How do I go about making a decent sized mirror cheap?
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I currently have a raspberry pi running the MagicMirror software, I have it fully customized to my liking. My new issue is going about building the actual mirror itself. I was wondering how I could get big screen real-estate, while also having it touch capable, while also keeping the costs down. Any suggestions??
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@chaseb1357 The expensive parts are going to be the monitor and the mirror itself. If you’re willing to put in the time, there are a couple ways to save money.
- Acrylic mirrors are cheaper than glass mirrors and only are only slightly lesser quality. www.tapplastics.com is a decent source for one-way acrylic.
- One-way film is even cheaper than one-way acrylic. If you’re willing to go slow and try multiple times, you can put one-way film on a sheet of plain glass.
- The monitor is the other large expense. If you’re willing to stay with a landscape orientation, you can repurpose a used LCD television instead of a computer monitor. A cheap 32" TV is cheaper than a 32" monitor.
- Honestly, I’d skip the touchscreen aspect. I know you don’t want to hear it, but a touchscreen mirror is just asking for fingerprints & smudges.
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@bhepler That’s great and all, but I was mainly looking for ways to do touchscreen. I’m going to end up making a mirror for my grandma because she wants one but she would neither know how to use VNC or be able to, so I was hoping I could make it touchscreen so she could change whatever she wanted by just touching what she wants.
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@chaseb1357 the cost of your mirror is going to scale proportionally with how big you want to make it. If you want to keep it relatively small (say 20" monitor) then you can likely get away with this:
and combine it with any refurb computer monitor you can find. However you’ll still need to purchase the raspberry pi and build the frame for it. You’ll looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 at a minimum. Not sure if that fits your budget, and that’s before even considering touch capability.
When I built mine my costs quickly spiralled out of control… mine finished around $800. But that was with a 32" TV and a 1.5 meter piece of two-way glass.
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Never mind about price, just what are different ways to achieve touchscreen capability with an acrylic sheet?
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@chaseb1357 Something like this might do it:
https://www.amazon.ca/GOWE-touch-overlay-panel-screen/dp/B01H8MFCFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500571842&sr=8-1&keywords=ir+touch+frameDo a search on amazon or google for IR touch frame
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@j.e.f.f said in How do I go about making a decent sized mirror cheap?:
@chaseb1357 the cost of your mirror is going to scale proportionally with how big you want to make it. If you want to keep it relatively small (say 20" monitor) then you can likely get away with this:
and combine it with any refurb computer monitor you can find. However you’ll still need to purchase the raspberry pi and build the frame for it. You’ll looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 at a minimum. Not sure if that fits your budget, and that’s before even considering touch capability.
When I built mine my costs quickly spiralled out of control… mine finished around $800. But that was with a 32" TV and a 1.5 meter piece of two-way glass.
They can get VERY expensive… so far I’m about right where you are with the 32"… but like I said I also used a real itx board and IR touch frame… with more to come…
