SmartWeather Station Tile Edge Driver?

Hi All,
@Brad_st @erickv @nayelyz @posborne @psbarrett @TAustin
Currently there is Groovy virtual device with stock Groovy DTH ”SmartWeather Station Tile" that any user can create. It very useful for many Automations.

Will this DTH be transferred to new API platform, and how can be done as Edge driver?

It is not about “local” execution, as device is gathering (parsing) data from “online” source, it’s about having same SmartWeather device available when Groovy is shut down.

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Do you know where the weather data came from? If there is a RESTful API available, then using a forwarding bridge server, you could get the weather data into an Edge driver for subsequent device display. Although as you point out, it is contrary to the point of Edge drivers which are intended to be for local execution only. I suspect the SmartThings position would be that this application is more appropriate for a cloud-based schema.

This is one of those areas where there is functionality that has been around for a long time now, and that is in use in Automations, that simply isn’t documented for general use yet. Yes the Coordinate API has sneaked into the documentation but there isn’t any real information about how you exploit it.

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They have official dth with all listed capabilities on Github

@Zach_Varberg @jody.albritton or anyone from SmartThings?

This is a cloud based device. It uses the The Weather Channel’s API as a source. The API can be queried through the built in Groovy code.

The SmartThings app uses the same The Weather Channel API to display the weather data “widget” in the app.

As it is a cloud API, the local Edge option doesn’t make any sense as @TAustin noted above.

If I can guess, a SmartApp will replace the the current SmartWeather Station at some form.

For any information regarding the SmartWeather Station, I would tag @dkirker, who might have a better ide what is the plan with that.

What I was trying to explain earlier is that there is already an API for the weather and it has been in use in the Core SDK for at least 15 months. You can also create subscriptions.

It just hasn’t been given prime time exposure yet. We can see it being used in Automations, and the so called Coordinate API (which includes weather and air quality) is now in the API reference but it is still baby steps.

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Sorry, I’ve looked at the link after I posted. And that’s what I thought the App itself uses.

But out of curiosity, do you see that you can use it for different locations as well? It is not clear for me.

Unfortunately we seem to be at the stage where the documentation is teasing us rather than enlightening us. The Coordinate API seems to work with latitude and longitude and currently features weather and air quality. The subscriptions are somewhat different to you see with devices though as the conditions seem to be part of the subscription. Looks like it could be quite interesting if I had a clue what it all meant.

I am looking for new Edge driver replacement for old Groovy device. I know that that data come from the cloud, and that this will never be local, but as currently is virtual device, I am hoping that there is possibility that we can have virtual Edge Device.

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Also as @TAustin is discovering more possibilities with Web Requestor, this could end up being much better device, then what we currently have

It is not a virtual device, it is a C2C device.

I thought that I created that device in IDE, and that I have manually assigned DTH to it.

That’s right, but if you follow your logic, then the virtual switches created through the app are not virtual devices. :wink:

It is a C2C device. The groovy code gets the weather data from The Weather Channel’s API. (Used to be Weather Underground.)

The API call what @orangebucket posted does the same but without the Groovy part. It provides the data according The Weather Channel’s data.

And to be honest. I would be happy that SmartThings has this feature built in. There are some limited free tiers of The Weather Channel’s API/ WU API, but it is not as free as it used to be before IBM bought WU.

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Depends on how you like to use the terminology. To me the SmartWeather Station Tile is indeed a virtual device, a virtual Weather Station. You could consider it as a virtual Weather Station integrated over the cloud, though I think the Weather Station is really created at the ST end. Still virtual either way.

However if you configure that virtual Weather Station to use PWS data (can you still do that?) then I would argue that, at least in part, what you have there is an integration of that PWS, and so not virtual at all.

But we digress. Especially me. I always digress. It gives something to do while waiting.

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Yes, you can, if you use the Groovy version.

I prefer the custom weather tile over the built in Weather Channel (WC) function for a number of reasons:

  1. Illumination is not available from the WC. I use it on gray days to turn lights on sooner.
  2. Using the custom weather tile I can tie into Personal Weather Stations (PWS) in my neighborhood.
  3. l can set up multiple custom weather tiles for different locations, or different PWS in my neighborhood.
  4. With custom weather tiles when you tap on the graph function and can see the temperatures and humidities for the past 24 hrs.
  5. Using automations you force refreshes of the custom weather tiles at any frequency such as every 15 min. It would be a neat upgrade if this could be done via setting.
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Today I was hit by a firmware update and the Smarweather station is no longer working.
Is there a new device using edge drivers that will perform the same as the DTH that I had running before?

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I have also been affected by this, I used to have the Virtual Smart Weather station and it would tell me the weather, UV, illuminessence etc. I used to use this so if it was cloud my lights would turn on if there was motion. Is there anything similar?

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