v0.9.0 — Personal screen controls and playback polish

Pi Rain Radar 0.9.0

This release focuses on making the display easier to use and personalise, especially by touch.

• Screen-local editors for docks, side buttons and widgets, independent of the shared Settings PIN. Consistent cogs, resize corners, ordering and adjustable background opacity keep controls available when needed.
• Compact, stable top-dock readings, clearer hover states and larger chart/time labels. Fresh browsers start in dark mode with the clock open and Temperature, Humidity, Dew point, Wind speed and Wind direction in the top dock.
• One-tap Archive replay, a movable date/time panel without screen dimming, and a clickable LIVE/ARCHIVE indicator. Archive stays open until dismissed; there is no return countdown.
• Previous/Next capture buttons while paused, a predictable gaps-popup toggle, and playback controls that remain usable on locked screens. Locked playback resumes and closes gaps after 15 seconds idle; local edit controls use a separate one-second timeout.
• Weather trends lookback choices, a brighter capture cursor and shared opacity for grouped/detached charts. Stats for nerds now groups Main, Overview, Clouds, OpenWeather, Camera and Rainbow information.
• Tidier shared Settings, a Rainbow status link and clearer startup feedback. Radar acquisition no longer waits for the removed settling option; normal polling, complete-frame publication and Live timeline grace remain unchanged.

I tested RC1 on my Pi and accepted the UI and touch experience. All 370 final-version tests passed locally. Copied-data startup/restart checks preserved settings, history and assets. Native ARM64 checks covered all 370 test cases successfully: 369 passed in the full run, and the remaining clock-dependent test passed after its fixture was corrected. Bounded health/resource checks passed; extended soak is separate.

Existing compatible archives and saved browser preferences are preserved. Fresh defaults do not overwrite your layout. Back up application data and browser preferences before upgrading, and retain the optional Device Power override. The older archive migration warning still applies to upgrades from 0.6.0 or earlier. Cloud freshness thresholds are unchanged.

See the user manual, upgrade guide and Stats for nerds reference.

0.8.0 — Weather charts, Sun/Moon and camera refinements

Pi Rain Radar 0.8.0

• Cloud layers on both maps, local Layers visibility/opacity controls and a shared Rainbow request budget in API settings.
• All ten HA weather readings, independent weather/forecast collection, optional-gust health and mixed-source T−Td (dew point depression).
• Recorded OWM forecast comparison, honest Live/Archive gaps, and camera history aligned to the displayed window without future captures. Camera intervals are configurable from one to ten minutes; new history keeps one representative per ten-minute slot.
• Nine configurable weather trend charts, adaptive scales, source-aware trend arrows and independently movable/resizable detached charts.
• Local Sun/Moon calculations, a phase-aware Moon widget, event times revealed by resizing, and optional Dock readings.
• Responsive settings, stable playback counters, synchronized optional auto-hide and Archive controls that load playback without closing.

360 automated tests passed on Windows and native ARM64, along with fresh startup/restart and copied-data upgrade/restart checks. I tested RC3 on my Pi and found no obvious issues; all new features behaved as expected. Longer soak remains ongoing.

The cloud stale threshold remains 30 minutes. This may be too aggressive for normal provider publication delays; a red Dock indicator can coexist with amber reused-image slots. Longer observations will inform any later adjustment. Existing compatible archives and settings are preserved; the older archive migration warning still applies when upgrading from 0.6.0 or earlier.

Back up application data and browser preferences before upgrading. Camera retention changes apply prospectively; existing captures are not cleaned up. See upgrade instructions, user manual and indicator meanings.

Published-image handover is complete: both-architecture CI passed, and I confirmed About 0.8.0 with smooth playback and green status LEDs. One expected cloud gap remained. See validation for the recorded evidence. Longer observation is still separate.

v0.7.0 — Archive, camera and Home Assistant

Archive, camera and Home Assistant

• A SQLite-backed rolling archive with shared retention, storage usage/estimates and automatic cleanup when storage runs low.
• Replay saved weather, Rain forecast and camera snapshots with radar. As recorded preserves historical source, units and fallback colour.
• One direct or Home Assistant camera, collected every five minutes, with simpler preview/setup and image resizing.
• Shared HA connection and four generic weather sensor mappings, unit checks and optional per-reading OpenWeather fallback.
• Clearer Settings: separate Radar/Weather/Camera controls, credential-only API tabs, compact Status, dedicated Power and Map sub-tabs. Dynamic attribution and improved Archive/Embed controls.

Before upgrading

From 0.6.0 or earlier, the old rolling archive (up to seven days) is removed and Live rebuilds. No migration/import is provided. Back up first if you need that history: archive backup guide. Keep compatible old software to replay an old backup. Keys, PIN, map and browser preferences remain. Existing 0.7.0 RC archives are preserved.

Confirm shared units under Interface → Weather → Units. Configure credentials in System → API, then enable the relevant feed under Interface. Upgrade guide.

