Best bet for those not technically inclined?

sifuhall

I’m building a Magic Mirror for a family that is not technically inclined and I want to proactively minimize the tech support they will need to keep this going.

What are my best bets?

Maybe write a script that updates all modules as was as magic mirror on every reboot?

Maybe run a client and setup a server in my home and point the client to that?

sdetweil

@sifuhall you live there?

turn off the notifications module
disabled:true

then maybe create a script that will check for module updates. altho if it’s working I would leave it alone.

I have an updates script for the base.
see
https://github.com/sdetweil/MagicMirror_scripts
but again you f it’s working don’t fiddle w it.

no reason to remote the system, it’s the same stuff either way. no point having two of them to deal with.

backup, backup , backup

test it once… at least

sifuhall

@sdetweil

Thanks for the reply.

I don’t live there, and I will take your advice and leave it alone if it is working.

bhepler

@sifuhall - What I do for the mirrors I give as gifts is I set up a reverse SSH connection to a URL that I control. Whenever I need to connect to the mirrors, I start up a cloud VM and have that VM change the DNS entry for that URL to point to itself. Alternately, you could set up a dynamic DNS entry to your home and have the mirror connect directly to your house.

With the cloud VMs, this allows me to spin up a machine, wait 5 minutes for the mirrors to connect to it, then SSH to the machine and then down to each mirror. At that point, I can change the config.js or run updates as necessary.

Fozi

@sifuhall I’d second @sdetweil’s recommendation. If it works, it works. But I still would prepare some kind of remote access, just in case.
What I would add, too, is a cronjob that reboots the mirror once a day at night. Depending on number and sort of modules, you might get into RAM issues or crashes, which decreases the user experience.

sdetweil

@Fozi SD cards are not suited to all the disk writes caused by daily reboot…

no more than weekly…

I don’t reboot mine months on end.
admittedly I don’t have lots of modules

MMRIZE

I recommend dataplicity (https://www.dataplicity.com/). Easy to connect remotely without DDNS or Portforwarding setup.

Fozi

@sdetweil Yeah, I totally agree with that.
But it really depends on the modules. Thus, some sort of endurance test might be useful before shipping the mirror.