Author Topic: Make a small console of an old smartphone  (Read 3436 times)

maxen

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Make a small console of an old smartphone
« on: December 06, 2015, 12:53:25 PM »
Hi!

So I have always had a silly standard digital thermometer in the kitchen. It was always showing odd values due to sunlight and the sensor hanging right by the outside brick wall. Finally it died when the sensor cable broke. [tup]

Being happy without bad data this actually left me with no data at all. Since this is no option I had to do something. Buying a new thermometer would not increase the quality of the data.

Then I remembered that I have this nice and expensive weather station in another room. ....and an abandoned Android mobile phone with a bad battery. The phone has a nice screen and WiFi and even has a nice cradle to live in. 1+1 = 2, right?

So I started coding on a small template that could be shown on the phone, while it's stationed in the kitchen.
As most of my projects, this is a constant work-in-progress, but if someone else would like to use it as is, feel free to do so. Change it according to your needs if you want.

---
The Android phone is best if always connected to the charger.
In the settings, go to "development" and tick "screen always on when usb power" (or something like that). Then the screen will stay on as long as the charger is connected.
Also you might want to turn of sync of mail, the sound and such. Unless you don't want this, of course.

The console.html is simply placed in you WeahterCat templates folder, so it updates and uploads to your web server regulary.

There is a file called console_manifest.json included. This should be placed on your web server. It makes this template work as a so called web-app. In your browser (I use latest version of Chrome here), tap menu and "put on home screen". Go back to your home screen and tap this new icon - the weather will show up without menu bars or anything (except for the clock at the top), make it look nice and clean.

There are two .png files that should be on the webserver as well.

Enjoy!  [beer]

EDIT: Whoops. I forgot the two sun-images. Fixed and updated the attached zip-file.

mcrossley

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Re: Make a small console of an old cellphone
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2015, 01:11:42 PM »
A nice idea well executed.  [tup]
Mark

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Re: Make a small console of an old smartphone
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2015, 05:05:30 PM »
Very nice, looks great  [tup]

elagache

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Thank you!! (Re: Make a small console of an old smartphone)
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2015, 10:49:44 PM »
Dear Robert, Mark, Stu, and WeatherCat "current_conditions-oholics" . . . .

Very nice indeed!  :) Thanks Robertfor sharing!   [tup]

Although you are missing out!  In our breakfast nook area, we have not 1 but 3 thermometers!  In addition to the Vantage Pro-2, we have two different Ambient Weather indoor/outdoor thermometers.  Of course only the Vantage Pro-2 is really accurate, but alas, it can only be seen from certain locations in the room.  So depending upon where you stand, the indoor and outdoor temperature can vary widely! . . 

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

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Re: Make a small console of an old smartphone
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2015, 08:50:02 AM »
Very cool Robert. Thanks for sharing.
Blick


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Re: Make a small console of an old smartphone
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2015, 10:20:42 AM »
Looks great Robert, will put it on one of my old 'droid phones and get it working.  [cheers1]

JC

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Re: Make a small console of an old smartphone
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2015, 05:26:00 PM »
That's really nice, Robert! Thanks for posting this new option for WeatherCat users.
Steve - Avon, Ohio, USA


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Re: Make a small console of an old smartphone
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2015, 07:10:17 PM »
Nicely done!