Introduction: Custom PWS Weather Station Dashboard Display

By Keith Pieper
About: I am an explorer and hacker, using my scientific curiosity to understand the "how" of customer and business challenges. I apply 20 years of business strategy, entrepreneurship, digital media and pate…

I purchased and installed a Netatmo Weather Station at my house but wanted a digital readout of the weather. The Netatmo app was ok for this, but not quite what I was hoping for. I really like this simple look, but it was too involved. After some research, I ran across a few apps that might work: ImperiHome appears super configurable and flexible to accommodate all kinds of sources. But the Weather Station app was really what I was looking for from a customizable weather dashboard. In addition to all kinds of custom settings, it supported my Netatmo PWS.

So here is what I did:

1. Purchase a low cost Android tablet to serve as the display. Amazon's Fire 7 routinely goes on sale for $50. It's not very powerful and the Amazon version of Android drags down some features, the Weather Station app can actually prevent the lock screen from taking hold, which is the major issue with the Fire. I have not been able to find a reliable rooting method for the fire to date.

2. Purchase, install and configure the Weather Station app. You may need to install the Google Play store to get this, which does not come on the Fire and needs a small degree of software hacking to install.

3. Configure the app, most notably the setting to prevent the screen from going to sleep.

4. I mounted the tablet on the wall with these mounting dock tabs, attached with Command strips (which are presumably removable without damage, though I have never been able to figure that out).

5. Find a power source and plug it in.

Using the ImperiHome app, you could use this same setup to manage a broader home automation system.