New radar app for Droid

[joe.jurecka]

Thank you for the kind words. I have great aspirations for the application!

 

[Jeremy Den Hartog]

One 'bug' that I noticed Joe...

If you happen to be in the process of changing radar sites with the window showing different radar sites available open and the radar data for the site you are currently viewing updates the radar data and then you change radar sites it will load the radar data for the site you are trying to change to but not the map (I'm sorry, this is kind of hard to explain so I'll give you exactly what happened)...

I was viewing the KMPX (Minneapolis) radar site...I wanted to switch to KOAX (Omaha) so I clicked on 'menu' and then 'select radar' and started to scroll to the KOAX site. While doing this, the radar data for KMPX updated (I didn't realize it was doing this at the time). I clicked on KOAX when I found it and the app changed the radar data that I was seeing to KOAX but it overlayed that data on top of the map info for KMSP...so it looked like it was snowing in Minnesota when actually it was snowing in Nebraska. Hopefully this all makes sense

This brings me to one feature request - can we get 'clickable' radar sites...something similar to what grlevel3 uses so we don't have to go into a menu to change to a nearby radar site?

Thanks for your effort - keep up the good work

 

[joe.jurecka]

This brings me to one feature request - can we get 'clickable' radar sites...something similar to what grlevel3 uses so we don't have to go into a menu to change to a nearby radar site?

I had seen the bug you've mentioned here on occasion, but hadn't associated it with updates while the refresh was occurring. Thanks! That said, that whole refresh/user interaction thing is being rearchitected as part of the effort to hopefully support looping and I'm aiming for not having to "block" the user while it happens. Funny things happen with one has a multi-threaded application and I'm glad that I have users who are willing to let me know what they find so that I can correct it. I should say that any bug should be directed to [email protected] just so I see it and not clutter up the forum here.

As for the clickable radar sites, it's one of many avenues I'm considering for making things easier to use. I will likely support a variety of different methods. One such variety, which is running in my under-construction code is to display the 4 closest radars to the last site selected before the long list...so its a little easier to navigate a little at a time. A favorites concept is also being considered and that graphical map selection (perhaps with a CONUS/Region drill down) is also a possibility too as is maybe a long click on an adjacent RDA to the current one being looked at. Lots of great ideas out there and I suspect a multi-tiered approach will be adopted. There is definitely room for improvement, but I just take it one step at a time.

Thank you for your comments!

 

[Dave Gallaher]

Just downloaded the app. Not much to look at tonight, looking forward to checking it out. Glad you are on the forum, Joe.

 

[joe.jurecka]

Well, perhaps the Texas Gulf Coast will inspire some viewing today!

 

[Johnathan Brouwer]

Joe, How about a quick run down of name origin

 

[joe.jurecka]

I was wondering how long it would take to get that question. Well, the folks whom which I work with were having a discussion of catchy names for the application and during the course of the discussion, it hit me. My amateur radio callsign is N5PYK, and it was a level 3 radar viewer. So, I blurted it out loud and my colleagues liked it. Pickle 3 or PYKL3 for short.
Now you know...
Joe

 

[Dave Gallaher]

I just checked the convection SE of Houston on it--very good presentation. I agree with others that a loop feature would be a premium upgrade, but as is it's still very valuable. Thanks.

 

[joe.jurecka]

For those of you who don't know, the color palettes are user editable. I wanted people to be able to customize things to their liking. So, if hook up your device to a PC and mount the SDCARD on the phone as an external hard drive (supported on most, if not all Droids I believe), you can edit the colors to your liking. In the PYKL3Radad folder, z.pal is reflectivity, v.pal is velocity, and w.pal is spectrum width. Just be careful with file formatting as if there's an extra comma or odd character in the color lines, you could get unexpected results. A few users have posted their customized color files to the Yahoo group files section and additional contributions are welcomed.

Additionally, it appears that it works pretty darn well on tablet devices too according to feedback from users. However, I haven't seen it work personally as I don't yet have one or know anyone who does.

 

[joe.jurecka]

For anyone interested in seeing the work in progress (missing the timestamp and other radar data of course temporarily)
Joe

 

[Jeremy Den Hartog]

Looking good Joe, keep it up

 

[Mark Ellinwood]

I'm really liking the looks of that update... can't wait to use it! The app's name is quite clever, btw

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

If you integrate GPS functionality into this, I think I'll probably want an Android phone over an iPhone. As I understand it, if I shell out full price for an Android, I can keep my existing Alltel smartphone (unlimited) data plan.

 

[joe.jurecka]

GPS is already integrated as of version 1.05 and later. One's position appears as a pulsating triangle on the map.

 

[Jarrod Barnett]

GPS is already integrated as of version 1.05 and later. One's position appears as a pulsating triangle on the map.

...and dats da troof!