Click on the the black Report button to reload with a fresh data file. Click on the other buttons for a variety of information.

© 1998 Blair Computing Systems. Inc., All Rights Reserved

Introduction

This Java applet was created at Blair Computing Systems, Inc. in Newark, Delaware. The applet duplicates much of the display functionality of the Texas Weather Instruments "Weather Report" device. Experimenting with this online version can give you a good idea of the look and feel of the actual product. Wherever possible, the functionality associated with each button has been maintained true to the device.

An overview of each component of the display and a table of button functionality is provided below.

About the Java Virtual Weather Window ^tm Display

• General display: Every 3 seconds the display toggles between showing the time of the most recent measurement (data transmission), indoor temperature, and barometric pressure, to showing the date, outdoor temperature and relative humidity.
• Update: The information being displayed by this demo version is updated every 15 minutes. This update rate is software configurable from 1 minute to 2^31 years, to allow a balance to be struck between data freshness and communication costs.
• Rainfall display: Meanwhile, every 2 seconds, the Rainfall display rotates from the daily rainfall measure, to the monthly measure, to the rainfall for the current term.
• Time format: Time is displayed in 12-hour format, including an indicator for AM or PM.
• Temperature locale indicators: The temperature display has two indicators, one each for indoor and outdoor measurements.
• Rise-fall indicators: Indoor and outdoor temperatures, barometric pressure and relative humidity have indicators for whether or not their values are rising or falling.
• Temperature units: Temperature is displayed in units Fahrenheit or Celsius.
• Barometric pressure units: Barometric pressure is displayed in millimeters of mercury or millibars.
• Rain units: Rainfall is displayed in inches or millimeters, with an indicator for inches.
• Wind display: Windspeed and direction are averages of each, since data is updated at most once per minute. There is an indicator for wind speed units, either miles per hour, knots or, in the absence of any indicator, kilometers per hour. For wind speed values greater than or equal to 100, an indicator light appears between the digits.
• Tides: Lunar tide cycle is displayed, although it is included only for demonstration purposes and is not accurate. Currently, the lunar tide cycle is calculated solely from a scaled calculation based on the current hour of the day.
• Dead display: If the display is no longer current, it may be because the thread controlling the acquisition of new data has stopped or the browser display needs to be reloaded. To get things going again, try performing a "reload" followed by clicking the "Report" button.
• Button indicators: When each of the buttons is clicked, it lights up to indicate it is active. Momentary buttons only light while the button is held down (with the mouse button), while "sticky" buttons (the hold buttons) toggle between being off and on. Note that the actual Weather Report device does not have lighted buttons.
• Information links: By clicking the Texas Weather Instruments logo in the upper left of the screen, one is connected to the Texas Weather Instruments web site. Similarly, one is connected to the Blair Computing Systems, Inc. web site by clicking the bcsi logo in the lower left corner.

Java Virtual Weather Window ^tm Functionality

For more information

Via email contact Bronson Hokuf < bronson@bcs-inc.com> or Tom Way < way@bcs-inc.com>> at Blair Computing Systems. Our "earmail" address is (302) 453-8947.