MMM-aviationwx (Aviation weather)

[Mykle1]

@320fan said in MMM-aviationwx (Aviation weather):

And same for me - it’s just a hobby.

Sooooo, you’re NOT a pilot?

However, some posts above I’ve just shared my ideas/vision of this plugin (nothing personal ;).

I get it. I just hope you understand the magnitude of what you are asking for. :-)

In any case, thanks for your support in advance. I’m especially push this topic to find a persons, who will be interested in that too.

You’re welcome, and while I’m not that interested in aviation (although it is interesting) I am interested in learning new things and challenging myself by making MM modules.

This is a bit of a cheat (at the moment) but here are two instances of the module at the same time, one showing UUDD data and the other showing KJFK data.

[stephenmelody]

@Mykle1 I like how it’s switching between hectopascals and inches of mercury, as well as m/s and knots!

That was always the one thing missing on this module for me, international airports

[Mykle1]

@stephenmelody said in MMM-aviationwx (Aviation weather):

I like how it’s switching between hectopascals and inches of mercury, as well as m/s and knots!

According to @320fan, "Display of “Units” is mandatory due to different units in different countries. Happily for me, there was no conversion necessary on my part. Included in the data for each station are the units that apply for that station. And good thing, too, as I have no idea what the hell hectopascals are. :-)

That was always the one thing missing on this module for me, international airports.

Well, we aim to please. :-)
And just for the record, this is not that module. I chose to create my own rather than fork and edit the existing one.

Ok, time for the two of you to contribute to the cause.

• Does the “Remarks” line need the word “Remarks”? Is it preferred or not?
• Flight Rules come before the Station, or after? Seems odd to me.
• Find/create/make/conjure me a url from the API that can fetch multiple ICAO’s in a single GET request.

That’s all, for now. :-)

[stephenmelody]

Here’s my thoughts, but they’re just preferences.

RMK stands for Remarks, so having it show “Remarks: RMK…” is a little redundant. AO2 just means it’s automated. Also, this info differs from country to country, so I’d say keep it.

Flight rules tend to be a coloured dot (as per the original code) so it’s often common for that to be first, at least in the US.

You know my coding skills… but I was wondering if there might be any hints in the original module, as that pulls multiple codes.

What does a UK airport give you? Maybe EGLL or EGNX as the codes?

[Mykle1]

@stephenmelody said in MMM-aviationwx (Aviation weather):

Also, this info differs from country to country, so I’d say keep it.

But you, as an interested user, would know those were the remarks, regardless? And by the format of the module itself, that line would always be the remarks. For the sake of space, I’m going to remove it. Let’s see if you miss it. :-)

Flight rules tend to be a coloured dot (as per the original code) so it’s often common for that to be first, at least in the US.

Understood, but does the data (ex. IFR) tell you the same thing as the colored dot? Less coding for me if “IFR” is immediately recognizable and understandable by you.

You know my coding skills… but I was wondering if there might be any hints in the original module, as that pulls multiple codes.

Only what you’ve told me. :-) API’s don’t conform to one protocol when it comes to formulating a url for data. This is a different API. I was hoping you guys would do some of the leg work. :-)

What does a UK airport give you? Maybe EGLL or EGNX as the codes?

I was going to test those but at the moment, the API is down.

I hope this is not a sign that this API is unreliable.

However, I get the rest of the night off! :-)

[allebone]

Anything I can to help? Im actually an Air Force aviator trying to get a module like this for our Operations Center.

There is a universal coding standard for METARS in the Flight Information Handbook (FIH).

Also, I’d stick to ICAO identifiers as they automatically include international.

If you use the API from NOAA: https://aviationweather.gov/metar/data?ids=Rodn&format=raw&date=0&hours=0, the results always come imperial.

Bryan

[XT16Johnny]

Thanks for the work on this - I am a pilot in Europe so very interested in seeing the outcome.
Unfortunately like many others, my coding is useless to everyone ;-)
Thanks again.
Johnny

[320fan]

@Mykle1 said in MMM-aviationwx (Aviation weather):

Sooooo, you’re NOT a pilot?

