Raspberry Pi Python console for the WeatherFlow Tempest and Smart Home Weather stations. The console uses the WeatherFlow REST API and websocket to stream data from your Weather Flow Tempest or Smart Home Weather station in real time via the internet. As soon as the data from your station reaches the WeatherFlow servers, it is pushed immediately to the console, including the 3-second rapid fire wind updates.
Many of the graphical elements in the console are based on the Weather34 Home Weather Station Template (https://www.weather34.com/homeweatherstation/) copyright 2015-2020 Brian Underdown. The Weather34 Home Weather Station Template is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
https://weatherflow.com/tempest-weather-system/ https://community.weatherflow.com/
Installation Instructions
Update Instructions
Auto-Start Instructions
Advanced Installation: Windows
The installation of the WeatherFlow PiConsole is fully automated, and can be started from the terminal with a single command. The automated installation should take ~1 hour.
The automated installer assumes you have already sucesfully setup your Raspberry Pi and have installed Raspberry Pi OS with Desktop. You should have also attached the touch screen, and have either a keyboard and mouse attached directly to the Pi, or have accessesd the Pi remotely through SSH/VNC. If you are starting from scratch, the Raspberry Pi documentation should help get you started:
The WeatherFlow PiConsole can be installed quickly and conveniently with the following command:
curl -sSL https://peted-davis.github.io/wfpiconsole | bash
Piping a command directly to bash is controversial, as it prevents the
user from reading code that is about to run on their system. If you are worried
about the contents of the installer, please examine the first
and second
install files in the Git repository before running the install command.
For those of you running a Raspberry Pi 4 an extra step is needed to get the console running perfectly. The “Task Bar” panel on the Raspberry Pi desktop needs to be hidden or else it will displace the console on the screen. There are two options to achieve this. First right click on the “Task Bar” panel on the Raspberry Pi desktop and select Panel settings. Select the Advanced tab. Then either:
- Un-tick
"Reserve space, and not covered by maximised windows", or - Tick
"Minimise panel when not in use"and set"Size when minimised"to 0 pixels.
Please note that you also cannot use SSH to start the console on a Raspberry Pi 4. Instead for remote access it is recommended to setup VNC (https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/vnc/)
When the console is run for the first time, you'll be required to enter a number of API keys for essential web services. One API key is needed determine the the station location (country) from its latitude/longitude, one needed to download an apppropriate weather forecast for your location, and one needed to download the closest METAR information for your location. Follow the steps below to register for the required API keys:
-
First, go to http://www.geonames.org/login and register for a new account. Once you have registered, go to your account (http://www.geonames.org/manageaccount) and activate "Free Web Services". Once this is done, your username will be your 'GeoNames' API key.
-
Next, if you live in the UK go to the UK MetOffice DataPoint homepage (https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/datapoint), and register for a new account. You'll be given an API key that will be you 'MetOffice' API key.
If you live outside the UK, register instead for a DarkSky API account (https://darksky.net/dev/register). This will be your 'DarkSky' API key. The console requires you to enter either a MetOffice API key or a DarkSky API key.As Apple have decided to restrict access to DarkSky data to Apple users only, the console is currently unable to provide a forecast for stations outside the UK. I am working on finding a replacement API service. -
Finally go to CheckWX Aviation Weather and register to enable access to the closest METAR information to you station location. (https://www.checkwx.com/signup). This will be your 'CheckWX' key.
Once you have followed the above steps and registered for the required API keys, go ahead and run the console for the first time using:
wfpiconsole start
You'll be asked to enter the API keys you have just signed-up for above, as well as information about your station. This includes your station ID and device ID for your outdoor Air and Sky modules. To find this information either open the WeatherFlow app or view your station page in a web browser. Click on the gear icon -> Stations -> [Station name] -> Status.
If all goes smoothly the console should automatically add the extra information it needs to your configuration file and then start running. You should not need to enter this configuration information again.
Congratulations, you have installed the Raspberry Pi Python console for the Weather Flow Smart Home Weather Station.
The WeatherFlow PiConsole can be updated quickly and easily with the following command:
wfpiconsole update
The update process will retain your existing user settings, but may prompt for input from time to time in order to add new functionality. Once the update has finished, restart the console using:
wfpiconsole start
The WeatherFlow PiConsole can be configured to run automatically when the Raspberry Pi powers up. To enable the console to start automatically, run
wfpiconsole autostart-enable
To stop the WeatherFlow PiConsole from starting automatically, run
wfpiconsole autostart-disable
If you are going to use the auto-start method, it is highly recommended that you can SSH into your Raspberry Pi, as the console can only be stopped using the stop command or a hard shutdown:
wfpiconsole stop
Although not officially supported, use the following step-by-step instructions to install and run the WeatherFlow PiConsole on Windows.
-
Download and install the Python 3.7 version of Miniconda for Windows (a lightweight Python interpreter): https://conda.io/miniconda.html
-
Once Miniconda is installed open the ‘Anaconda Prompt’ program.
-
In the Anaconda prompt, run:
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
- Once that process has finished, run:
python -m pip install autobahn[twisted] pytz pyasn1-modules service_identity geopy ephem Cython numpy packaging
-
Once that has finished, follow steps 2 and 3 under “Installing the kivy stable release” to install Kivy: https://kivy.org/doc/stable/installation/installation-windows.html This is the GUI library that drives the console.
-
Once Kivy is installed, run the following commands in order in the Anaconda Prompt. This will install the WeatherFlow PiConsole.
cd && mkdir wfpiconsole && cd wfpiconsole
curl -sL https://api.github.com/repos/peted-davis/WeatherFlow_PiConsole/tarball -o PiConsole.tar.gz
tar -xvf PiConsole.tar.gz --strip 1
del /f PiConsole.tar.gz
- You’re almost there now! You can start the console using
python main.py. As this is the first time you have run the console, you’ll be asked for some API keys. Details of what you need can be found under "Configure and Run WeatherFlow PiConsole" in the Installation Instructions.