Live weather linked to GPS ???

dumpper · 09-21-2004, 01:32 PM

Hi all:

I'm looking for a solution to feed live weather info to a mapping software with GPS. For example, the software will display the live local weather, forecasts, satellite & radar images at my current GPS location (or the area surrouding it).

I have looked & tested out the "Swift WX 2.0" from www.swiftwx.com (a powerful tool for stormchasers) but it seems more complicate than what I'm looking for, still buggy, and it's geared toward US locations & customers too much (not worldwide). I also tried download the satellite images & remap them to OziExplorer, but that would only show the clouds or radars, but not the weather forecasts (temp., humidity, pressure etc.)

I do have a setup for mobile internet connection (both analog & digital coverage) in the car.

Just need the specialized software or an approach to link everything together.

Thanks for all your contributing ideas !

D.

Chairboy · 09-21-2004, 01:46 PM

For the homebrewer, I think that MapPoint can output the zipcode you're in. From there, it's just a matter of posting that to a weather website.

dumpper · 09-21-2004, 02:44 PM

Thanks Chairboy ... perhaps I have to "get my hand dirty" & write a dll or plugin app in VB to do that ... Well, if there's nothing *currently available* for that purpose ...

Chairboy · 09-21-2004, 03:05 PM

I'm no longer 100% certain mappoint will output zipcode. I know that it has the info needed to do it, but I don't see it. I might be blind.

hijinks21 · 09-21-2004, 03:22 PM

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...eetAddress.asp

dumpper · 09-21-2004, 04:14 PM

Thank you both hijinks21 & Chairboy:

The postal code is very good, but applicable to North America only. Your ideas made me dig a bit deeper into MapPoint programming & I think the "GetLocation" method is probably more universal using the coordinates:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...etLocation.asp

Just still wonder if there's already solutions, since I don't want to "reinvent the wheels" ... (-:

By the way, I heard that NavTech has already been testing their own data with weather info linked into in-car GPS systems since last year, so "In-car Weather Info System" will eventually be a popular standard in conjunction with the GPS.

dumpper · 09-22-2004, 01:39 AM

Never mind, found it:

http://www.storm-hawk.com/products/index.html

This mature product is only for PDA though & quite expensive. Of course, still hope for a PC version & cheaper price for what it should worth !!! (-;

Also a useful start on VB programming for MapPoint:
http://www.mp2kmag.com/a60--weather.data.mappoint.html

D