going well, and I'm nearly ready for the actual weather display.
(http://i.imgur.com/7Z53zcB.png)
First up is this rather basic menu with two options, Run and configure. At the moment only the configure button works.

(http://i.imgur.com/omHp9EO.png)
And this is how the configure window looks like, its going to be developed further as more products are added.
You can choose a Star ID or get one generated, then you enter the WOEID from Yahoo and the program will sus out the location.

But for now it's back to work.
Boyercam
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on August 07, 2014, 12:19:27 PM
Am I supposed to be at this stage so quickly??
Anyhow this last bit was the hardest so far, having to decide what system to emulate, and so I decided to emulate the....

...the....


...the....

Weather Star XL. Why? Well it was actually the first system I saw in the flesh and so I really wanted to make my own version of it.
Here's a picture of the graphics so far
(http://i.imgur.com/75gYJi7.png)

As you can see the text is there as is the clock but in the wrong format. Fortunately I can fix it, but I'd rather complete the project, well the weather part anyway...

Boyercam
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on August 07, 2014, 02:35:46 PM
Well that was interesting, having to have a case for every weather event. All 47 of them :D
Anyway, here's a screenshot:
(http://i.imgur.com/R5z9MRZ.png)
As you can see, some of the graphics have been added, all that's left is to do for this screen is to add the extra bits, which could be interesting as I may have to change a few items

Boyercam
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: WeatherSTAR on August 07, 2014, 02:40:25 PM
Wow! Amazing job.  :thumbsup: Will this be available to the public when it's finished?
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on August 07, 2014, 03:12:56 PM
That's what I'm aiming for, once I've finished off this first slide I'll do a public release. I've also added in the storm alert music that plays when the Star starts
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on August 07, 2014, 03:56:34 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/UzyrQGu.png)
And here's the last update for the day. The first slide is complete with the relevant graphics, but only in metric until I add in some more code for imperial units. I also have a 'niche' idea, but you'll have to wait...

Boyercam
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on August 08, 2014, 06:45:23 AM
Pictures speak a thousand words, although a video speaks a million, so here you go. A quick video showing the current state of the BoyerSTAR :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvVKIjvqxz0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvVKIjvqxz0)
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: Christian1023 on August 08, 2014, 09:23:12 PM
Wow! You're doing an amazing job! Also, if you had the time would you make an IntelliStar 2 emulator? :o
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: Christian1023 on August 08, 2014, 10:57:51 PM
Also if you want I have all the recording pack for Allen Jackson so that you can insert it on your emulator.
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on August 09, 2014, 11:00:52 AM
If you wouldn't mind letting me have a look at those files, I may be able to do something with them.
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on August 09, 2014, 12:13:59 PM
OK, I've started the second slide of the emulator now, but progress has been hampered as Yahoo Weather doesn't know what's going on in any part of my region right now... Oh well
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on August 10, 2014, 12:15:36 PM
Ok, here is a slightly glitched out picture of the second slide, I'll try and fix it before a public release :)
(http://i.imgur.com/tJCHbBO.png)
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: Christian1023 on August 10, 2014, 09:02:57 PM
 :wow: Your progress is doing good!  :dance:
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on August 11, 2014, 05:12:11 AM
Well that was a stressful couple of hours...
I was getting some nasty errors and almost gave up on the project entirely, but luckily I fixed it.
Apart from fixing this bug I also added in the weather bulletin slide, I'll get some pictures soon!
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on August 11, 2014, 11:56:27 AM
Here's the weather bulletin page.
(http://i.imgur.com/8ZXfvkX.png)
I'm currently working on a radar slide, but won't be implementing any radar feed into it yet
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on September 23, 2014, 12:00:27 PM
I've stopped working on the BoyerSTAR for now as I'm working on a program called FALF (Feed Activated Local Forecast) that works much in the same way as the real life STARS, minus the expensive satellite...

I'll get some pictures sooner or later.
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: SDBM123 on December 13, 2014, 09:53:39 AM
I would like to be a beta tester as I know this will be awesome   B)
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on December 14, 2014, 10:29:08 AM
Thanks for your interest in this emulator, as I have said I'm working on a system named FALF and it is almost finished. FALF has been designed for a internet tv channel I've created named WeatherSpot providing weather programming for the UK. FALF is designed for use at a cable headend to give local forecasts and conditions through a 1 min local forecast and via a LDL. I just can't find the tv shows for the channel... :D

