Widget - Weather Radar Widget

Note: WUradar Widget is now known as Weather Radar Widget!

I got approval for a widget to display a Weather Radar image based on the device GPS coordinates.  Use the following link to download the widget.

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/9c692f27-57d6-4488-91ae-5dd846a4ad26

Sep 27, 2021 - Added Weather Radar App to the store

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/bddf48af-bbdb-425c-bc7f-34309e529a2e

The Weather Radar App is essentially version 4.33 of the widget released as a full device app.  This version allows for full screen images on all supported devices.  Enables animations on a few additional devices than supported by the widget.  Lastly, the radar image will auto update every 5 minutes and will not time out and return to the watch face.  Both the widget and the app share a common registration, so if you subscribe to either the widget or the app, you get access to unlock both versions.

App Setup:
Version 4.0 represents a major overhaul in the Weather Radar Widget.  It no longer requires any configuration and should work from initial download.  The radar data being used does cost each month, so this widget has switched to a trial/subscription model.  To start out every new device gets a 21 day free trial that is fully functional.  After the trial is over, you need to sign up for a nominal annual subscription.  After completing your subscription, go into the settings and and your email address used for from the PayPal transaction.  The next time the widget is run, the widget will remain unlocked for 1 year.  After which, you will need to renew again.

Follow these step in order to enter your email address into the settings.  https://ciq.sabeard.net/wrw4/registered.php

Using the widget:
This widget will show up in the widget loop on the device.  How you access that loop will depend on the device.
Button Watches - Press the up or down buttons on the watch until you see the Weather Radar Widget
Touchscreen Watches - Swipe up or down until you see the Weather Radar Widget
Edge devices with Buttons - Use up or down button until you see the Weather Radar Widget
Touchscreen Handheld and Edge devices - Swipe down from the top of the screen to show status page, then swipe right or left until you see the Weather Radar Widget

Acknowledgements:
I decided to write this widget because I recently upgraded my edge 810 to an edge 1000. After setting it up, I noticed the accuweather widget could tell me if it was expected to rain, but there was no way to view the radar map without pulling over to take out the phone. I keep my phone in the saddle bag while riding, so not really convenient. I was surprised that there was not already a radar app in the store. Last week I decided to download eclipse and the SDK plugin and try to write my own app. Armed with the ConnectIQ programming guide and SDK samples, PETERDECKER's tutorials and links to source code examples, and jim_m_58?s tutorials and ideas based on WU Weather Widget, I came up with WUradar. Thanks guys for the inspiration.

The original plan was to release this only for the edge family of devices, however after playing with the configurations I was able to determine fairly simple method to scale the images to work on all the watches also. While the edge devices are better suited for this type of widget due to the always on GPS, there is no harm in including the watches too.

Let the questions and feedback begin.

Starting with version 4.9 the following devices support radar animation:
D2 Charlie, D2 Delta Series, Decent MK1, Edge 520 Plus, Edge 530, Edge 820, Edge830, Edge 1000, Edge 1030, Edge Explorer, Fenix 5X, Fenix 5Plus Series, Fenix 6 Pro Series, FR245m, FR645m, FR945, GPSMap66/86, Captain Marvel, First Avenger, Darth Vader, Rey, Marq Series, Oregon 7xx, Rino 7xx, Vivoactive 3 Music, Vivoactive 4, Vivoactive 4s

Any device not listed does not have enough available memory to display more than a single image.


REQUESTED FEATURES:
Option to zoom map size +/- scale - implemented - Added the ability to change the default zoom level in settings in 1.4, changes on device in 2.4
Option to display rain speed and direction - Direction can now be determined when using animated images on supported devices with version 4.8.
Set color of position dot based on GPS status (Last, Poor, Good) - implemented in version 1.14
Ability to save location for future use - implemented in version 4.17 for watch devices
Ability to load radar current radar image first in animations - Updated in Version 4.33
Add on screen button to enable animations - Added in version 4.33 for Edge and touchscreen handheld devices.

