something arrived today, definitely a holy grail for me...
a Weather Star 4000! this is the box that at one point, among other things, generated the Local on the 8s graphics for the Weather Channel
(small thread)
a Weather Star 4000! this is the box that at one point, among other things, generated the Local on the 8s graphics for the Weather Channel
(small thread)
the 4000 was introduced in the 90s. several new Star units came out in later years, but a few areas held on to their 4000s until 2014, when the required satellite feed became unavailable.
(the Weather Star XL, a later model, is notable for being based on an SGI O2...)
(the Weather Star XL, a later model, is notable for being based on an SGI O2...)
on the back are connections for A/V and baseband from a satellite receiver, and weather sensors directly connected to the unit.
inside, a few cards on a backplane on the left. power supply and backup batteries on the right.
inside, a few cards on a backplane on the left. power supply and backup batteries on the right.
card pics...
(the roms have been dumped)
(the roms have been dumped)
so what is this thing good for these days? it depends. as the unit currently stands, it doesn't really do anything at all. the original software running on it was downloaded via satellite and stored in battery backed ram, which is obviously long gone.
the termination of the satellite feed means there's very little chance of getting one of these running again with original TWC software.
however, i understand @techknight2 is working on reimplementing the original software, and has already made some good progress.
see their progress here:
see their progress here:
taking a look in one of the rom dumps shows us which cable provider this came from...
these would have been messages that scrolled at the bottom of the screen
these would have been messages that scrolled at the bottom of the screen
