Electron CPU usage

[Mykle1]

@djsunrise19 said in Electron CPU usage:

Do you guys know, where I can check the installed electron version?

You can see the installed version in this file MagicMirror/node_modules/electron/dist/version

[djsunrise19]

@Mykle1 Thanks. Yes, v1.4.15.

[Mykle1]

@djsunrise19 said in Electron CPU usage:

Thanks. Yes, v1.4.15.

I just had a thought (miracle). What version of MM is everyone using?

My Pi3 B mirror is running MM version 2.1.0. I’ve had no reason to update it. It’s rock solid

[djsunrise19]

@Mykle1 said in Electron CPU usage:

@djsunrise19 said in Electron CPU usage:

Thanks. Yes, v1.4.15.

I just had a thought (miracle). What version of MM is everyone using?

My Pi3 B mirror is running MM version 2.1.0. I’ve had no reason to update it. It’s rock solid

I had this problems since the new MM2 Version. Very long so. But my version is the newest one. 2.1.2 I think.

[Mykle1]

@djsunrise19 said in Electron CPU usage:

I had this problems since the new MM2 Version. Very long so. But my version is the newest one. 2.1.2 I think.

uh oh! So you DIDN’T have this problem before the new version?

[SashMare]

Hi.

I made a downgrade Electron from v1.7.15 to v1.4.15.
CPU load up to 320% is gone.

Hardware: BCM2835
Revision: a22082
MagicMirror: 2.1.2

[wtidwell]

@SashMare @Mykle1 my
I also downgraded electron to 1.4.15 and I’m seeing dramatically improved performance!

[djsunrise19]

@wtidwell said in Electron CPU usage:

@SashMare @Mykle1 my
I also downgraded electron to 1.4.15 and I’m seeing dramatically improved performance!

Do you have some CPU load Screenshots? As I read, around 55% is to high too.

[wtidwell]

@djsunrise19
Not on hand but I’m seeing in the mid 20’s with newsfeed animations

[Mykle1]

@wtidwell said in Electron CPU usage:

I also downgraded electron to 1.4.15 and I’m seeing dramatically improved performance!

Well, that’s good news! :^)

[Mykle1]

You guys are both running MM 2.1.2? There has been some mention that this problem arose after the upgrade. My Pi3 B mirror is still running MM 2.1.0. :-/

Just a thought.

[mibafz00]

@Mykle1
Today, I tried the following:

MM 2.1.2 + Electron 1.7.5 --> CPU 100% during transitions

MM 2.1.2 + Electron 1.4.15 --> problem still there, CPU 100% during transitions

MM 2.1.0 + Electron 1.7.5 --> problem still there, CPU 100% during transitions

MM 2.1.0 + Electron 1.4.15 --> problem (probably) gone, CPU 40% during transitions

So i guess you have to downgrade both, MM and electron…!?

[Mykle1]

@mibafz00 said in Electron CPU usage:

MM 2.1.0 + Electron 1.4.15 --> problem (probably) gone, CPU 40% during transitions

I’m curious. What is the CPU load at rest, when no transitions are executing?

In any case, that’s a good amount of testing on your part, and hopefully it will lead to a final diagnosis of the problem.

[djsunrise19]

Today, I tried a few things, too. Perhaps my results could be helpful for us. Sorry, this will be a long post ;). I have following the devices:

• Raspberry 3 Model B - my standard mirror device
• Asus Tinker Board
• odroid C2 (ARM64)

Software Versions MM:

• MM v2.1.2 on all devices

Electron Versions:

• Raspberry 3 Model B (v1.6.11)
• Asus Tinker Board (v1.4.15) but v1.6.11 works the same
• odroid C2 (ARM64) (v.1.8.0 - because of the x64; I uninstalled spectron, because there is no x64 support)

Configs:

• Standard (Calendar, Compliments, Newsfeed, Clock)
• MyConfig (Calendar, Compliments, Newsfeed, Clock, Todoist, Sonos, Netatmo, WheaterUnderground, Stocks, Reiseauskunft, Strava); here, cpu usage is a little bit higher, but the behaviour is the same.

The 100% usage topic seems to be a electron problem and I think it can be solved with some downgrades of MM2 and electron. v.1.7.5 seems to be bad. Whatever, here is what I found out:

1. nmon with the ATB (v1.7.5 electron here) and default config:
   
   CPU usage while transitions is very high. Lagging!

2. nmon with the ATB (v1.4.15 electron here) and default config:
   
   CPU usage is better but, to be honest, way to high for transitions (cpu peaks). And still some small lags.

3. nmon with the odroid and default config:
   
   The best result. but still peaks while the transitions. Some lags here, too.

So, here is my actual config:
4) nmon with the Raspberry 3 Model B and MyConfig:

Same here, still lags.

The last thing I tried was very interesting. I opened my chromium on the ATB and put the webadress from my Raspberry 3 Model B device in it. So I openend that Rapsberry 3 Model B MM2 on my ATB. And that happens:

Absolutely smooth, no peaks at all.

BTW: My Raspberry 3 Model didn’t have any more cpu usage while that process.

Can anybody tell us, WHY?

[A Former User]

@djsunrise19
As I see, rendering engine of electron seems to be the reason of whole of thing. Electron has its own v8 and renderer. I doubt it goes worse on some late version. I don’t know why, but there is few things we could do.

Report this to electron, wait a patch. Or downgrade or… turn off the animation.

[djsunrise19]

@Sean said in Electron CPU usage:

@djsunrise19
As I see, rendering engine of electron seems to be the reason of whole of thing. Electron has its own v8 and renderer. I doubt it goes worse on some late version. I don’t know why, but there is few things we could do.

Report this to electron, wait a patch. Or downgrade or… turn off the animation.

Seems logical. But I have to mention, that there is no MMv2 and electron version number combination that works without those peaks and small lags. The smoothest way ist the browser directly (like in MMv1 - everything was fine there).

So the question is: Anyone here who doesn’t have those peaks and lags while the transitions with MMv2 and electron?

[Mykle1]

@djsunrise19 said in Electron CPU usage:

So the question is: Anyone here who doesn’t have those peaks and lags while the transitions with MMv2 and electron?

This topic is only 17 days old, yet it has 5.0k views already. So, obviously there is a lot of interest. My answer likely was lost somewhere above, so:

I do NOT have those peaks and lags

[Mykle1]

@Sean said in Electron CPU usage:

I doubt it goes worse on some late version

With all due respect, I have to disagree. New versions can break existing installations in any software, not just MM. It’s the very reason for many patches. However, we don’t know the reason for this issue, and it may well be that electron isn’t the cause, but some users have had a small measure of improvement with earlier versions.

[loctruong96]

@TiemenMoesker HOLY MOLLY, I am having this exact problem you guys are having. I double checked my hardware and revision. which are
hardware =BCM2835
Revision= a02082
and I DO have this problem, it seems nothing you guys tried work except downgrade , so I’m going to ask arrow to send me a replacement since i actually ordered BCM2837 not BCM2835. Let’s hope it work out! (mean while I will try the downgrade option, seemed to improve performance drastically for others)

[Mykle1]

@loctruong96 said in Electron CPU usage:

(mean while I will try the downgrade option, seemed to improve performance drastically for others)

Please keep us posted