Name: Rain radar data field
Rating: 4.3 (19 reviews)
Author: TomasC

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IMPORTANT NOTE - Apology to all users, but due to breaking changes in rainviewer.com API, maximum allowed zoom level is 7 (approx. 200 km square for central Europe).
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See rain development directly during activity!

Data field downloads precipitation radar image for your location in 5 minutes interval and displays it in your Garmin device. Images downloaded earlier can be shown as animation to illustrate precipitation movement. Your position is always in the middle of the image. Data field is sized dynamically to fit various layouts.

Colors in the image are based on NOAA scale (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBZ_(meteorology)) for more details.
Radar data are provided by https://www.rainviewer.com/. This server updates radar images in intervals of 10 minutes.
 
If you have any suggestions or issues, please contact me. If you find the data field useful, you can support me and this project on https://www.buymeacoffee.com/cermaktomam or leave a review. It is provided for free, at least till current server for radar image preprocessing will be able to handle the task.
 
IMPORTANT NOTES, PLEASE READ
- This is a hobby project. I have limited number of devices I can test and majority are tested only via simulator. If you encounter any issue or have any suggestion, please contact me and I will try my best to fix it.
- Images are downloaded from internet. So the data field requires connection to mobile phone with internet access.
- https://www.rainviewer.com/ does not guarantee availability of its service to provide radar images. It happens that it is temporarily unavailable. In such case, error can be shown in the data field during update of radar image. If this happens, image will try to download again in the next download interval (after 5 minutes).
- Data field cannot download data in shorter period than 5 minutes. This limitation is regardless of an activity is stopped and started again.
- Higher resolution of radar image can drain battery when the data field is shown (see instructions bellow to setup resolution). If you want to have the data field always visible on active data screen, consider lower resolution. Data field will not drain battery when it is not on active data screen (except downloading data periodically).
 
 
INSTRUCTIONS
Beside the image itself, data field shows information about area covered by the image and time since last update of the image. The covered area is usually shown on top of the data field and the time on bottom.
No setup is needed, just set this data field for your activity and that's it.

Following settings are available via Garmin Connect app to tune it to fit your needs:

- Radar zoom:
sets what area will be covered by the image. For more information about coverage by zoom levels, see https://www.maptiler.com/google-maps-coordinates-tile-bounds-projection/ (default zoom 9 stands for approx. 50 km coverage for central European latitude).

- Scale units:
sets if scale showing image coverage is shown in kilometers or miles.

- Radar resolution:
sets quality of radar image. Higher resolution provides more details but can significantly increase battery drain and may affect device performance.

- Animation:
sets if data field will play last three downloaded images to illustrate movement of precipitation. If turned off, only last downloaded image is shown.

- My position:
sets if your position (always in the middle of the map) is hidden, visualized or if current heading based on GPS movement (or compass when stationary) is shown.
Showing the position displays cross in the middle of the map, which divides the map to halves and quarters to help estimate distances on the map.
Showing of the heading is not supported on some devices.