Keplers Updater for WXtoImg

A tool to easily update Kepler Data for WXtoImg with a graphical user interface on Windows.

Table of Contents

• Background
• Installation
  • Download
  • From Source
    • Start with batch script
    • Bundle with pyinstaller
    • Other Python environment
• Usage
  • Update Kepler Data
  • Settings
  • App-Update
• Other solutions to update Kepler Data
• License

Background

WXtoImg is a powerful software for automatically decoding WEFAX and APT weather satellite signals and is still the best software for this job and therefore widely used in the community. Unfortunately, WXtoImg is not Open Source and since the software was completely abandoned by its developers in 2018, going so far that even its website and all released binaries vanished, some members of the community have taken over and collected most information from web-archives and released them on a new, unofficial website WXtoImg Restored.

Kepler Data

To automatically receive weather satellite images, mainly from the satellites NOAA 15, 18, and 19, which have not been decommissioned yet, WXtoImg requires orbital data of these satellites. These must be supplied to the software in the TLE format as a simple text file called 'weather.txt'.

Fortunately, WXtoImg has a built-in function to automatically download the latest Kepler data from www.celestrak.com. But in July 2022, Celestrak changed their top-level domain from .com to .org, and thus, breaking the built-in update functions because WXtoImg fails to handle the HTTP Code 301 redirect that was put in place.

Kepler Update for WXtoImg is a new, easy to use tool to replace WXtoImgs's built-in function to update the Kepler data.

Installation

Download

The easiest way to get Keplers Updater for WXtoImg is to download the latest release from the Releases section on the right or just click the link below:

Keplers Updater for WXtoImg v.1.0.0 (Windows 7+)

The application doesn't need to be installed. Just double-click to start.

Note: On Windows 10 and newer you will very likely see a warning, saying that "Windows protected your PC" and prevented the app from running because it is unrecognized. Because the exe of Keplers Updater was not signed, this is expected behaviour. To run the app, click on the small text saying more info and then Run anyway. Keplers Updater is safe to use and not a risk to your PC.

From source

Start with batch script

The application is written in Python 3.8. The necessary Python packages and binaries for Windows are included in the repository. To start the app, from within the root directory of the repository, run:

.\start.bat

Bundle with pyinstaller

Using pyinstaller, the application can be bundled into a shareable folder or into a single executable. The UI launches more quickly when bundled into a folder.

To bundle into a single executable, run:

.\bundle-to-exe.bat

To bundle into a folder, run:

.\bundle-to-dir.bat

The bundled folder or executable can be found in .\dist\.

Other Python environment

To run the app from within your own Python environment, make sure you have the following required packages installed: tkinter, sv_ttk, requests, datetime, webbrowser

Usage

Update Kepler Data

Just click on the blue Update Kepler Data button to download the latest Kepler data. Before you do, you can check the time of last update in the bottom left corner. The progress bar below the button should start to fill.

If the update was successful, you will see that the time of last update will change to just now and the blue progress bar will remain filled. If the update fails, an error message should pop up instead.

Settings

Enable the checkbox on the left to automatically update the Kepler data every time Kepler Updater for WXtoImg is opened, so you don't have to press the button.

Note: Changes to the settings will be saved after a successful update of the Kepler data.

You shouldn't need to, but just in case Celestrak changes their URLs again, it is possible to change the URL from where the Kepler data is downloaded from. Click the Reset button to switch it back to the default URL.

App-Update

You can check for new releases of the app by first, opening the About window and then pressing on Check for update in the top right corner of the new window. If a new release is available, this will guide you to the Releases section here on GitHub.

Other solutions to update Kepler Data

wxtoproxy

wxtoproxy launches WXtoImg with a simple proxy server to handle the redirect. Using wxtoproxy, the built-in functions to update Keplers are restored.

Using Powershell and a scheduled task

A step-by-step instruction on how to use a scheduled task that calls a simple powershell script to download the newest Kepler data can be found here. This might be too cumbersome for some users, who do not feel comfortable using the command line.

License

MIT License © Stefan Wraase