Pollen module

[Sam 0]

I’m not a developer but maybe a pollen module would be nice or if it already exists I’d like to hear about it https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/pollen/overview

[JohnGalt]

I use MMM-Pollen: https://github.com/vincep5/MMM-Pollen

[joey]

@JohnGalt Sorry to resurrect a year-old thread, but is MMM-Pollen still working for you? I cannot get it to work, but I am trying it for the first time today. Even just trying to go to the website referenced in the code directly gives me an HTTP error.

I looked around a bit, and it looks like there are some people saying that the website it relies on, pollen.com, has disallowed or broken its API page, and others seem to say it is still working fine.

Before I spend too much more time on this, I wanted to ask you, who is/was using the module, if it was still working. Hopefully, others can mention if it is working for them as well, or what they are using instead (assuming they are somewhere the other location-specific “Pollen” modules do not apply to).

[gonzonia]

@joey as far as I can tell it’s working for me. It’s not throwing any errors and the values change each day.

[raymondjspigot]

@joey Hi how are things. Just from taking a quick look (am not the developer, don’t use this module, don’t have a test magicmirror to-hand) it looks like the API call the module’s making should work just fine.

Trying to access the website using the url of the resource you can see inside MMM-Pollen.js doesn’t look like it will work, as I think maybe you need to specify a Referer in the header? Am new to this.

If you want to test it out you could try: (this is what I did)

• Go to an online API call utility like https://reqbin.com/
• Add the base URL for the API call the module tries to make in the URL field (looks like it’s https://www.pollen.com/api/forecast/current/pollen/ )
• Specify a zipcode for the call by adding it to the end of your URL so you have (e.g.) https://www.pollen.com/api/forecast/current/pollen/90210
• Under Headers add a Key Referer and set its value to the same as the URL you have in the URL field
• Click the Send button

Mine came back with a json body that looks like it has pollen data in

    "Type": "pollen",
    "ForecastDate": "2026-05-25T00:00:00-04:00",
    "Location": {
        "ZIP": "90210",
        "City": "BEVERLY HILLS",
        "State": "CA",
        "periods": [{
            "Triggers": [{
                "LGID": 186, ...

so I’d’ve said the API the module depends on was ok at least. Maybe post a relevant chunk of your config.js you were using for the module and it’ll help with debugging it?

[joey]

@raymondjspigot Hey, that is good stuff! I did not think about adding a Referer. Following your instructions, I was able to pull real data instead of getting an error:

My config is using the example from the module, just with a different zipcode and different screen region:

{
   module: "MMM-Pollen",
   position: "top_center",
   header: "Pollen Forecast",
   config: {
       updateInterval: 3 * 60 * 60 * 1000, // every 3 hours
       zip_code: "22202"
   }
 },

It has been a while since I have had to think about headers, so I will brush up and see what I can do to make it work. It looks like vincep5 is still occasionally active on github, so maybe I can contribute a fix there.

I appreciate your time looking at this. I was really only asking to see if it was working for everyone else (purely my problem) or if it was still hit-or-miss (problem with the API). Now, I even have a direction to start troubleshooting!

[JohnGalt]

@joey – Yes, it is still working for me.

As a cross-check I just visited several websites that purport to track pollen levels, and verified the module appears to be reporting relatively the same pollen levels. Each site appears to have its own scale and they don’t all appear to measure the same pollen particles - so direct comparison is difficult - but the MagicMirror module appears to be working.

For reference, following is the config I use for this module:

{module: "MMM-Pollen", // https://github.com/vincep5/MMM-Pollen  
   disabled: false, position: "top_right", header: "Pollen Forecast",
   config: {
   updateInterval: 5 * 60 * 60 * 1000, // every 5 hours
   zip_code: "xxxxx" }
 },

I hope this helps.