I’ve just mean that building of the MagicMirror is my hobby, but the aviation is my profession ;). I’m the Airbus driver in our real world.

This is a bit of a cheat (at the moment) but here are two instances of the module at the same time, one showing UUDD data and the other showing KJFK data.

It’a good step forward in the right direction!
So, just some comments from my side:

1. Using of colored dot before ICAO code is a best solution (It’s more user-frendly than just a IFR/VFR etc.)
2. For the remarks - I’m agree that the best way to remove that.
3. About different units - it’s nice to have a possibility to convert all units in the one base, but that request is not mandratory. In any case I can provide simple formulas for coversion of hPa into Hdg, F to C, kt to m/s and etc.

And if we going back to beginning: could you please make for the brief data format something like that from my lovely iPad AeroWeather application? This app is very popular for the pilots and it wiil be nce to keep more-less same base:

[320fan]

And that for a detail view:

[cowboysdude]

@allebone

Finally a reasonable request…and an offer to help…

[stephenmelody]

@allebone said in MMM-aviationwx (Aviation weather):

Anything I can to help? Im actually an Air Force aviator trying to get a module like this for our Operations Center.

There is a universal coding standard for METARS in the Flight Information Handbook (FIH).

Also, I’d stick to ICAO identifiers as they automatically include international.

If you use the API from NOAA: https://aviationweather.gov/metar/data?ids=Rodn&format=raw&date=0&hours=0, the results always come imperial.

Bryan

Hey Bryan,

That last bit isn’t strictly true… the NOAA API will give you locally used units, not always imperial.

for example, pull the NOAA API for EGNX (UK), you’ll get:

EGNX 201650Z 25012KT 9999 BKN042 12/10 Q1010

Windspeed is in Kts, viz is in Metres (9999m or 10km+), Pressure is in hPa (Q for QNH 1010hPa).

UUDD (Russia):
UUDD 201700Z 13002MPS 9999 OVC025 01/M02 Q1011 R88/190095 NOSIG

wind is in m/s (130 degrees at 02m/s) and viz in metres, pressure in hPa (Q1011).

KPIT (USA):
KPIT 201651Z 21012G18KT 10SM SCT250 02/M06 A3013 RMK AO2 SLP221 T00221056

Wind in kts (210 @ 12kts, Gusting to 18kts), viz is statute miles (10SM), pressure in inHg (A3013).

So you do need to know the units you’re dealing with, which is nice with the avwx api, as it gives you the units.

I don’t know of anywhere that uses F for temperatures, it always seems to be Celcius, with M indicating minus so for PIT above, Temp = 02 degrees C, dew point Minus 06 degrees C.

[Mykle1]

@stephenmelody said in MMM-aviationwx (Aviation weather):

What does a UK airport give you? Maybe EGLL or EGNX as the codes?

[Mykle1]

@allebone said in MMM-aviationwx (Aviation weather):

Anything I can to help? Im actually an Air Force aviator trying to get a module like this for our Operations Center.

Not at the moment but I’ll let you know. Would I then be employed by the USAF? How big is their budget? ;-)

There is a universal coding standard for METARS in the Flight Information Handbook (FIH).

Uhh, I won’t be reading that. I’m just trying to make heads or tails of the requests being given here and the amount of data I have to deal with. FYI, I’m not a pilot. I’m a programming hobbyist.

Also, I’d stick to ICAO identifiers as they automatically include international.

Point taken.

If you use the API from NOAA: https://aviationweather.gov/metar/data?ids=Rodn&format=raw&date=0&hours=0, the results always come imperial.

This url encourages me, although it brings me to a web page displaying the data instead of the API data itself. Can you find me a url that brings me to the actual API data?

