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NI LabWindows/CVI and Measurement Studio Help Track Weather Online

Author(s):

Ed Edelman, Ambient Weather

Industry:

Telecommunications

Product:

LabWindows/CVI, Measurement Studio

The Challenge:

Reducing the time necessary to design commercially distributed applications and provide user interface gauges and graphics.

The Solution:

Using National Instruments LabWindows/CVI programming interface to design commercially distributed applications in a fraction of the time compared to using other C or C++ design platform.


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Weather Exchange Connects to Community Weather Stations
The Weather Exchange is a free, PC desktop application that accesses live weather data from personal weather station owners, schools, businesses, and government agencies. Anyone with a personal weather station, PC, and Internet connection can automatically report data to the free weather server. The Weather Exchange also provides up-to-the-minute forecasts, radar, warnings, and detailed weather maps, keeping the public instantly informed of any changes in the weather.

The Weather Exchange branding features are automated. The graphical images, gauges, text, menu bars, toolbars, and other attributes are automatically downloaded from the Internet and modified when a user launches the program. Users can also set audible and visual alarms when local weather conditions change drastically. The user can play selectable sounds using a Windows MCI player, software development kit, and application programming interface (API) functions. Alternately, the user can launch an executable (using the LaunchExecutable () command), allowing the software to control external applications.

One of the most important features is that it helps users view weather conditions from between 10 and 20 stations within a 25 mile radius of home or business and make critical decisions based on wind, rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind chill, heat index, and barometric pressure.

NI LabWindows Tracks Conditions
Users can transmit and receive weather data using several tools provided in the LabWindows/CVI programming environment:

1. ActiveX Controls -- The application accesses Microsoft Internet components using ActiveX controls provided in LabWindows/CVI. The ActiveX controller wizard provides an easy interface to create Internet Explorer browsers within the application. These browsers provide specific advertising and branding for multimedia corporations such as CBS.

2. Windows Internet APIs – The system sends and receives text data using Windows Internet APIs that easily integrate into the LabWindows/CVI programming environment. The http:// read and write commands reside in the Windows Internet library.

3. LabWindows/CVI Internet Toolkit -- The LabWindows/CVI Internet Toolkit provides higher-level commands to streamline programming. For example, users can access help Web pages using one-line commands.

The Weather Exchange uses LabWindows/CVI multithreaded tools. These tools help the user interface and Internet functions to seamlessly operate in parallel, improving program performance.

Powerful, Real-Time Weather Reporting
Virtual Weather Station, developed by Ambient Weather, is a commercially available software package created with LabWindows/CVI. Virtual Weather Station, a companion program to Weather Exchange, allows weather station owners to send real-time data to the Internet. Virtual Weather Station connects digital weather stations with a PC serial or USB port. The software displays, plots, and stores data for comprehensive monitoring and analysis. The software is completely integrated with the Internet, displaying real-time data on Web pages as well as sending e-mail weather reports and alarms when environmental limits change drastically.

Digital weather stations typically measure wind speed and direction, rainfall, temperature, and humidity and barometric pressure. In addition, the user can add an array of wireless temperature and humidity sensors to monitor sensitive environments (such as a computer server rooms) and generate audible and e-mail alarms. Virtual Weather Station relies on the graphical user interface of Measurement Studio to display the weather with a rich array of dynamic and colorful gauges, dials, graphs, and charts.

Virtual Weather Station also takes advantage of powerful integration of Measurement Studio with Microsoft Visual Studio. To display the data live on the Internet, the software automatically converts Lab Windows/CVI graphical images to jpeg files and sends them to the Internet along with Web pages and Web camera images using Lab Windows/CVI FTP client functions. The LabWindows/CVI Internet Toolkit also includes e-mail features that provide real-time weather reports and send environmental alarms to remote pagers.

Measurement Studio is easily integrated with the Microsoft Visual /C++ compiler, linking Windows API drivers (such as the RAS API for dial-up connectivity) and the Windows Internet API for http:// read and write functions to the LabWindows/CVI programming environment. Virtual Weather Station uses the Microsoft APIs to connect and gather data from over 6,700 remote weather sites throughout the world. Users can also post and share data on several free weather servers using these Internet API functions. The Measurement Studio ActiveX components can connect to other automation systems, so Virtual Weather Station users can control thermostats, fans, and other automation equipment based on weather and environmental conditions.

LabWindows/CVI Saves Money
Using LabWindows/CVI, we reduced our programming prototype and design costs by 1,000 hours at $100 per hour, for a total of $100,000. Additionally, no C/C++ programming environment provides such an array of features for Internet connectivity and Web-enabled tool integration.

For more information, contact:
Ed Edelman
President
Ambient Weather
1642 E. Silverwood Dr.
Phoenix, AX 85048
Tel: (480) 283-1644
Fax: (480) 283-1645
E-mail: support@ambientweatherstore.com