Change Log

4.33 - Officially added support for new devices released in 2021. Animation now download current radar image before starting into the image rotation, this has been requested a few times, finally figured out how to do it efficiently. On touchscreen Edge and handheld devices added an on-screen button to enable/disable animations. Under the hood optimizations to be more efficient with memory.
4.32 - Added support for Venu 2 series
4.31 - Added animation support for Descent MK2
4.30 - Officially added support for Enduro and VenuSq/SqMusic
4.29 - Fixed out of memory crashes on VA3 and FR23x devices
4.28 - Added a credits page to the about screen to acknowledge the active map and radar source being used. Added option on watch devices to hide zoom label and radar source from the radar screen. Fixed crash on CIQ1.x devices when viewing about screen.

4.27 - Added support for fr745 and fixed expiration date on about page to match the timezone set on the server.
4.26 - Optimized memory to reduce crashed on low memory devices while increasing the the viewable size on the image. Removed support for personal developer keys as AerisWeather has chanced their renewal policy.
4.25 - Added support for the newest devices Edge 1030 plus, Marq Golfer, and Mercedes Venu.
4.24 - More memory optimizations to prevent out of memory crashes on low memory devices while trying to access the menu.
4.23 - Fixed an out of memory error on Vivoactive 3 and a menu initialization bug which caused a crash on certain devices.
4.22 - Fixed an out of memory error on the Vivoactive watches.
4.21- Fixed a bug which could sometimes cause the widget to crash on startup on newer devices.
4.20 - Bug Fix
4.19 - Added RainViewer as a second radar data source. This will dramatically increase radar coverage options for all users. To use RainViewer, open the menu then choose Select Radar Source to choose between AerisWeather and RainViewer. AerisWeather provides a higher definition radar image, but RainViewer provides more coverage.
4.18 - Added support for new devices.
4.17 - Fix issue causing black image download on Venu devices. New feature on watches to save and use a previous location. If using a saved location, you can manually refresh to your current position.
4.16 - Fix for another cause of crashes after saving the registration email with the ConnectIQ app.
4.15 - Fixed a bug causing a crash for users trying to save registration after the trial or registration had expired. Until now the work around has been to reinstall the widget and save the registration email address prior to running the widget.
4.14 - Fixed an issue causing error -300 message on F3 devices. Fixed an issue causing some devices to crash after entering registration email in settings.
4.13 - Implemented fix for some devices which would always report phone not connected when it really was. i.e. Edge Explorer 1000.
4.11 - Fixed a bug causing radar images to be displayed in the reverse order.
4.9 - Fixed crash on VAHR and Epix.  Added support for all devices with enough memory to show radar loop.
4.8 - Added option on Map enabled devices to animate image loop. When enabled, the widget will show image loop of the past 30 minutes, 15 minutes, and current. If your device is supported, the option to "Enable animation" will appear in the menu. Supported devices for Animation include Edge devices (except Edge520), F5X, F5plus series, F6pro series, Marq Series, FR945. Still investigating how to support FR645m, FR245m, VA3M, VA4S, and VA4. All other devices I am at the memory limits for widgets and will not get support for animation.
4.7 - fixed more glance view implementation issues on the F6 and Marq
4.5 - Fixed a crash in Widget Glances on F6 and Marq devices. Customized Widget from system defaults.
4.4 - Released to fix bug in Garmin SDK affecting Fenix 6 devices.
4.3 - Added support for Fenix 6 Series, Venu, and Vivoactive 4 Series, fixed some bugs with entering Registration email in settings, and added vibration and background light notification on watch devices. Now you get alerted once the image has downloaded.
4.2 - Fixed some more crashes.
4.1 - Fixed some bugs causing crashes on some devices
4.0 - Major overhaul to the app.  Added registration checking and moved other options from settings to on device menu.  Added about screen to show version and registration status.
3.10 - Added support for new Forerunner and Edge devices.
3.9 - Decreased memory usage on high memory devices, i.e. F5+ series. Hopefully this will help improve image download time.
3.8 - Added support for MARQ and other new devices.
3.7 - Removed support for Weather Underground as the service finally shutdown all support for API keys. Aeris Weather is the only option now!
3.6 - Added support for GPSMAP® 66s / 66st
3.5 - Added support for the new D2 Delta series. Changed Global Satellite to use dark background and added option for color IR satellite view.
3.4 - Added support for Edge Explore, Set Aeris Weather as the default for new installs, Developed new method to use last known GPS position on watch devices based on Garmin fixing in new device FW that I was exploiting.
3.3 - Added support for new devices, VA3M, and F5 plus series.
3.2 - Improved key checking to ensure the key entered is the correct length. Fixed broken error reporting, app will once again report if the download failed, instead of hanging on "retrieving image". Enter key will now open menu on watch devices.
3.1 - Added zoom buttons to touchscreen handheld and Edge devices. Adjusted zoom level designation to match buttons, L5 is most zoomed in, L1 is most zoomed out.
3.0 - Complete rewrite of the code structure. Streamlined image retrieval and display update processes.

