Real Weatherstar 4000 - It's back after 5 years!

It's a Christmas Miracle! The Weatherstar 4000 is alive again, running a presentation in 3000 mode! Our enthusiast project, lead by our hardware reverse engineer specialist Techknight, has torn down the hardware back into schematic, analyzed, re-wrote system ROMs, and even designed a data board to interface with this legacy hardware. No TWC or Ready Systems code exists in the redesign. We are all extremely excited to see the 4000 running again, despite the odds that were stacked up against the system from running again. What you are watching is one of the first presentations that was built as a full operating proof of concept with data obtained through the same system as the Weatherstar Jr.

[@gregspot]

Extremely awesome! I completely get the significance of what has been done. Great job!

[@triplectwc]

I'm quite astounded at how far this project came in such a short time! Fantastic job :)

[@TWCKelby]

It's quite amazing to see the 4000 back and alive again, you guys really are doing great work on this project. Can't wait to see what the future holds for the project!

[@itogi]

It's alive!

[@KyleHartley_crazybangles]

This.. is beautiful.

[@Justin-Hill-1987]

This a great start to a reverse engineering project involving the WeatherSTAR 4000. The next task would be to include the radar, and in the future, the graphics. (Although he's no longer with us, I bet Charles "The Weather Chazz" Abel-Lear would be proud!)

[@THEtechknight]

Already working on graphics mode

[@nwovee]

That’s the WeatherSTAR 3000. But tho, props to the effort put into the project!

[@cc17926]

Thank you for the kind words.. the first iteration of the 4000 had a text mode, so we created that to learn the system. Stay tuned in the coming days as we have been working on the and graphical presentation everyone is familiar with.

[@nwovee]

Oh, thanks for telling me that! I never knew that the WS4000 had a text mode!

[@kargaroc386]

So is it time for a *REAL* Weatherstar 4000 emulator? :) Not just an old and busted """"""""emulator"""""""" that doesn't actually emulate anything

[@iamtheeverblack]

techknight's Christmas miracle. A huge congratulations to him on this incredible achievement and I look forward to working with him as the project furthers.

[@twcman05]

Amazing! It's been an honor to watch the 4000 project progress as it has. Can't wait to see whats in store in the future and hopefully I'll be able to do some testing soon :)

[@WeatherSTARIII]

Wow! I'm surprised to see a real 4000 working again for the first time since TWC discontinued its support. Also nice to see the original text-based version of the 4000 much like how it was 30 years ago in its really early days. I can't wait to see more reverse engineering!

[@wxTVTWC]

Amazing to see how the 4000 lives again, and hopefully soon with graphics!

[@THEtechknight]

Man, good to get this thing running again. :-)

[@spinnerwv]

Awesome! Here's a link to a topic at taiganet.com forums. The poster was the graphics and video designer of the 4000. He mentions what was used for the graphical programming. You may be able to get in touch with him and pick his brain. www.taiganet.com/forum/index.php?topic=1783.0

[@THEtechknight]

Yep. I have talked to him recently. Unfortunately I need low level stuff which wasn't in his wheelhouse. The other guys were and they won't communicate like Mike does. I basically had to recreate everything from the ground up including the program and OS.

[@weatheronthe8s895]

Wow, that's really cool. Funnily enough, the last day the real 4000s were operating was my little brother's 2nd birthday.

[@madden8021]

This is awesome. Even seeing the 4000 running it's debut 3000 Text is a surprise. Hope to see more in the future like the Radar and Graphics.

[@AdamChristensen]

Is there more information about the technical side of this? It sounds fascinating!

[@THEtechknight]

I'm going to do a blog on it eventually which discusses the hardware

[@CinnamonWilson]

Pulled it up on the site, graphics and music are working great! Is there an Android app so I can load it onto my Nvidia Shield, Fire TV etc.? Would love to shock the family by pulling up a vintage 90's local on the 8 complete with music!

[@triplectwc]

The screen at the beginning is just from a video source. The forecast is running off of the original hardware, so there isn't a way to use it on Android unless you somehow get one and stream the output to an Android device

[@CinnamonWilson]

@@triplectwc I don't think it would be too difficult to make an app based on it seeing as it has a website you can view it on. You can make a rudimentary app from any web page.

[@triplectwc]

There is a 4000 simulator available at taiganet.com, not sure of compatibility with any of the devices you listed, but it's worth a shot unless you want to go the route of making a new app

[@CinnamonWilson]

@@triplectwc Is this not the Weatherstar 4k? battaglia.ddns.net/twc/

[@THEtechknight]

That link you provided is a simulation of the WS4K while its running in graphics mode.

[@Jbobloochjr3]

Great work!!