Building mirror without programing

Argentum

Hi. I have spare laptop laying around here… What works but kinda usles for me. I was thinking to use it as Magic Mirror (MM) . Im more crafting person than programmer(programing is totaly 0). And im stuck in interface. Every tutotial tells how to run interface in Ras Pi . But is it possible to run it on W10? I have read that hosted web app is easly possible to turn to win app? can some one do that? or point out where to get that?
I have tryed to find screensaver or Win app for interface but no luck here…
Turning my laptop to MM would be so easy for me if i could run/find the interface . theres everything i need to run it (harware side), yes it might be owerkill as hardware side but right now that laptop is just collecting dust thats it…

is there Someone who could make some sort of interface app for win? i would buy it eaven. and im guessing im not only one who has knowlege of crafting and hardware, but zero skills at programing…

Would be realy realy awsome if someone could help me with that…

Best regard
Greetings from Estonia
Silver

yo-less

Hi man. You can run the magic mirror on a Windows system if you install node.js, which is at the heart of the mirror:
https://nodejs.org/en/download/

I’m running a version of the MM on my desktop PC to build my modules, as it is much faster than my Raspberry Pi 1.
What takes forever to load on my Pi is instantly shown on my desktop PC.

I’m not sure if I can still remember how to set up the environment correctly, but try this:

Download node.js - https://nodejs.org/en/download/
Install it on your Windows 10 PC
Go to https://github.com/MichMich/MagicMirror, click on “Clone or download”, then “Download ZIP”
Extract the ZIP into a folder, e.g. D:\MagicMirror
Go to the config folder on your PC and configure your mirror via the config.js file
Open a Windows command prompt (Press WIN+R, type in “cmd”, hit ENTER)
Navigate to your MagicMirror folder (In my example: cd “D:\MagicMirror”)
Type “npm install” and hit ENTER
Type “node serveronly” and hit ENTER
Go to a browser of your choice (in W10 Edge is preinstalled and works) and in the address bar type in “localhost:8080” and hit ENTER

If you want to stop the mirror from running, either close the command prompt window (where you entered “node serveronly”) or press CTRL+C if the command prompt is your active window.

Argentum

That is freaking awsome
Works like charm… Thats what i needed Whoop… You made my day!!

Now wheres my nails and hammer and srewdrivers… need to start building it ASAP :)

yo-less

Glad to see I could help you :). The community spirit is what I love about this place…

If you want to automate your setup so that the laptop boots to the mirror on startup, you would probably have to run a batch file at startup which both runs the “node serveronly” command as well as starts up a browser in fullscreen mode. Haven’t looked into it, but do share your setup, should you get that to work as well.

And make sure to showcase your mirror once it’s done ;)
https://forum.magicmirror.builders/category/12/show-your-mirror

Have fun piecing it together ^^

Argentum

Sou. I tweakt liddle with my sacrafichal laptop so it runs on Win 10 and automaticly runs MM and node serveronly

What to do so MM runs on win10

Before You start to follow Yo-Less instructions you shoult prepare your laptop so it can run this way that you dont need to use keypoard and mous…

You should install MM in to public folder like C:\Users\public\Magicmirror\

And you should sheer that folder in your home network (right klick on folder and then properties, then sharing, then your username and pemissions give read/write)
If you do that then you can tweak config and add/remove modules with other computer

Then you should remove login for windows

perss WIN+R and type netplwiz
remove check mark from “user must enter username and pasword…”
apply
type in ur password for conferming ur settings

Now your windows should login without pasword and username

if thats done… you should tweak power settings…

right klick on battery symbol on taskbar and choose “power options”
klikc on “change when the computer sleeps”
Both “turn of the display” and “put the computer to sleep” when plugged in choose “never”
Now your computer doesnt sleep and turns of ur display

Allmost in da end…

You can follow now Yo-Less insturctions about installing node.jt and MM

If thats done then theres final steps to setup chrome and final autorun

In chrome set your homepage as “localhost:8080” in chrome settings

Then make chrome shortcut in to desktop
right klick and properties
In Target… at the end of adress write -kiosk Like (“C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” -kiosk ) This opens chrome in fullscreen
aplly

Now need all run atomaticly. For that we make .bat fail

Make new text dokument in to desktop

In there you write first line your MM location Like: cd C:\Users\public\Magicmirror\
second line is: node serveronly