I tested RC3 on my Pi: no major problems found, and everything is working. A few non-blocking UI tweaks will be recorded once reviewed and assessed. Prolonged soak remains a follow-up.

Linux AMD64 and ARM64 images are published by the release workflow. Wait for the linked image workflow to finish successfully before upgrading; creating this release does not itself prove the image is ready.

v0.6.0 — Embedded Radar and diagnostics

Optional iframe radar, clearer health signals and Stats for nerds that remembers gaps even after the missing frames arrive.

• Embedded Radar: a clean main radar with status LED and clickable credits. Shared window, speed and theme settings; exact trusted dashboard origins; no admin controls. I tested it in Home Assistant on LAN and remotely through Nabu Casa with Tailscale HTTPS.
• Health and logs: red stale/offline indicators, independent current-weather and minute-forecast status, useful failure logs and browser connection events retained through recovery.
• Stats for nerds: persistent gaps-seen and late-arrival counts, compact provider columns and clearer acquisition timing. Older history stays honestly untracked.
• Settings and About: friendly restart/shutdown acknowledgements, a built-in Map API tab and daily backend release checks with version counts and dated cached results.
• A reusable local scenario studio for development and the corrected coffee link.

I tested the UI and reboot/shutdown recovery on my Pi 4 / 2 GB. Remote playback continued with loaded captures while the Pi was offline and reconnected automatically. 188 tests passed locally and on native ARM64; isolated startup/restart and copied-history rollback checks passed. Resource checks were short samples, not a prolonged soak.

Keep your existing data volume, browser profile and optional Device Power override. Back up before upgrading: older versions can discard the new incident counters when rewriting the index. Embedding is disabled by default. HTTPS Home Assistant needs an HTTPS radar address; remote Tailscale access requires the viewing device to be connected too.

Embed setup · Upgrade notes · Validation

AMD64 and ARM64 images passed release CI, including fresh startup and persistence over restart. v0.6.0 and latest are ready and resolve to the same verified image index. No automatic upgrade is performed.

v0.5.0 — Live and Archive playback

Pi Rain Radar 0.5.0 makes missing and delayed radar observations visible and predictable.

• Live and Archive use original observation times, independently for Main and Overview. Two touching timeline halves show each map's gaps; late data fills its original position.
• Live can reuse compatible earlier radar for up to 30 minutes. A ten-minute endpoint grace accommodates publication delay, while missing halves at visible timestamps show immediately. Automatic pause waits for recovery when fewer than two positions are playable.
• Archive offers a temporary 1–24-hour window and optional provider names, without borrowing missing frames.
• Experimental Stats for nerds shows acquisition status, weather timing, window completeness and local Rainbow counters.
• Touch-friendly gust choices, improved Settings layout/inactivity, PIN controls, widget placement, attribution and narrow-screen dock layout.
• Optional PWA installation through trusted HTTPS, with a Tailscale Serve guide and alternative deployment options.
• Faster retained-history startup with content-hash validation of unchanged images.

I reviewed the UI and accepted Live behaviour on my Pi 4 / 2 GB. Archive was tested during candidate review, including remote 24-hour playback at full speed. All 160 tests passed locally and natively on ARM64, plus native fresh-start/restart checks. Prolonged soak remains deferred; remote playback does not establish smooth Pi-local 24-hour rendering.

Upgrade

Keep your data volume, browser profile and optional Device Power override. Existing keys, PIN and settings are preserved. Legacy history is converted using identifiable observation timestamps; ambiguous old provenance cannot always be reconstructed. Existing kiosks should add ?kiosk=1 to their launcher URL to retain external-link warnings. Ordinary browser/PWA URLs should omit it.

Read the upgrade notes, manual, optional HTTPS/PWA guide and validation limits. Pi-hosted HTTPS is now verified, including the installed Android app over Wi-Fi and mobile data and returning from the background. The maintained guide includes installation, sign-in and device approval.

Release CI passed: tests, ARM64/AMD64 builds and fresh startup/restart checks. The tested image is now available as v0.5.0 and latest.

v0.4.1 — Rain forecast

The precipitation widget is now called Rain forecast throughout the app and current documentation.

• Existing widget position, size, visibility and button order migrate automatically.
• Forecast data, radar playback, API keys and PIN settings are unchanged.
• 120 tests passed locally and on native ARM64, with Pi visual acceptance and startup/restart checks.

Upgrade using the upgrade guide. Keep the same data volume and browser profile. The image workflow builds and checks both architectures before updating latest.

Pi Rain Radar v0.4.0

Optional Rainbow radar, independent Main/Overview sources, clearer usage estimates and an optional total-call cap. History retains the frames captured from each source.

Adds optional confirmed device restart/shutdown, visibility/pressure/UV readings, extra units and wind direction conventions. Simplifies MinuteCast status, settings navigation and responsive attribution.

See the numbered indicator guide, provider setup, and optional power helper.

