Weather Example...

[Mike.in.Minnesota]

Here is my weather setup - see attached photo. I'd be interested in any comments.

For those who would comment about being a weather freak... Well, I live in a mobile home... So, the weather is very important to me during the summer months.


I use BI Tools, and 'SiteShoter' from NirSoft. I choose SiteShoter over web2img because SiteShoter can also crop the entire page, and, crop out sections at the same time.

I setup a task in windows scheduler every minute, to run a bat file executing 3 SiteShoter commands in sequence. The images in the weather overlay update themselves.

The Weather 'Camera' is an 'USB Analog Other' set as 'Screen Capture' & 'Blackness', at 1fps, and set to 1280x960 resolution to get a 4:3 ratio and better image detail. Video is, of course, re-encode to get the overlays.

All this uses minimal cpu, about an extra 1-2%. The daily bvr clip files total around 2gig, so not too bad.

 

[Mike.in.Minnesota]

Oh, ahh, errrr... By minimal cpu, I'm referring to BI. Executing this every minute does create a very short cpu spike from the normal 12-15% to around 45%

 

[erkme73]

Mike, you've peaked my interest. Can you post the text from your bat file? I'm particularly interested in what three commands you're sending to to SiteShoter. The manual for the program is pretty daunting - so if I can learn from your experience - especially since it is exactly how I would like to implement the app - that would be very helpful.

 

[Mike.in.Minnesota]

Here is a zip file containing the bat, cfg, and, example captures....

• SiteShoter Weather.bat - This executes the Siteshoter cfg files in sequence to reduce cpu spike.
  
• weather.gov-map(mpls).cfg
  
• WeatherBug-Now-left.cfg
• WeatherBug-Now-right.cfg
• WeatherBug-Now.cfg
• captures of each 'cfg' file for examples.

1. Download Siteshoter from NirSoft - freeware utilities: password recovery, system utilities, desktop utilities & execute. I put it in 'Program Files' and made a shortcut. But it can be executed anywhere.
2. Load one of the 'cfg' files into Shitshoter, and click 'Start'. Adjust settings as necessary. Save your specific config files.
3. Once you have the captures you want, edit 'SiteShoter Weather.bat' with the paths & config file names.

You can now execute the bat file to generate your captures, and/or, setup a schedule in Windows Scheduler.

A few notes...
- You'll need to setup Blue Iris Tools for the specific overlays you want, if you want those also.
- You'll need to adjust the placement of the images in the camera, and, position layers (send to back/front).
- Every now and then, the images will go blank for a cycle or two. I think it's am issue with when BI updates the camera and Siteshoter writing the file.
- Every now and then, the Weather underground captures will look weird due to ads changing size! I got fed up with that, and went back to using only BITs. I could supcribe to eliminate the ads, but... naaaaa
- I use a fps of 1 because anything more is overkill, and, it gives you the time by second.
- I did change the fps to 1 frame every 2 minutes. Worked well. Except that I didn't like that the camera was always greyed out ( switched back to 1 fps).

Good luck. Let me know if anything else comes up.

 

[erkme73]

Wow Mike! This is so much more than I expected. I have added it to my short list of things to do as soon as life lets me catch a breath. I will post back here when that opportunity has presented itself.

 

[Mike.in.Minnesota]

Glad to help.
A few more things to note:
- Using the 'Blackness' camera, I set mine to a HD resolution of 1280x960 (4:3 ratio) so that the captured images appear better. If you use a smaller resolution, like 640x480, the captured images will be resized smaller and will pixelate much more.
- The more captures you do, the longer the cpu spike, and more bandwidth you will use (if this is a concern).
- Weather Underground puts ads at the top of the page, and, there are 3 different sizes! This will throw the capture off every now and then, and the resulting captures will be sqewed a bit. I could have spent $2 a year to get rid of the ads, but decided not too.

Although this was awesome, I went back to only the Blue Iris Tools display. Easier to manage.

 

[tom95521]

Trying to make a camera weather page with background camera for sky conditions + BI Tools and running into a problem with BI not wanting to use the latest version of the overlay images. BI either keeps the old version of the image or the image is deleted from the background camera pointing at the sky. BI might be caching the images or keeping the file handles open. Probably was never designed for dynamic image overlays. I emailed BI support to see if there is a solution.

I am not seeing ads on the images I am downloading.
https://icons.wxug.com/data/weather-maps/radar/united-states/reno-nevada-region-current-radar-and-storms.gif
https://icons.wxug.com/data/640x480/2xnw_sf.gif
https://icons.wxug.com/data/640x480/2xnw_vi.gif

Thanks,
Tom

 

[tom95521]

Ken updated the image overlay feature in version 4.6.5.3 so the images are now updated in real time when the files update. That means you can configure BI 'download cams' to download the images (I download every 5 minutes) you want to overlay. Then you don't need to use SitesShoter to download the images. Also you can have picture in picture motion trigger camera images in your camera videos. Ken is amazing.

Attached graphic created with 1 physical camera and 3 download/virtual cameras.

Thanks,
Tom