Happy wife is a happy life!

sdetweil

@videogame95 remember MagicMirror is case sensitive

Apikey is not the same as apikey.

Look at each module doc (their readme.md) for how they spell each option. Nobody reviews for consistency
Use my MMM-Config module, it presents a form for all config, never misspell a config parm again

Test ONE module at a time
Then you dont have 900 lines of output to work thru

Use the manual startup during testing and config changes, not pm2

npm start

You can use separate config.js files using the environment variable
export MM_CONFIG_FILE=config/foo.js
Or whatever its name is. Notice NO leading slash

ewingfox

@videogame95 - @sdetweil is 100% on point with their advice!

I also struggled with config overload at first- so I did a few things that made my life easier:

I downloaded vscode and installed the SSH connection extension so I could use a more functional editor than being stuck in ‘nano’
I commented out all of the module configs I’d dumped into config.js EXCEPT for the basic ones like weather, etc.
Starting the MM using npm start means you can watch the console messages slide by - this was a game changer for me because I was able to watch the console in my SSH session, anything red or yellow - might need to pay attention to it!
When sharing configs - make sure you scrub your api keys - usually you’ll sse people use or etc - which also means if you’ve copied anyone’s suggested configs, you may have inadvertently included text that needs to be replaced.
Screen locations - I’ve struggled with modules consuming more space than I thought they would, messing up the display and resulting in ‘missing’ modules - and with screen locales incorrectly spelled, formatted, etc -they just won’t show up, period. This will ‘pop’ in red when you use npm start (ask me how I know lol).
Once you get the basic mirror up and running, hit me up and I’ll be happy to share more configurations with you - but right now the advice is get the simple stuff working, THEN move to more complex configurations. getting MMM-Pages working was a humbling experience and forced me to really (really) take formatting and code quality more seriously lol.

sdetweil

@ewingfox what was so hard about the pages module?

For windows users
You can also install Winscp
Or bitvise ssh clients.

Both provide direct edit from pc of the pi files
Bitvise provides a file manager window over the connected system files, so it’s double click to edit (I use notepad++)
And they both provide an ssh window

You don’t need to comment out a module
Just add

disabled:true,

On a line after the module: line
If you use my Mmm-Config module, this is a checkbox on the form for that module

winkey_24

@ewingfox Hey! Looks great. Exactly what I am looking to do instead of paying for one of the expensive off the shelf products.

What touchscreen did you use? I was looking to get a basic one off alibaba. Thanks for the help!

videogame95

Hi do you know if a touch screen add rectangle bezel form Ali express would work under glass or over the glass?
as hopping to add one at later date using mirror glass if put it under the glass would it still work ?

sdetweil

@videogame95 I’m not aware of any touchscreen that will work behind glass. This glass is not like stuff on phones

More times than not you have to put an IR frame in front of the glass and plug it into a usb port( it becomes a mouse, touch = click)