116 tests passed locally and on native ARM64, plus four helper tests. I tested the RC on my Pi 4 / 2 GB, including split radar, full-speed six-hour playback and restart/shutdown recovery. Prolonged soak is deferred; follow-ups record remaining work.

Existing settings and data are retained. Keep the power Compose override if enabling the helper. Rainbow is optional and requires your own key. Image publication and both-architecture smoke checks run through the release workflow before promotion to latest.

Pi Rain Radar v0.3.0

Pi Rain Radar gains per-display controls for readings and playback while keeping radar acquisition shared and lightweight.

Added

• Independent Celsius/Fahrenheit and mph/km/h/m/s/kn units. Temperatures show one decimal; wind speed and gusts use whole numbers.
• Toggle and reorder seven readings, including optional humidity, dew point and wind direction. The original four remain defaults.
• Five playback speeds from 0.5× to 2× and matching 2/4/6-hour live and History windows. Missing ten-minute positions remain amber throughout playback.
• Per-display UI lock, independent of PIN protection; idle PIN entry dismisses after 30 seconds. Settings and provider credits remain accessible.
• Optional shared “Wait for radar to settle” setting, on by default. Disabling the extra wait can expose missing provider tiles.
• A theme-aware log of the last 25 important events since restart, with repeated messages grouped, plus external provider-status links.

Improved

• Settings grouped into Map; Interface → Display, Buttons, Weather, Readings; System → API, PIN, Status, Log; and About. Small inline helpers explain relevant settings.
• Content-sized weather dock with curved shoulders, narrow-screen wrapping and toolbar collision avoidance.
• Clear MinuteCast dry/partial/unavailable messages and slightly larger time-axis labels.
• Auto-hidden docks wake on tap during UI lock. Provider credits remain visible when the footer hides.
• Bounded image decoding and cancellation/reuse during longer-window changes.

Upgrade and limitations

Existing key, PIN, map, history and browser preferences are retained. Keep the same address and browser profile. Defaults remain Celsius/mph, four readings, two hours at 1×, settling on and UI lock off. Longer windows use collected local history and more browser memory; they do not add provider calls or increase archive retention. No new runtime dependency is required.

All provider credit links remain active during UI lock, with a kiosk navigation warning. No exception allowing RainViewer's link to be disabled has been obtained or is relied upon. The OpenWeather status monitor is independent. The small event log is temporary and clears on restart.

Validation

97 tests passed on Windows and native ARM64; candidate fresh-start/restart smoke checks passed. I tested six-hour, full-speed playback on my Pi 4 / 2 GB and found it smooth. A short resource sample found no swap activity, throttling or backend errors. Sustained soak/recovery testing remains open; release CI passed both architectures and startup/restart checks. My Pi is healthy on the published image, with settings/history preserved, and I confirmed the version in About. See validation.

Pi Rain Radar v0.2.0

v0.2.0 release notes

Pi Rain Radar now uses OpenWeather One Call API 4.0 for optional current conditions and MinuteCast, addressing issue #1.

Breaking change: One Call 3.0 is no longer supported. Activate the separate One Call 4.0 subscription in your OpenWeather account before upgrading. Your existing saved API key may work once that subscription is active. Radar and history remain available without OpenWeather.

As checked on 16 September 2026, the first 1,000 calls/day are free; usage above that is chargeable. The default 2,000-call daily cap is not a free allowance. Set the limit to 1,000 to remain within the free allowance. Normal app operation uses approximately 288 calls/day per installation, plus manual checks; account for other applications sharing the subscription. Check current OpenWeather terms.

Current conditions and minute forecasts refresh independently on the existing schedule. Failure in one endpoint preserves useful data from the other, with safe error messages and original timestamps. Saved keys, PIN, map configuration, radar history and browser preferences are retained. No API-version selector or new dependency is added.

Validation: all 72 tests passed on Windows, Linux Docker and native ARM64; synthetic browser checks in both themes and compact layout; the candidate completed a scheduled refresh of both live 4.0 endpoints on Pi 4 2 GB, with 60 forecast minutes rendered and existing settings/history retained. The device owner confirmed the visible changes and working weather integration.

The API settings panel keeps just the title, key field, buttons and status.

Upgrade instructions: migration guide. Existing 3.0 entitlement is still required if rolling back to v0.1.2 for weather.

Pi Rain Radar v0.1.2

Ready-built Docker images for Linux ARM64 and AMD64, published through GitHub Actions. Routine upgrades use docker compose pull followed by docker compose up -d; no source download or local compilation is needed. The latest image channel includes published pre-releases.

Browsers running this version automatically reload when the server app version changes, waiting until Settings is closed. Refresh older browsers once during migration.

66 automated tests pass locally. The release workflow performs Linux tests and fresh startup/restart checks for both image architectures before updating latest. Check its completion before pulling.

See docs/upgrading.md for the one-time source-install migration, retained data volume, version pinning and rollback. No reflashing is required. The complete hardware walkthrough and user manual remain in progress.