raspberry-pi alternatives

bhepler

@cowboysdude Possibly something like the Zotac Zbox? It’s probably overkill. And at that price… it’s more expensive than the rest of your hardware.

alexyak

@bhepler it is an overkill. Atom based quad SoC with 4GB RAM should be enough.

cowboysdude

@bhepler said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

@cowboysdude Possibly something like the Zotac Zbox? It’s probably overkill. And at that price… it’s more expensive than the rest of your hardware.

I have been looking at that exact box!!! Great minds think alike :)

Was also looking very strongly at this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173128

A Former User

@alexyak Only under Windows… It bricks on trying to install Raspbian… I know because it happened to me…

tajno

Actually I got the problem that the RAM is filled and the system starts to swap - which made the mirror, obviously very slow.

Does anyone have similiar issues?

A pm2 reload does not really work - The only way is to kill electron and start the mirror again - than it works fine for like 12 hours. I don’t really get what the RAM is filling - Maybe its the iFrame Module? A clean installation will probably not have those problems, think it must be a module…

alexyak

@wjdw87 of course it wouldn’t run Raspbian because it’s built specifically for RPI. I’d stay with Windows.

A Former User

@alexyak sorry, i was not clear. No Linux Distros will install. . they also have android out of the box version and you can change over.

The problem is their jerry rigged bios.

Their android or windows packages at specific to the boxes, no installing of USB/other for they are not built for the boxes

Further the windows is only 32 bit, and the android does have 64 bit, admittedly

cowboysdude

Or go with another Linux distro… I installed it on a computer and installed the mirror on it… worked pretty good and MUCH faster :)

lolobyte

@tajno

do a cron job to restart your raspi every night!

amanzimdwini

@cowboysdude

any SHORT intro on how to put a MM onto an old laptop with Ubuntu running on it?
I have it on two Pis (2 and 3); managed to get it onto a Win10 box - Ubuntu is next :)

Thanks

cowboysdude

@amanzimdwini Installing MM is easy on Unbuntu.

I downloaded it and unpacked it into MagicMirror folder then in a terminal window:

npm install
npm start

Starts right up no issues :)

Pretty much everything works just as it did on a Pi except it’s a lot faster :)

amanzimdwini

@cowboysdude It was nearly that easy… on LTS 16.04 on an ancient Dell:

sudo npm install (failed)
sudo apt install nodejs-legacy
sudo npm install (succeeded)
npm start
-> Please create a config.js file

Thanks for the help!

Mykle1

@cowboysdude said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

Starts right up no issues
Pretty much everything works just as it did on a Pi except it’s a lot faster

So you’re running it on a Windows machine? I ask because I am too, only without being able to use the sudo command in Windows, some dependencies installations won’t work. i.e. MMM-voice. I really want to make a laptop MMM-NFL machine (with MMM-voice) for my son-in-law but that is the problem I am running into.

So, have you used MMM-voice on anything other than a Raspberry Pi?

Mykle1

@amanzimdwini said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

It was nearly that easy… on LTS 16.04 on an ancient Dell:
sudo npm install (failed)
sudo apt install nodejs-legacy
sudo npm install (succeeded)
npm start
-> Please create a config.js file

I may try this. I’ve got MM running on an old Compaq laptop. As you can see from my post above, I can’t install the dependencies for MMM-voice because sudo isn’t recognized by WIndows and is required by the dependency installer. However, if I do as you did and make it an uBuntu machine, that might make life easier for me.

Anyway, I’ve got nothing to lose by trying, except a little time

cowboysdude

@Mykle1 said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

@cowboysdude said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

Starts right up no issues
Pretty much everything works just as it did on a Pi except it’s a lot faster

So you’re running it on a Windows machine? I ask because I am too, only without being able to use the sudo command in Windows, some dependencies installations won’t work. i.e. MMM-voice. I really want to make a laptop MMM-NFL machine (with MMM-voice) for my son-in-law but that is the problem I am running into.

So, have you used MMM-voice on anything other than a Raspberry Pi?

I would format the laptop and install Unbuntu and run MM on that… I have a mini-itx with a 120G SD running Unbuntu and my 32" mirror… works well and you have the terminal window to install just as you would on a Pi… works great! :)

You can do in Windows10 but it takes more work… In Windows10 there is Bash on Unbuntu on Windows you just have to turn it on :)

I just Unbuntu. I did order an IR frame yesterday and under Windows it would be a 6 points of touch but under Linux it’s one… but still I’m happy with that :)

Mykle1

@cowboysdude said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

I would format the laptop and install Unbuntu and run MM on that… I have a mini-itx with a 120G SD running Unbuntu and my 32" mirror… works well and you have the terminal window to install just as you would on a Pi… works great!

It’s funny, because uBuntu is where this all started for me (See my story in Show Your MIrror) so I shouldn’t have much trouble backtracking to that

cowboysdude

@Mykle1 Which is REALLY funny because it was where I started too! :)

Mykle1

@cowboysdude said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

Which is REALLY funny because it was where I started too

Which is REALLY REALLY funny because that means there is hope for me ;-)

cowboysdude

@amanzimdwini said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

@cowboysdude It was nearly that easy… on LTS 16.04 on an ancient Dell:

sudo npm install (failed)
sudo apt install nodejs-legacy
sudo npm install (succeeded)
npm start
-> Please create a config.js file

Thanks for the help!

Well in doing this so much sometimes forget to add little extra instructions…sorry!

Glad you got it working but it does work well!

cowboysdude

@Mykle1 said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

@cowboysdude said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

Which is REALLY funny because it was where I started too

Which is REALLY REALLY funny because that means there is hope for me ;-)

The fact that you refuse to give up means there is MUCH hope for you!! I think you’re doing quite well!!! Two months ago I wouldn’t even think to write a module… now I am working on them all the time… improving… tweaking… making new ones… I don’t release all of them but I make them :)