Xebec Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 I have a monitor, an 800XL, the 850 interface, and Wifi232.. How do I check the weather on my Atari? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 telnet://rainmaker.wunderground.com don't know if it still works but it used to 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 The September 1986 issue of Antic also had that Wefax program for the A8 and ST written by Charles Jackson. It did, if I recall, also detail strategies for acquiring frequencies and images directly from satellite. Perhaps it’s worth taking a look? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 Take your Atari outside for about 15 minutes. Bring it back in and plug it in and turn it on. If it's shorted out, then it's probably raining outside. 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Payne Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 For Atari owner, it's always sunny. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 (edited) D.E.L. CompuCable Systems, later Display Systems International (DSI) had a HeathKit Weather Station interfaced to Ataris (mostly 256K 800XLs and 130XEs) through the joystick ports. It worked with their SpectraView-1 cart. That one banks BASIC in and out, and requires that the BASIC (EP)ROM be replaced with the third 8K chunk of the Spec-1 code. This would display live real time weather info to cable TV customers who watched the channel they were broadcasting the Atari from. IIRC, the specification for the Weather Box is published, so should be able to write any kind of software for it. Edit: If anyone gets an Atari that boots to a rainbow screen, you may have a Spec-1 ROM in there. I want a DUMP!!! Same goes for the EPROMS in a Spec-1 Cart. Post here or PM me. (I used to work for them and I lost all of this stuff in a HD crash.) We already have Spec-2, but more dumps wouldn't hurt so we can see if anything has changed. Edited March 7, 2018 by Kyle22 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClausB Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 There's weather on your Atari? Not good! Try keeping it indoors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 Sound methods for checking and influencing the weather: 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 I vaguely remember there being one of the 80s Atari magazines that taught you how to build a circuit you plugged into a joystick port that would download weather maps and data from satellites and HAM radio. Pretty cool. You could save the downloads to disk as well, always wanted to put one together. Then my dad threw my magazine collection away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 There was a company called Climate Assessment Technology which released a couple of programs for the Atari in the early eighties. -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark loves Stella Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 I tried this on my Atari last night using APE over SIO2PC. I can't get past the "Press Return to Continue:" screen. There is a note above it stating: " If you cannot get past this opening screen, you must use a different version of the "telnet" program--some of the ones for IBM compatible PC's have a bug that prevents proper connection. " I was using ICET128 and ANSIVBXE terminal emulators. Has anyone had success getting through the first screen? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Spaced Cowboy Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 It definitely works from my linux box: [simon@xanadu ~]$ telnet rainmaker.wunderground.com Trying 35.160.169.47... Connected to rainmaker.wunderground.com. Escape character is '^]'. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Welcome to THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND telnet service! * ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * * * National Weather Service information provided by Alden Electronics, Inc. * * and updated each minute as reports come in over our data feed. * * * * **Note: If you cannot get past this opening screen, you must use a * * different version of the "telnet" program--some of the ones for IBM * * compatible PC's have a bug that prevents proper connection. * * * * comments: jmasters@wunderground.com * ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Press Return to continue: Press Return for menu or enter 3 letter forecast city code-- SJC Weather Conditions at 07:53 AM PST on 07 Mar 2018 for San Jose, CA. Temp(F) Humidity(%) Wind(mph) Pressure(in) Weather ======================================================================== 53 66% SE at 7 30.03 Overcast Forecast for San Jose, CA 600 am PST Wed Mar 7 2018 .Today...Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming partly cloudy. Highs in the lower 70s. South winds 5 to 15 mph. .Tonight...Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming mostly cloudy. A chance of rain. Lows in the mid 40s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph. .Thursday...Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of showers. Highs in the upper 60s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph...becoming northwest 10 to 20 mph in the afternoon. .Thursday night...Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of showers. Lows in the mid 40s. Northwest winds 10 to 20 mph...becoming south 10 to 15 mph after midnight. Chance of showers 20 percent. .Friday...Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of showers. Highs in the upper 60s. South winds 5 to 15 mph...becoming northwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon. Chance of showers 20 percent. .Friday night...Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of showers. Lows Press Return to continue, M to return to menu, X to exit: X Connection closed by foreign host. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electronizer Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 The September 1986 issue of Antic also had that Wefax program for the A8 and ST written by Charles Jackson. It did, if I recall, also detail strategies for acquiring frequencies and images directly from satellite. Perhaps it’s worth taking a look? My dad and I built the circuit described in that Antic issue. We were all ready to go, but then we got stuck because we didn't have a radio that could receive SSB. I think I still have the circuit somewhere, and now I do have a nice shortwave radio. I wonder if these signals are still being transmitted? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a8isa1 Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 I tried this on my Atari last night using APE over SIO2PC. I can't get past the "Press Return to Continue:" screen. There is a note above it stating: " If you cannot get past this opening screen, you must use a different version of the "telnet" program--some of the ones for IBM compatible PC's have a bug that prevents proper connection. " I was using ICET128 and ANSIVBXE terminal emulators. Has anyone had success getting through the first screen? Try CTRL-J instead of Carriage Return. If prompted take a guess at city code (I used BOS for Boston). What you type won't echo. Don't forget to use CTRL-J This works with each of my NodeMCU based wifi modems. One has Strikelink firmware and one has Zimodem firmware. -SteveS Sorry, I don't currently have a means to get screenshots from my real Ataris. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 telnet://rainmaker.wunderground.com don't know if it still works but it used to Now, we need to find a way to automate this so a Pro BBS could dial out once a day to get the forecast and then display it to users. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CharlieChaplin Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 (edited) Abbuc has several schematics and programs for that topic, some in english and some in german language (translated from english source): - Wefax, weather from space, Antic September 1986, by Charles Jackson, additional material by Patrick Bass Antic, V05, Nr. 05: https://www.atarimagazines.com/v5n5/weathermapsspace.html https://www.atarimagazines.com/v5n5/wefaxdecoder.html - measuring the temperature with Atari and one NTC resistor, Page 6 magazine - digital thermometer interface by Ron Levy Do not know for sure how up-to-date these schematics and programs are and if the electronic parts are still available. If you are an Abbuc member you can download these schematics and programs for free, if not try Google (since all of them are based on english and american sources they should be out there somewhere)... Edited March 7, 2018 by CharlieChaplin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 (edited) I used to get this through the Freenets in the early nineties. Here's a shot from Ice-T Edited March 7, 2018 by MrFish 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 My dad and I built the circuit described in that Antic issue. We were all ready to go, but then we got stuck because we didn't have a radio that could receive SSB. I think I still have the circuit somewhere, and now I do have a nice shortwave radio. I wonder if these signals are still being transmitted? Yes, according to NOAA (as of January). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivop Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 (edited) I remember building that circuit BITD. It was one of the first electronics projects I tried. I failed. Never managed to get a signal or an image on my screen Just ordered 5 XR2211 for $3.30 from China. Let's see if I can do better this time Wefax signals are still being just by ships etc... Edited March 8, 2018 by ivop 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Spaced Cowboy Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 I remember building that circuit BITD. It was one of the first electronics projects I tried. I failed. Never managed to get a signal or an image on my screen Just ordered 5 XR2211 for $3.30 from China. Let's see if I can do better this time Wefax signals are still being just by ships etc... It's not quite that simple, IIRC, at least if you're trying to get the feed from the satellites direct. The XR221 is just a tone-decoder, it needs a decent signal coming in, and the receiver itself needs to satisfy some requirements: It needs to be an SSB-capable (single-side-band) shortwave receiver, which can tune the upper side-band If you want good results, you need to be able to select a 30kHz -> 50kHz bandwidth when tuning in You'll want a decent antennae - a quadrifilar helix antennae is recommended. The second is because (as well as the signal requirements) you need to be able to cope with the doppler shift - those satellites are moving darn fast, orbiting the earth several times per day. Most