Once I've finished FALF I'll get back to work on this and try to get a working release out
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on May 08, 2015, 04:12:36 PM
Ok, so it's been a while, I've sort of abandoned the FALF (For now at least) and I havn't looked at my WeatherStarXL emulator for Aaaaggeeess, but I've come up with something rather different.
(https://scontent-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/11205158_689448854494439_491469131696469238_n.jpg?oh=dbc47a3eee8148668b26e49fa7dedcf2&oe=55D04A85)
What you are seeing here is a Weatherscan Local emulator which looks suspiciously like the WeatherscanXL emulator here on the forums (Personally that will be way better than this...) but this is entirely written from scratch and it has updated layouts...
Just ignore the clock, the date broke...  :club:
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: Eric on May 08, 2015, 10:33:01 PM
One hundred degree wind... sounds serious! :smoke2:
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on May 09, 2015, 06:20:10 AM
Haha, I forgot to mention that! I haven't yet done any processing on the wind direction so it's displayed in degrees. I should probably fix that  ;)
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on May 12, 2015, 08:31:33 AM
I managed to get an almanac screen working, however I have a bad feeling it's going to break.
(http://i.imgur.com/rU3nxez.png)
Oh and I fixed the clock!  :dance:
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on May 21, 2015, 06:27:29 AM
I managed to get the Weather underground API working. Now I have a working radar!
(http://i.imgur.com/3CMiokA.png)
It needs a little bit of tweaking, as the gif flashes blue and black where the sea is. A better way would be to take the frames and store them to show up individually.

But also because I got access to the APIs. Here's the forecast!
(http://i.imgur.com/JGoZOBa.png)

Progress is great!
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: Vanmax22 on May 21, 2015, 10:19:13 PM
That is pretty cool! I'm trying to make my own type of WXSystem, of course in PowerPoint because I only know HTML coding. Im calling it PWX for Personal Weather
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: WeatherSTAR on May 22, 2015, 02:32:15 AM
I managed to get the Weather underground API working. Now I have a working radar!
([url]http://i.imgur.com/3CMiokA.png[/url])
It needs a little bit of tweaking, as the gif flashes blue and black where the sea is. A better way would be to take the frames and store them to show up individually.

But also because I got access to the APIs. Here's the forecast!
([url]http://i.imgur.com/JGoZOBa.png[/url])

Progress is great!

Good job! I can't wait to see more  :happy:
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on May 22, 2015, 04:34:10 AM
Thanks WeatherStar and Vanmax22,

I plan on adding one more forecast slide to get it up to 36 hours and then I will pause there so I can set up the more boring things like checking that the program can contact wunderground and Yahoo (effectively checking if there's an internet connection) as well as a settings panel so the location you want forecasts to appear for can be changed and change the star unit ID and greeting. After that there may be a public release :happy:
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on May 22, 2015, 12:03:11 PM
Here's some images to prove that that the BoyerSTAR will work in the US too :)

(http://i.imgur.com/WBr0ipE.png)
Current Conditions

(http://i.imgur.com/mbOClgr.png)
A slightly too large radar (Radius needs toning down)

(http://i.imgur.com/6NS7yqR.png)
And the forecast... In metric (Sorry :/)
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on May 23, 2015, 07:45:17 AM
So I know how much some of you would like to try this so I've uploaded the current version of it.

You can find it here! (http://www.mediafire.com/download/sv9b3w28d6l953b/BoyerSTAR_Weatherscan_LOCAL_-_Beta_RC1.zip)

If you're worried about viruses then here is a report : http://bit.ly/1Q2TIHb (http://bit.ly/1Q2TIHb)

Hope you enjoy it!
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: Vanmax22 on May 23, 2015, 01:34:35 PM
A cool website I found to find the WOEID's is http://woeid.rosselliot.co.nz/ (http://woeid.rosselliot.co.nz/)
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on May 23, 2015, 01:50:32 PM
Correct, It's a link in the settings window
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: WeatherSTAR on May 24, 2015, 09:38:40 PM
So I know how much some of you would like to try this so I've uploaded the current version of it.

You can find it here! ([url]http://www.mediafire.com/download/sv9b3w28d6l953b/BoyerSTAR_Weatherscan_LOCAL_-_Beta_RC1.zip[/url])

If you're worried about viruses then here is a report : [url]http://bit.ly/1Q2TIHb[/url] ([url]http://bit.ly/1Q2TIHb[/url])

Hope you enjoy it!

Just tried it out. I must say, this is a nice program! Great job  :biggrin:
Title: Re: Making my own "Boyer"STAR
Post by: boyercam on May 26, 2015, 07:54:08 AM
Thanks WeatherSTAR :)