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Author Topic: Old Weatherstar XL  (Read 9090 times)

Offline Iceliaco

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Old Weatherstar XL
« on: June 09, 2011, 09:31:51 PM »
I have a Weatherstar XL, that was recently taken out of my local head-end, I know a guy that works there, and I saved it from the dumpster.
It has also another computer unit that goes inside the big rack mount box, so its actually two of them.
I have been thinking of trying to hook it up and see what it will do, and clues on how to do that?

Also, what would I do with something like this?
Could I put another kind of 'auto render program' on it or something?
Is it worth anything?


Offline Zach

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2011, 09:32:53 PM »
Ooh! I wish i could have it :( lol

btw, does it have v2 graphics or v3 graphics? and what headend and city is this from?
« Last Edit: June 09, 2011, 09:35:46 PM by Zach »
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Offline Mike M

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2011, 09:33:58 PM »
You have to be really experienced in computer programming in order to be capable of getting it to access TWC's satellite feeds. Only a few of us have been able to do that.

Offline Iceliaco

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #3 on: June 09, 2011, 09:49:12 PM »
Well I am a little hesitant to say where, because I don't want to get anyone onto trouble. How do I know what version of graphics it has?

Here is a picture of them on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/straypoetry/5817025804/#


Offline curtjr4

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2011, 09:50:32 PM »
You have to be really experienced in computer programming in order to be capable of getting it to access TWC's satellite feeds. Only a few of us have been able to do that.
No, you just need the equipment and an understanding of how it all works together.

And, the computer inside the XL is the XLs hardware... so there isn't two XLs, if that's what you mean. And is it worth something? Yep :yes: What I would do is open the back of the XL up and connect Video Out to Video In on a modulator or other equipment that can accept the signal. That should at least let you see what version of the graphics it has.

Edit: I stand corrected on the two computers after seeing those pics ;)

Offline Iceliaco

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2011, 10:26:51 PM »

Offline Zach

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2011, 10:30:53 PM »
My gosh.. I want the graphics :worship: they would honestly help for my emulation projects!
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Offline Iceliaco

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2011, 10:32:43 PM »
How would I get them off? Looks like unix or Linux to me, but I don't have anything with SCSI anymore....

Offline Zach

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #8 on: June 09, 2011, 10:38:20 PM »
How would I get them off? Looks like unix or Linux to me, but I don't have anything with SCSI anymore....

Its alright... you dont have to  :blushing: its copyrighted material anyways so i dont really recommend posting them :hmm:

and a little OT, this is my emulation using v2 graphics in case you were wondering
WeatherSTAR XL v2 Emulation - June 4. 2011


IIRC, the graphics are in SGI frames, which should work under windows :thinking:
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Offline curtjr4

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #9 on: June 09, 2011, 10:46:57 PM »
The operating system is Irix, an Unix variant. And the SGI frames will only be able to be used if you have Photoshop or some other program like that :P

Offline Iceliaco

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #10 on: June 10, 2011, 12:47:16 AM »
I checked out the emulation, and that's pretty cool you can do that. Is it for displaying your own weather station info? I mean is that why people make the emulations?

So what should I do with them? Play around, or just dump 'em on eBay?
What do you think?

Offline TWCToday

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #11 on: June 10, 2011, 02:39:38 AM »
Thats pretty cool you were able to save it. Its sorta the situation I had when I got mine. The XL will loop the last forecast it have and then just show a black screen. Thats cool that the data was still stored. How familiar with programming are you? It is possible to modify the unit via software to accept outside weather data. It's not perfect but works.

Offline Iceliaco

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #12 on: June 10, 2011, 09:20:39 AM »
When it boots up, on the saga output, I can see that it is trying to FTP out and I assume get data... I wonder if I could get inside and change the FTP IP t o one on. Y own server, that way I could feed it anything I want.
I could even make it public, and then stream the output, so anyone could send data to it.
Maybe make it an online weather station with a bunch of random people feeding data to it?
Or maybe turn it into some kind of a message system and again stream the output.
That should be reasonably easy I would think..

Offline Zach

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #13 on: June 10, 2011, 10:27:39 AM »
I checked out the emulation, and that's pretty cool you can do that. Is it for displaying your own weather station info? I mean is that why people make the emulations?

So what should I do with them? Play around, or just dump 'em on eBay?
What do you think?
Id hate to be greedy, but if you could send the slides to me as long as its fine with Martin.. i really wanna play around with them in after effects :happy: :P and DO NOT put the graphics on eBay.. or else TWC will likely go after you  :hmm:
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Offline Iceliaco

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Re: Old Weatherstar XL
« Reply #14 on: June 10, 2011, 11:00:37 AM »
Well, if I can get the graphics off, I will just give them to whoever wants 'em, but I meant the machines, I might want to keep one of them to play with, but what should I do with the other one?
They both work, but one isn't inside a cabinet.