New 2-way mirror supplier - low prices and lead times

tomster

@ivanov_d
I promised you some pics of the (almost) finished mirror, so here they are:

I am pretty happy with the mirror though there are a couple of “glitches”…
The mirror (~1600x600mm) arrived really well packed in a wooden box. Props for that!
After having put it in my frame for a first fit I noticed that the mirror was not cut perfectly rectangular. It was off by 1-2mm on the longer side. No big deal for me because I would fill the gap between mirror and frame with silicone anyway. But I thought I would have to let you know.
The mirror itself is pretty much the best one I have seen so far!
In terms of reflection it is really usable as a mirror. Sure, it is still a little “darker” than a regular mirror but even my wife said it works just perfectly in our hallway.
I would call our lighting situaton as “bright”. I use a LED strip flush-mounted in the ceiling (5m length) with ~3.000 lumen/m. With no ambient light present you would notice the backlight of the display, of course.
Colors will shine through very well with no noticeable tint. Trade-off is that you can tell the foil cutout at certain angles. If you’re standing right in front of the mirror you can hardly tell, but from a step to the either left or right side it will show (compare both pictures). There is some ghosting though with the displayed fonts (see lower side, 2nd pic) but I think pretty much every spy mirror is showing that issue.

There is one small distortion (2nd pic, right where my smart phone is). The reflection bulges a little bit but noone (except for me) seeing the mirror noticed that yet.

All in all I still think that it is the best mirror I have seen so far. Of course it all depends on the individual lighting situation. In a darker room other makes/models might work better.
But for me it is a perfect solution.Thank you Denis! I do really appreciate!

P.S. Some of you might have noticed that the layout is different from MM2. Yes, I do run my own system because I wanted better integration into my home automation system.

Ivanov_d

@tomster wow, just wow. Your setup looks gorgeous. Thank you very much for the thorough review. I have spoken to the mirror manufacturer and complained about the imperfect cut and they promised to calibrate their cutting machine. Can you tell us more.about your setup as MM doesn’t really have good smart home integration. I am using Home Assistant for my smart home backbone and until version 2021.8 I was able to stream sensor data to MM, but after the HA API has changed, I can’t find a decent MM plugin that works, so I would very much appreciate any advice.

tomster

I am using FHEM (fhem.de) as HAS and a corresponding front-end called FTUI3 (https://github.com/knowthelist/ftui) altered by myself to give a more MM2’ish look’n’feel. This originates many years ago when I started “automating” my house with retrofitting Homematic-devices and found that FHEM had a German-speaking community (and maintainer) along with easy integration of HM. Since then I simply stuck to FHEM though I am now using mostly KNX-devices. I must admit though that my understanding of a HAS is rather automating my house (as in my house does things by itself) rather than me having a fancy GUI to monitor and alter every setting from everywhere around the globe…

FHEM might be much more on the coding-side than Home Assistant or other systems, but even I was able to get it to work the way I wanted it to. And I am by no means what you’d call a “coder” let alone having noteworthy Perl-skills. In the end I guess it’s the individual favour deciding which system to use.

MM2 does have a FHEM-module but it is quite rudimentary and lacking many functions I wanted for my mirror. Besides I simply didn’t want to maintain 2 different systems.

Daniels

A while ago (somewhere in the middle of February) received the mirror, finally managed to put it together and take photos of it.
I can totally agree with all the positive feedback written above my post from others.

Experience with Denis was nice and I even received some tips on my planned cutouts with no additional costs 💪

The mirror itself was ready in ~2 weeks and then shipped to me.
It was well packaged and some of the packaging was actually useful for the final build for the parts behind the mirror.
Shipping was done by DPD with tracking number and if I remember correctly was also insured.

The build itself is quite simple with glass being pressed against wooden frame and the only cutout is for the display (sensor is at the very bottom of the mirror)
Since the place is relatively dark the whole day, display is set to the lowest brightness, but in a room filled the daylight or lights on could easily bump it much higher without worrying that the illusion will be ruined by the backlight of the display

Pictures bellow - do not get too confused by the mirror… in the mirror 😅

Mirror in it’s best natural lightning conditions

With screen turned off

Mirror with lights on, same (lowest) screen brightness

Ivanov_d

mirror-in-mirror = mirrorception :D

@Daniels nice setup, mate! Thank you for the positive feedback. It was a pleasure dealing with you as well.

Ivanov_d

I am still taking orders :) If anyone is interested, please PM me.

Ivanov_d

Update 24.04.2023:
I am updating the price since I haven’t done so in two years and the prices have soared, unfortunately. The new price is 449 euro/sq. m.

Ivanov_d

The shipping company that I used to ship the mirrors got fully acquired by DPD and they changed their international shipping policy, now they won’t accept packages longer than 175 cm, therefore, the mirrors that I can ship cannot be over 165 cm due to the padding. I sent a 170 cm long mirror recently, however, I had to compromise the side padding, fortunately it arrived at the destination in one piece but it was a compromise that I don’t want to make anymore. I could use other companies, but their prices are x2 higher and I want to keep the cost to a minimum so more people can build their projects.

Ivanov_d

Update 13.07.2023: I have decided that all money that I make from these mirrors (not just the profit - ALL MONEY) will go to different donations. So far, I have donated to three different campaigns for children with cancer.

I would like to ask whoever purchased mirror from me to post some feedback whether positive or negative so that others who are still thinking about it can make the right decision.

Maki

Hi Denis,

Im Intressted for a Glas in the size of 61x91 for this Ikea Ribbon Frame:
https://www.ikea.com/ch/de/p/ribba-rahmen-schwarz-90301621/

how much would that be if the shipping is to Switzerland?

Thanks!