receivers will select either 15kHz or 230kHz bandwidth, neither of which is ideal. You can try anything, of course, but the combination of a mismatched receiver *and* a poor antennae is not a great solution The best bet for low-cost selectable-bandwidth these days is a software-defined radio (SDR), they go for <$50, whereas an AOR AR2300 that can select the bandwidth will set you back ~$4000. On the other hand, you're not going to do the computation required for an SDR with an 8-bit atari... If, instead, you're trying to go for the ground-relay services, you still need an SSB-capable radio that can tune the upper side-band, and you still ideally want to be able to tune > 15kHz of bandwidth for good data reception but it isn't moving any faster than you are (being ground-based), so there's no doppler shift; additionally your antennae choice isn't as crucial, since it's a stronger signal (again, being ground-based). The simple solution for doing it on the atari would seem to be a dedicated APT receiver (which has the correct bandwidth-selection of ~50kHz) and a home-made antennae, linking through to the tone-decoder, and then the software on the atari creating the image from the digital output. Dedicated receivers cost ~$200-$300 or so and are a dying breed The other thing to remember is that the satellite signal is analogue. The low tone (1500Hz) represents black, and the high tone (2300Hz) represents white. With a tone-decoder you'll get just that, a black and white image. It might be better to put a micro-controller in there which can do an FFT on the incoming data, get the dominant frequency, and obtain a grey-scale image. On the other hand, if you're displaying it on a graphics.8 screen, perhaps black and white is best You'll also need to look for start-tones (300 Hz) and end-tones (450Hz) if you want this to be an automated thing that happens every evening (say). I did look into this because I was thinking it'd be a pretty cool add-on card for the expansion box I'm designing. I'm torn between doing the whole thing (ie: building in an SSB receiver) or saying you need to have an external receiver. There's a receiver design I could probably crib from that uses direct digital synthesis to create its frequency range in an old Elektor Electronics mag I have lying around. It's based around the Analog Devices AD9581 [PDF] chip which is the major cost at ~$30 each or so. I'll have to see. There's plenty of water to go under that bridge before I have to make that decision 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 I did look into this because I was thinking it'd be a pretty cool add-on card for the expansion box I'm designing. I'm torn between doing the whole thing (ie: building in an SSB receiver) or saying you need to have an external receiver. There's a receiver design I could probably crib from that uses direct digital synthesis to create its frequency range in an old Elektor Electronics mag I have lying around. It's based around the Analog Devices AD9581 [PDF] chip which is the major cost at ~$30 each or so. I'll have to see. There's plenty of water to go under that bridge before I have to make that decision That sounds pretty freaking amazing. I'll be customer #1! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 It's not quite that simple, IIRC, at least if you're trying to get the feed from the satellites direct. The XR221 is just a tone-decoder, it needs a decent signal coming in, and the receiver itself needs to satisfy some requirements: It needs to be an SSB-capable (single-side-band) shortwave receiver, which can tune the upper side-band If you want good results, you need to be able to select a 30kHz -> 50kHz bandwidth when tuning in You'll want a decent antennae - a quadrifilar helix antennae is recommended. You're a bit mixed up here. On Shortwave Bands you use SSB where you only use 3khz bandwidth and use a long wire antenna. On VHF Bands above 30 Mhz, you use a 30khz to 50khz filter when decoding FM Wefax. The XR221 works just fine for HF use... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Spaced Cowboy Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 You're a bit mixed up here. On Shortwave Bands you use SSB where you only use 3khz bandwidth and use a long wire antenna. On VHF Bands above 30 Mhz, you use a 30khz to 50khz filter when decoding FM Wefax. The XR221 works just fine for HF use... Fairy nuff I'd really been looking into the satellite-direct route. I don't have a receiver that works on either band (yet) so I figured going direct to the source would be better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 (edited) Check out these images of Wefax: https://www.google.com/search?q=wefax&nord=1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_0530tN3ZAhVjh1QKHaTSC8wQ_AUICygC&biw=1184&bih=822 For Hi-Rez Color or B/W images you would use a VHF receiver. The Lo-Rez B/W navigational / Marine Wefax images is what you'll decode on HF / Shortwave. I'll post some active frequencies of HF transmissions in a few hours. Edited March 8, 2018 by AtariGeezer 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 HF Wefax Frequencies I've heard in the last year: Use USB on 10.000 Mhz or above, otherwise use LSB. 4.975 Mhz 8.500 Mhz 8.680 Mhz Coast Guard 12.730 Mhz 12.785 Mhz 16.410 Mhz 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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