This is what your url gives me

This is what I need

[Mykle1]

@320fan said in MMM-aviationwx (Aviation weather):

Using of colored dot before ICAO code is a best solution (It’s more user-frendly than just a IFR/VFR etc.)

Read what I asked of @stephenmelody regarding this. Allow me to start off simply, without having to code a colored dot for each Flight Rule. User friendly, sure, but I’m doing this on my own time.

About different units - it’s nice to have a possibility to convert all units in the one base, but that request is not mandratory. In any case I can provide simple formulas for coversion of hPa into Hdg, F to C, kt to m/s and etc.

Again, I’m not willing, at the moment, to code every conversion. If the units are included in the data, that’s what you will get.

And if we going back to beginning: could you please make for the brief data format something like that from my lovely iPad AeroWeather application? This app is very popular for the pilots and it wiil be nce to keep more-less same base:

If we’re going back to the beginning then this is what you asked for initially. With the exception of the green icon, that’s what I’ve done so far.

[stephenmelody]

@Mykle1 Here…

https://aviationweather.gov/gis/scripts/MetarJSON.php

or maybe this:

https://aviationweather.gov/gis/javascript/Metars.js

However - the php file only seems to give North American and some random METARs, not the same coverage as that webpage gives… weird I know right?!

Also - the us gov doesn’t give local units like the avwx api does, so you have to make a leap of faith as to what it’s showing.

[Mykle1]

@stephenmelody

I do appreciate the effort. Thanks, but neither of those would work. However, I’ll be working on it in the next few days.

Questions: How many different Flight Rules are there? And how many different colors associated with them? Would a flight rule (IFR) colored appropriately, amount to the same thing as a colored circle?

[stephenmelody]

@Mykle1 It’s not great in that it doesn’t have full global weather either, so to the original requester’s requirements, it wouldn’t do the job anyway. the AVWX API looks to be better in that regard.

WRT flight conditions, this differs from country to country, the UK typically only reports 2, VFR or IFR. The US seems to have 4 (which is what I’d go with, i’ve never seen anything more that these 4):

VFR
MVFR
IFR
LIFR

There’s also two types of colour schemes, many pilots use the Alternative (I fly on alternative), so being able to configure this would be perfect…

Standard: VFR-Blue MVFR-Green IFR-Yellow LIFR-Red Unknown-Grey

Alternative: VFR-Green MVFR-Blue IFR-Red LIFR-Magenta Unknown-Grey

Would the text coloured per the rules work the same as a coloured circle? Yes - although a circle would be better for screen real estate I would imagine…

[Mykle1]

@stephenmelody

Ok, so here is where I stand. Yesterday, I began a second version of this module. It looks nearly identical to my first prototype. However, in this second version I was using the aviationweather API. Besides the fact that the data does not come in json format (my personal preference) the data itself doesn’t contain a “units” object. This seems fairly important to me. I’d rather have the units than not.

So, I’m going back to the original prototype and continue from there, using the avwx API.

[Mykle1]

@stephenmelody said in MMM-aviationwx (Aviation weather):

Standard: VFR-Blue MVFR-Green IFR-Yellow LIFR-Red Unknown-Grey
Alternative: VFR-Green MVFR-Blue IFR-Red LIFR-Magenta Unknown-Grey

Thanks for doubling my workload, Stephen. :-)

[allebone]

This is amazing collaboration. Anyone interested in hammering out a CSS/Config that would work well for an FBO or Flight Ops Office to coincide with this module? We have the Base Ops Office here, and its needed a good weather, NOTAMS, Ops Notes display for visiting people. I am pretty sure every FBO out there would love to have something too.

Would be nice to config it up to where its just change ICAO and surrounding field ICAOs to get a workable display.

We have actually talked recently about how we’d display an Airfield Diagram, but color code the RCR for all the Taxi-ways. We have limits to where we can taxi on Ice/Slush here in the Midwest, so it’d be nice to visualize. However, I haven’t begun to figure out how to crack that nut. (STS). :)

Bryan