  • I have been seeing error 403 on other users who Aeris Weather account expires. The best thing to do is log in and use this link to enable your account for another 2 months.

    https://www.aerisweather.com/signup/developer/
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 6 years ago
    It appears that the "Error Code 0" issue is back on the Edge Explore with the latest firmware update. :-(
  • Markow, The error code 0 issue before was a problem with Garmin Connect Mobile not handling the new devices properly on download and not a firmware issue. It could be firmware related but I would suspect GCM or you account is do for a renewal. Have you confirmed that your developer account at Aeris is not expired? Error code 0 is what I usually get when it is time for me to renew.
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 6 years ago
    I just verified that my Aeris developer subscription is indeed renewed. I then went ahead and added a new app to Aeris and copied the code into the widget … still getting Error Code 0.
  • Markow, I suspect that there is something with GCM and the Edge Explorer. The last time it took an update to GCM (phone app) to fix the image download issue. Unfortunately I have no way to troubleshoot that. Have you tried to contact Garmin support? I will ask in the Connect IQ forum to see if anyone else is having problems.
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 6 years ago
    I have not contacted Garmin support about this. I certainly can do so.
  • Can't seem to get an Aeris account their system keeps saying "something is wrong" to get an application ID or Secret Key etc etc. I have a grandfathered WUnderground API.

    What am I doing wrong.
  • Can't seem to get an Aeris account their system keeps saying "something is wrong" to get an application ID or Secret Key etc etc. I have a grandfathered WUnderground API.

    What am I doing wrong.


    Okay slected the WUNderground Radar and have the WUnderground API so it seems like those two combos work and I don't need Aeris???

    Is there anyway to get ride of ALL the big text its like a massive splash screen???

    This is pretty cool widget!!!
  • TomasJohnLynch,

    Glad to hear you got it working with your Weather Underground Key. You are correct, you don't need the Aeris Weather with this combination.

    With regards to the text, I have to acknowledge the weather source based on the terms of service. So I have to leave that text. I have considered removing the widget name and version from the radar screen since it is displayed on the previous screens. For now, I keep it there along with the zoom level that I use frequently when I decide to get a new image at a new zoom level. I added that text because I wanted to know the setting for the current image before selecting a new one. I find it out of the way on the edge devices, but still works well on my FR935. I may consider an adjustment in a future update, but I won't make any promises. Other than that, I am glad you like the widget.
  • I was about to report some problem with the widget, but spotted that a new version is available just from today. So I installed it, but the problem persists.

    The watch cannot show the whole error message, since it is too long. but it must be like “this key (is inv?)alid due to exceeding ra(????)”

    I use the widget maximum twice per day, so I have no clue why there is any problems with the api(?) key.

    Is it a general problem now? Was it the reason of the version update?

    As I remember yesterday had no problem with the widget.