Home Dashboard

Hilt

Hi all

Built our first Magic Mirror in 2019. Recently did a complete software rebuild and thought I’d share.

The original Mirror was standalone. This version is integrated with Home Assistant ( HA ).

Some of the cool stuff :

The Mirror renders an HA dashboard via an iFrame to show our house stats. Some of the figures you see there alternate every 15 seconds to display different stats with no visible refresh
Has a notification area ( another iFrame ) to alert you to things like the garage door is open, the hob gas is running low, etc. Notifications come and go i.e. you only see them when they need to be there
Uses HA for power saving. HA will turn the Mirror on or off using whose cell phone is in the house, if the alarm is on etc.

The physical mirror measures 1025mm x 720mm. But the 20" de-cased monitor that is the Magic Mirror only occupies the bottom right. The Pi 3B+ sits 5m away in cupboard. The cabling is routed through conduits in the wall. Much grinding, much dust ! The idea was to keep the profile super low so that it looks pretty much like an ordinary mirror

Mirror(1).png

Mirror(1) Detailed.png

Mirror(2).png

uros76

@Hilt cool stuff, that looks clean.
Which MM module are you using to display HA as iFrame? Refresh rate 15s is a must, can it be faster refresh rate?

stephanvdplas

@Hilt wow it looks great!

sdetweil

@uros76 you can use MMM-HomeAssistantSensors
No need for iframe. Then you can style them

uros76

@sdetweil yes I know ha module, I am using it for sensors data without any fancy looks. I’m too lazy and no time to learn styling every detail 😀

Hilt

@uros76

Thank you kindly !

I’m using this older module as it suits my needs i.e. No configurable options for refresh. As the values change in HA, so they change on the mirror

If you need an option with a lot more configurable options including refresh interval, have a look at this module

seabass

@Hilt I like the depth of the mirror. Can you tell me what monitor you use? Thanks!

Hilt

@seabass Thank you !

I used an old Samsung BX2031.

The secret sauce here is that this particular monitor uses an external AC adapter / power brick. That’s how I could keep everything so thin. The AC adapter sits in the cupboard with the Pi . I simply extended the barrel jack side to reach the monitor through the conduit.

For video signal, I used a DVI to HDMI converter ( similar to pic below ) on the monitor side , and a 5m HDMI cable back to the Pi.

To make space for the power and video connectors, I recessed a wall box ( like those used for your bog standard light switch ) at the end of the cable conduit and lined it all up. So said connectors actually poke back into the wall a fair bit. But the wall box hides that nicely.

Faiek

@Hilt This looking great , fantastic & clean.
Being in SA what mirror glass did you use & from where did you get it
Thanks

Hilt

@Faiek

Howdy !

Initially I looked into real 1-way mirror. But it was just too expensive for the size that I needed in our fair country.

So ! First I tried the DIY route. Picked up some 4mm glass, found some mirror tint film online and gave it a bash ! That film promptly ended up in a ball in the bin :S. It’s clear ( vicious pun ) that I’m handy with woodwork but suck at tinting.

I then took my sheet of glass to a car window tint business and they did a great job. I ended up going with the most reflective film they had as one step down just looked milky. Sadly that business is no longer in operation. But any car tint spot should do.