MMM-KitchenTimer - Touch-friendly countdown timer

[Niggich]

Hey @bwente I have an Idea, but I don’t know if this is possible. I have the Screen with touch in my kitchen and also an Alexa and the old Echo Wall Clock. Maybe it’s possible to start the the Alexa Timer when I hit the Timer on my Touchscreen because I don’t have speakers at my Touchscreen.

[bwente]

@Niggich it’s a good idea, but unfortunately it can’t directly start a normal Alexa timer.

One option is to pair your Screen with the Echo over Bluetooth. That would give you the alarm sound through the Echo, but it wouldn’t activate the timer indicator on the Echo Wall Clock.

Another possibility may be installing alexa-remote on the Mirror or use HA. The module could notify it when a timer starts, and it could then ask the Echo to set the corresponding timer. That should also activate the Wall Clock. maybe?

[Niggich]

@bwente Thank you for your answer. HA it’s a good idea, but how I tell HA I start the Timer on the mirror? I also have an iobroker. Maybe this helps…

[bwente]

@Niggich

Yes. Since you use Home Assistant, MagicMirror can publish an MQTT message when the timer starts, and HA can start a matching Alexa timer on the Echo paired with the Wall Clock.

The catch is they are separate timers, not truly synced. Starting and canceling can be synced, but pausing the MagicMirror timer will not pause Alexa.

[Niggich]

@bwente

Ok, I try to configure MMM-MQTTbridge to connect the mirror to my HA. I think the connection from Mirror to HA is working but I don’t know how to configure the module to Send Notifications to my HA. Sorry…

[bwente]

@Niggich On the HA side you would listen for the timer topic.

alias: Start Echo timer from MagicMirror
triggers:
  - trigger: mqtt
    topic: magicmirror/kitchen-timer/started

actions:
  - action: media_player.play_media
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.kitchen_echo
    data:
      media_content_type: custom
      media_content_id: >-
        set a timer for
        {{ trigger.payload_json.remainingSeconds | int }}
        seconds

[Niggich]

@bwente Ok, thank you. So I don’t need to configure something at the MMM-MQTTbridge just in HA?

edit: I try the whole afternoon, but I don’t know how to do. I also try it with MMM-HomeAssistant.

[bwente]

@Niggich

Something like this for your MMM-MQTTbridge config on your mirror.

{
  module: "MMM-MQTTbridge",
  disabled: false,
  config: {
    mqttServer: "mqtt://USERNAME:PASSWORD@192.168.1.10:1883",
    stringifyPayload: true,

    mqttConfig: {
      // This example only sends MagicMirror events to MQTT.
      listenMqtt: false,
      interval: 300000,
    },

    notiConfig: {
      listenNoti: true,
      ignoreNotiId: ["CLOCK_MINUTE", "CLOCK_SECOND", "NEWS_FEED"],
      ignoreNotiSender: ["system"],
      qos: 0,
    },
  },
},

then edit

~/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-MQTTbridge/dict/notiDictionary.js

var notiHook = [
  {
    notiId: "KITCHEN_TIMER_STARTED",
    notiPayload: [
      {
        notiMqttCmd: ["Kitchen timer started"],
      },
    ],
  },
];

var notiMqttCommands = [
  {
    commandId: "Kitchen timer started",
    mqttTopic: "magicmirror/kitchen-timer/started",
    stringifyPayload: true,
    retain: false,
    qos: 0,
  },
];

module.exports = { notiHook, notiMqttCommands };

after restarting your mirror you should be able to listen for the topic: magicmirror/kitchen-timer/started in Home Assistant developer tools.

[Niggich]

@bwente Wow, you’re great. My Echo know I want to start a Timer but it’s asking for how long.

[bwente]

@Niggich said:

My Echo know I want to start a Timer but it’s asking for how long.

Great, now that you’ve confirmed MQTT is working, the next step is to add the Home Assistant automation.

alias: MagicMirror kitchen timer started
triggers:
  - trigger: mqtt
    topic: magicmirror/kitchen-timer/started

actions:
  - action: media_player.play_media
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.kitchen_echo
    data:
      media_content_type: custom
      media_content_id: >-
        set a timer for
        {{ trigger.payload_json.remainingSeconds | int }}
        seconds

I think that will work. I don’t know if it needs to be escaped or not.

[Niggich]

@bwente I add the automation already and change it again but the echo still asking “for how log should be the timer”… I also try to fix it with ChatGPT but this was not working.

[bwente]

@Niggich looks like trigger.payload_json.remainingSeconds is empty or double quoted. Can you view just the payload and see?

[Niggich]

@bwente I’m sorry but where I found trigger.payload_json.remainingSeconds?

[sdetweil]

@Niggich in an HA. Automation are variable to help you do want you want

One of those is

trigger. - what started the automation

If you go into HA , settings, automations, pick any one,
Look at the traces (3 dot menu). You can see the variables and values for each step of the automation

[Niggich]

@sdetweil Thank you. I don’t know if I’m right but this is the variable from the traces.

this:
  entity_id: automation.timer
  state: 'on'
  attributes:
    id: '1786549333845'
    last_triggered: '2026-08-13T11:33:26.793052+00:00'
    mode: single
    current: 0
    friendly_name: MagicMirror kitchen timer started
  last_changed: '2026-08-14T20:14:37.860754+00:00'
  last_reported: '2026-08-14T20:14:37.860754+00:00'
  last_updated: '2026-08-14T20:14:37.860754+00:00'
  context:
    id: 01M00YK2S42QSK0Q9WAEN19ACF
    parent_id: null
    user_id: null
trigger:
  id: '0'
  idx: '0'
  alias: null
  platform: mqtt
  topic: magicmirror/kitchen-timer/started
  payload: >-
    {"status":"running","remainingSeconds":60,"endsAt":1786738603487,"durationSeconds":60,"elapsedRatio":0}
  qos: 0
  description: mqtt topic magicmirror/kitchen-timer/started
  payload_json:
    status: running
    remainingSeconds: 60
    endsAt: 1786738603487
    durationSeconds: 60
    elapsedRatio: 0

[sdetweil]

@Niggich so

trigger.payload.remainingSeconds

[Niggich]

@sdetweil No, it is not working.

[sdetweil]

@Niggich sorry, this is case sensitive and I had lower case s, see my edit

[Niggich]

@sdetweil No, it’s not working. This is the automation

alias: MagicMirror kitchen timer started
triggers:
  - trigger: mqtt
    topic: magicmirror/kitchen-timer/started
actions:
  - action: media_player.play_media
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.echo_show_kuche
    data:
      media:
        media_content_id: >-
          set a timer for {{ trigger.payload.remainingSeconds | int }}
          seconds
        media_content_type: custom
        metadata: {}

[sdetweil]

@Niggich if you examine the traces , what error is reported?