Weather Location / Calendar Format / Fast boot

mbartels · May 25, 2016, 3:14 PM

Hey there,

the MagicMirror is my first Raspberry Pi project, so I can really say that I am a noob :-).
I am close to finish my configuration of the MM, I just have some questions left:

Weather: The displayed weather forecast is not the same like when I manually search for my location at openweathermap. There are some (major) differences in the forecast. How can I be sure that the right location is chosen? And is it possible to display the name of the location on top of the current weather?
Calendar Format: Although I set the language at the config file to “de”, the calendar format is Month/Day. But I would like to have it the other way and also to have the term “Today” translated. How do I do that?
Fast Boost: As I will build the mirror into my bathroom, I have the chance to use the electricity which is controlled by the light switch and I would save energy, when no one is in the bathroom. But therefore the boost of the Raspberry Pi 3 has to be much more fast. is ist possible to just boost the MagicMirror? Or to fasten the booth otherwise?

As you see, I am not hat much into programming. So I woud be delighted, if you can help me. Thanks!

paviro · May 25, 2016, 3:27 PM

@mbartels Regarding point 3: Have you thought about leaving the Pi turned on and only switching of the monitor?

clebo99 · May 25, 2016, 3:31 PM

So I was having an issue and I had to make sure the name in the config.js was right (mine was Baltimore, US). I can’t help with the other two items really. Maybe you can just have the monitor turn on when you have the light turn on (I don’t think you can quick boot the actual Pi).

mbartels · May 25, 2016, 3:37 PM

@paviro Yes that is what I thought about. Connecting the display to the switch and the raspberry to electric socket. Only aesthetic problem would be that the next socket is a bit far away from the cabinet. Does the Raspberry Pi 3 has a high power consumption? And do I have to install a fan to the raspberry to cool it down, if it’s turned on all the time?

mbartels · May 25, 2016, 3:41 PM

@clebo99 I’ve typed “Hamburg, Germany” as location. Maybe I’ll try “Hamburg, DE”? Bizarrely the current weather is right. Just the forecast is not right every time. And I put the same location on both modules.

clebo99 · May 25, 2016, 4:11 PM

I don’t “think” you need a fan for the Pi being on all the time as it doesn’t put out a lot of heat, but I’ll defer to others in the forum about that as I’m kind of a NOOB here as well. In the example on the weather web page, they seem to have you spell out the entire country if you are in Europe.

KirAsh4 · May 25, 2016, 4:34 PM

@mbartels said in Weather Location / Calendar Format / Fast boot:

Weather: The displayed weather forecast is not the same like when I manually search for my location at openweathermap. There are some (major) differences in the forecast. How can I be sure that the right location is chosen? And is it possible to display the name of the location on top of the current weather?

Visit 'http://www.openweathermap.org' and type in your city (only), let it show you what it finds and pick the correct one. Note how it’s written there, and copy it the same way into your config. For example, for my city, rather than putting in 'Boulder,CO', I had to use 'Boulder,US', which is technically correct, however there are other US cities named 'Boulder' that evidently OpenWeatherMap does not know about.

Calendar Format: Although I set the language at the config file to “de”, the calendar format is Month/Day. But I would like to have it the other way and also to have the term “Today” translated. How do I do that?

That’s having to set the proper 'language' setting in the (main) config file. Note that not all elements will be translated.

Fast Boost: As I will build the mirror into my bathroom, I have the chance to use the electricity which is controlled by the light switch and I would save energy, when no one is in the bathroom. But therefore the boost of the Raspberry Pi 3 has to be much more fast. is ist possible to just boost the MagicMirror? Or to fasten the booth otherwise?

A Raspberry Pi run a complete operating system that will require time to boot up. There’s no 'inta-on' for that. My recommendation is to leave the rPi on at all times, and turn off the monitor. Keep in mind that a monitor will also take a few seconds to turn up, so again, no 'insta-on' for that. The fastest way possible is to leave it all on, but turn off the display output on the rPi. Then trigger it back on with a sensor. Search the forums for 'PIR sensor' …

mbartels · May 25, 2016, 5:14 PM

@KirAsh4 thanks for your help!

I’ve tried to correct the weather location in the way you told me and yes, it has to be “Hamburg,DE”. But still there are some differences in the forecast and in the actual content on openweather.org. Maybe thats normal, I can live with that.

The language is already on “DE”, so “Today” has to be a term that isn’t “translatable”. But here has to be a way, to display the Dates in the Day/Month order or not?

I think I will do the connecting, which @paviro preffered.

KirAsh4 · May 25, 2016, 5:40 PM

Right, the wiki states that not all elements will be translated.

KirAsh4 · May 25, 2016, 5:41 PM

And I have also noticed some big discrepancies with OpenWeatherMap and my local weather. So you’re not alone there.