Hi Everybody!
I’ve been using the Homey for about a month now and i’ve got about 40 flows in the system. Automatic lights, automatisch alarm, changes if we’re watching a movie and more… Really a great product! I’m think ‘flows’ all day ;).
But i’ve noticed that there’s not much on the forums about a weather forecast and Homey. A perfect solution to get notified when to water the garden (or not) or maybe it’s useful to close your windows. I did find a topic where users build something using a JSON file and i’ve started building this flow, but I thought it was very cumbersome.
Also i’ve noticed that almost nobody was talking about the app ‘Open Weather Map’ in the Homey’s app store. I’ve started to use this app and completed a flow that’s not using a lot of memory and still does the thing. I wish to share it with you guys!
Apps you’ll need:
Open Weather Map
Other stuff you’ll need:
The free Open Weather Map API key. Register on their website and you will receive it.
App settings:
Create a virtual sensor (through ‘Devices’) and choose for the option actual weather forecast. Give the sensor a name (in my cast it’s ‘Actual Weather Forecast’, duh ;)) en add your API key. To receive the best forecast possible use your postcode and country code, for example this is mine; 7605EN,NL.
Extra flow description:
As you can see below the trigger is “If the weather changes” (als het weer verandert). The next check is if we’re home or theres a guest at home. For multiple reason I use variables for this instead of GPS, but that’s offtopic. Also I would not like Homey to shout out weather forecast in the middle off the night soo I added a timeline. Soo with all that set I can now ask Homey to tell me if there’s a change in the current weather and I also let the LED ring switch to a color, something I always do with special flows.
See the next flow for explaining the TV forecast image.
The build flow:
Weather card on TV
Now there’s not much on the internet about a decent weather map URL to show on your television with Google Chromecast. But after some searching I found https://www.ventusky.com/.
First let me tell you this; it’s not possible to view a dedicated map without the images and menu’s if you’re not willing to host a special page yourself on your own server. I did not feel like building that soo I just choose to accept the menu’s and logo.
Below is my personal URL. If you like this style then simply just copy/paste it and change your own LAT en LONG settings (use Google Maps or any other tool to find them for your own home). The moving images in the map is the wind. I’ve made them pretty transparant since I do not want them to be too obvious (but I do like the info soo i’ve left them in). The zoom level is set to a higher point soo you can see clouds coming your way from different directions.
Do you wish to build one yourself? Then search for your city in the search bar. Choose, at the left bottom, for the model ‘EURAD’. Then choose for the menu option ‘Weather radar’. Search for the ‘Settings’ button at the top right and change whatever you like. When done, choose the “Share” option and press “URL” (or link?). Do not add the date and time to make sure that the system automatically chooses the current date/time stamp when opening the URL.
The weather map flow:
Because I do not wish the map pops up on the screen when my wife is watching Vampire Diaries (if I do soo, I will end up with teeth in my neck), I filter the flow that is only pops up when nothing is showing on the screen. View my flow below.
That’s all folks…! I hope you find this usefull