Weather Display Setup Guide

This script fetches real-time weather data for the specified latitude and longitude using the Open-Meteo API. It generates a two-frame animated GIF:

• Frame 1: Displays the current weather condition icon (e.g., sunny, cloudy, rainy) based on the weather code.
• Frame 2: Displays the current temperature in Celsius, rendered with a dynamic colour that corresponds to the temperature range (e.g., cooler tones for low temperatures, warmer tones for high temperatures).

The generated GIF is automatically sent to the connected dot-matrix display via the python3-idotmatrix-client library. By default, the script updates the weather information every 30 minutes, but this interval can be customised in the configuration file (config.ini).

Step 1: Ensure Prerequisites

Make sure the python3-idotmatrix-client is installed or accessible in your Python environment. If it is not, navigate to the python3-idotmatrix-client directory and install it using:

pip install .

Step 2: Install Dependencies

Navigate to the idotmatrix-weather directory in your console and run:

pip install requests pillow

Step 3: Set Up config.ini

Edit the config.ini file to update the following parameters as needed:

• latitude: Your location's latitude

• longitude: Your location's longitude

• timezone: Your location's timezone using TZ format

• device_address: Address of your display device gathered from the python3-idotmatrix-client with the --scan command

• frame_duration: Duration of each frame in milliseconds (eg.g, 1000 = 1 second)

• update_interval: Update interval in seconds (e.g., 1800 = 30 minutes). Please respect the Open-Meteo API and don't set this to update too often.

  [settings] latitude = YOUR_LATTITUDE longitude = YOUR_LONGITUDE timezone = YOUR_TIMEZONE device_address = YOUR_DEVICE_ADDRESS frame_duration = 3000 update_interval = 1800

Step 4: Run the Script

Execute the script to fetch weather data, generate a GIF, and send it to the display:

python weather_display.py

Step 5: Verify and Debug

Check the console for debug messages and debug directory for generated GIFs or rendered frames in case of issues.

Temperature colour range table

Temperature Range (°C)	Colour Description	Example HEX Value
≤0	White (Freezing or below)	#FFFFFF
1-5	Dark Blue	#0000CC
6-10	Medium Blue	#3333FF
11-15	Light Blue	#6699FF
16-19	Sky Blue	#99CCFF
20-29	Light Orange	#FFCC99
30-39	Orange	#FFA500
40-50	Bright Red	#FF4500
≥51	Dark Red (Extreme Heat)	#990000

Notes

• idotmatrix-weather script by:

  • @artywah.bsky.social
  • With a lot of help from ChatGPT

• Weather data provided by:

  • Open-Meteo
  • License: Free for non-commercial use

• Original weather icons:

  • Source: Iconset: Weather Color
  • Author: Sihan Liu
  • License: Free for commercial use