Weather maps on the cockpit PDA?

I fly with WinPilot Adv. on my PDA. It provides a color topo map that
you can turn on or off, but I mostly leave it off, as it clutters the
screen, slows down the PDA, and doesn't add much value.

Wouldn't it be great if you could load today's weather from Dr. Jack
in place of the topo map? Waypoints, final glide, etc would work as
normal, but at the push of a button, you could see where you were
relative to convergence at 3:00PM, or winds aloft, or BL Top. I
imagine the situation with SeeYou is similar.

I think the Topo maps are vector based, and I know Dr. Jack's software
provides a matrix of data points that could be converted to vector
format. Then it would be just a matter of x-fering it to the PDA
before the flight. If you wanted the real terrain map, it's not too
much trouble to switch back in flight.

Perhaps the map maker could even be web based. Anyone with the right
talents interested?

Matt

Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
Wouldn't it be great if you could load today's weather from Dr. Jack
in place of the topo map? Waypoints, final glide, etc would work as
normal, but at the push of a button, you could see where you were
relative to convergence at 3:00PM, or winds aloft, or BL Top. I
imagine the situation with SeeYou is similar.

XCSoar can show RASP images instead of Terrain. You need a RASP
provider which offers the file xcsoar-rasp.dat. Drop it into
XCSoarData, and configure which one to show in the "Weather"
configuration at any time.

On Oct 3, 9:54*pm, Max Kellermann wrote:
Matt Herron Jr. wrote:

Wouldn't it be great if you could load today's weather from Dr. Jack
in place of the topo map? *Waypoints, final glide, etc would work as
normal, but at the push of a button, you could see where you were
relative to convergence at 3:00PM, or winds aloft, or BL Top. I
imagine the situation with SeeYou is similar.

XCSoar can show RASP images instead of Terrain. *You need a RASP
provider which offers the file xcsoar-rasp.dat. *Drop it into
XCSoarData, and configure which one to show in the "Weather"
configuration at any time.

That sounds like what I want. Have you tried it? What was your
impression?

Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
That sounds like what I want. Have you tried it? What was your
impression?

I'm kind of biased, I'm a XCSoar developer

I don't use that feature. It may be useful for some, but I don't feel
it's useful for me.

Why don't you just give it a try, it's free!

On Oct 4, 12:21*am, Max Kellermann wrote:
Matt Herron Jr. wrote:

That sounds like what I want. *Have you tried it? *What was your
impression?

I'm kind of biased, I'm a XCSoar developer

I don't use that feature. *It may be useful for some, but I don't feel
it's useful for me.

Why don't you just give it a try, it's free!

A number of vendors sell satellite weather systems that feed to PDA
displays. Then you can get real-time visible satellite loop, very
useful for showing cu development, and radar loop -- very useful for
showing the development of thunderstorms. It costs some bit of money
and setup which is why I haven't implemented it -- and it's illegal in
US contests so far.Also, you'd need two PDAs to run programs like this
at the same time. It be lovely if our instrument designers included
a satellite weather feed into the soaring instrument, either as a
separate page or as background. I've been bugging clearnav about this
for a while, perhaps xcsoar wants to be first out of the gate with
it.Obviously, it takes a bit of work, but with the huge market for
soaring instruments, you'll certainly make millions from such a great
product.

John Cochrane

John Cochrane wrote:
It be lovely if our instrument designers included a satellite
weather feed into the soaring instrument, either as a separate page
or as background. I've been bugging clearnav about this for a while,
perhaps xcsoar wants to be first out of the gate with it.Obviously,
it takes a bit of work, but with the huge market for soaring
instruments, you'll certainly make millions from such a great
product.

No, we will definitely not make millions from XCSoar. XCSoar is free
software, we work on it in our leisure time. ;-)

If you want that feature in XCSoar, open a ticket for your feature
request in our bug database (http://www.xcsoar.org/trac/). Since
we're doing all that for free, we will not pay a subscription from our
own money - maybe somebody is willing to donate it?

An important question is: how do you get live weather data? Mobile
networks don't work during the flight most of the time.

Max

On Oct 4, 7:13*am, Max Kellermann wrote:
John Cochrane wrote:
It be lovely if our instrument designers included a satellite
weather feed into the soaring instrument, either as a separate page
or as background. I've been bugging clearnav about this for a while,
perhaps xcsoar wants to be first out of the gate with it.Obviously,
it takes a bit of work, but with the huge market for soaring
instruments, you'll certainly make millions from such a great
product.

No, we will definitely not make millions from XCSoar. *XCSoar is free
software, we work on it in our leisure time. *;-)

If you want that feature in XCSoar, open a ticket for your feature
request in our bug database (http://www.xcsoar.org/trac/). *Since
we're doing all that for free, we will not pay a subscription from our
own money - maybe somebody is willing to donate it?

An important question is: how do you get live weather data? *Mobile
networks don't work during the flight most of the time.

Max

All I want is a "Dr Jack Moving Map" built into my existing PDA. No
live feeds needed. Max are there bay area providers of xcsoar-
rasp.dat files?

Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
All I want is a "Dr Jack Moving Map" built into my existing PDA. No
live feeds needed. Max are there bay area providers of xcsoar-
rasp.dat files?

I don't know; check the list on drjack.info, and if you don't find a
provider, ask the ones in your area to add the XCSoar script to their
servers.

Max

If you do want live weather including precipitation, etc you will need
a subscription to one of the weather providers such as XM Weather.
Cost is about $32 per month for the weather subscription from XM--and
is paid direct to XM. It displays well on a PDA screen. Suggest you
look at www.controlvision.com to see the Anywhere Map layout.

Skip Guimond

Hey Matt,
I've been pulling up 1km satellite images on my iPhone when I have a
signal. Not the same reliability as XM sat, but it's free.

Kemp