MM current version on Raspberry Pi 5 cannot turn off monitor

sdetweil

@jbat66 said in MM current version on Raspberry Pi 5 cannot turn off monitor:

I guess that is the default no input screen. lol

just unlug the hdmi cable, then u should see the default no input screen

BKeyport

@jbat66 Oh, Wait, I just realized - I switched bookworm into X11 mode rather than Wayland - you may need to do that as well (I couldn’t get some operations I wanted to do to work in Wayland, yet - setting in raspi-config/advanced if you’re using RasOS)

If you don’t mind the monitor running but just want a blank screen, turn off the background picture, set the color to black, and remove the taskbar, then turn off MM and let it be. Might still get a mouse cursor, but there’s tools for that (Unclutter?)

jbat66

@BKeyport Thanks, I’m already turning off my background pictures, and just dimming (could also just hide all) modules. The problem is that I want to turn off the screen but leave the pi running, because one of my MM will be in an RV and when boondocking (running on batteries) you want to use as little power as you can, so it is silly to run the screen at night.

I am using wayland, didn’t know I could goto X11, and not have a problem with MM. I may look into that, thanks!!

As a side note I couldn’t get unclutter to remove the mouse in wayland as it does in X, but I found ydotool using this command works well in wayland to move the mouse to the bottom right corner, so it only shows one pixel. :-)
ydotool mousemove -x 5000 -y 5000

right now, I have installed physical buttons, so I can shut the screen and pi down manually. I may crontab a shutdown of the pi, and then use yo-link (home automation switch) to kill the power after the crontab shutdown is done.

sdetweil

@jbat66 the mouse pointer should not show on the mm screen by default.

the main.css sets cursor to display:none;

BKeyport

@sdetweil Should is the key word. Some bug somewhere is causing the system to come up background to various things - sometimes mouse is on screen, sometimes the pi menubar is in front of the window (rare, but does happen). I had to use unclutter to fix one, and hide the menubar to fix the other. I know it’s not us, so it’s not reported to MM github issue.

BKeyport

@jbat66 not sure how much power the pi+power supply takes and if it would be worth it to shut it down overnight. Could rig a button to do a graceful shutdown, then use the power down button to shut down both the pi and the monitor. Interesting ideas here. Let me know what you come up with.

sdetweil

@BKeyport i have been transitioning to Home Assistant for my home austomation platform.

and interesting idea being described for integrating older devices, like washing machine, is to monitor the power consumption with a smart plug… (I don’t know which do that in the US)

I wonder if the ps also has a lower consumption that can be measured and used as a trigger to turn off the smart switch when the power drops after pi shuts down…

i’ll have to try to find one of these outlets
maybe
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08TNF4835/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

jbat66

@sdetweil Get a Yo-Link Plug. They have an API, you get your API key from an advanced menu in their app. Their plugs do grab usage, I have not used the API to grab usage, just to turn on and off, and to get temperatures from their sensors. I then use the API in MM to display the temperatures.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=yolink+smart+plug
The whole Yo-Link echo system is great for DIY folks in home automation.

sdetweil

@jbat66 trying to find devices without host connections… get more/all local

jbat66

@BKeyport the physical Mirror’s Power supply is the only thing I plug in, and the PI gets its power from USB from the display, so no extra power source to monitor.

I will probably just do a bash script to shut down the pi at some time say 10:00pm, then I will have Alexa shut down the mirror’s power (thus the pi as well) via a Yo-Link smart plug at 10:05pm. Then at sunrise via Amazon Alexa, I will just turn on mirror.

I already do this for my RV Starlink, since I have cell modem as a backup, I can use the internet to turn on and off my internet. lol