.bat fail reads in cmd line by line sou your text file should look like:

cd C:\Users\public\Magicmirror
node serveronly

Save as
Save as type choose all files
name it like “1bootmm.bat”
Save

Why theres 1 in name is cos it should be first thing what starts to boot when windows is logged in. In startup folder files, shortcuts start in order

Last moves…

Win+R
type: shell:Startup
copy your freshly made .bat fail and modified chrome shortcut in to startup folder

Now it should run automaticly… It can happen that chrome starts faster than server is created so first 10-15 sec you see chrome offline screen. But moment MM starts it pops nicely…
And now you dont neet to touch your MM laptop in normal restarts and when you want to modify MM fails

I think topic should be changed “installing and setting up MM for Win 10”

Hope its not to complicated writeing. Not my native language ;)

Best regards
Silver

zam

@yo-less Thanks for the tips But unfortunately i am getting an error on windows 10 PC

Mitchfarino

@yo-less You’re a hero!

I didn’t know this was possible either, but I’m gonna get it installed on my laptop.

It’s annoying when I have a spare 30 minutes, but I have to get the pi/monitor out and set it all up before getting started!

Now I can mess around and tinker on my laptop!

Cheers

cowboysdude

This method is no longer working… it’s throwing errors like crazy. Latest version of nodejs and npm still throws errors and won’t install.

f0084r

Just in case someone bumps into this like I did, I just followed the directions yo-less posted above and it worked fine for me on windows 10.

schmo90

Hy thanks this is working very fine.
now i am trying to get it working with visual studio 2015.
has anyone expirience with that IDE and node.js?

i am able to load it, but i cannot start and debug the mm solution

amanzimdwini

Works like a charm! (except that folders constantly have the post-name _Master - which you need to remove: after installation, make sure everything “lives” in the folder C:\MagicMirror (or similar)

Notes on how to install modules - here are MY 2 cents:
Find the module you like; go to the GTT depository but select “Downloads as Zip”. Find the ZIP file and extract it into the MODULES subdirectory (in my example, C:\MagicMirror\modules). RENAME the folder you just created by removing the trailing _Master.
Presto. Works great.

cowboysdude

@amanzimdwini said in Building mirror without programing:

Works like a charm! (except that folders constantly have the post-name _Master - which you need to remove: after installation, make sure everything “lives” in the folder C:\MagicMirror (or similar)

Notes on how to install modules - here are MY 2 cents:
Find the module you like; go to the GTT depository but select “Downloads as Zip”. Find the ZIP file and extract it into the MODULES subdirectory (in my example, C:\MagicMirror\modules). RENAME the folder you just created by removing the trailing _Master.
Presto. Works great.

Well that our just use -master in your config file ;) LOL

amanzimdwini

@cowboysdude - DUH. Sorry - good point!

cowboysdude

@amanzimdwini said in Building mirror without programing:

@cowboysdude - DUH. Sorry - good point!

LOL Well I just rename them but I know how you feel. I believe they do it that way because that way the user knows it’s getting the correct branch :)

strawberry 3.141

@cowboysdude this will not work, because the js file cannot be found then

@amanzimdwini if yozu dont install the modules wuth git clone you have to redo the whole process for every update

cowboysdude

@strawberry-3.141 said in Building mirror without programing:

@cowboysdude this will not work, because the js file cannot be found then

@amanzimdwini if yozu dont install the modules wuth git clone you have to redo the whole process for every update

I am so glad we have you! :)

amanzimdwini

@strawberry-3.141

Hmm - you SURE? I must have been lucky, since it worked for me just the way I described it (though I had to rename the extracted ZIPs by removing the -master extension: that’s why I published my results: so that others would also succeed). On my Win10, I successfully installed at least

Wunderground
MMM-forecast-io
Wunderlist
Valentine

(and probably a few others - would need to check).

Like I said, probably I was just lucky. But it worked for me.

[@cowboysdude said I should rename (have not tried it, though you stated that that would not work?)]

Thanks for reading/commenting.

cowboysdude

@amanzimdwini That’s what I did too… just cut off the -master at the end when I downloaded them but now I just do:

~MagicMirror/modules/

Then I do a 'git clone… ’

That’s the easiest way actually :)

yawns

@amanzimdwini
If you download and unzip modules, you don’t have a folder called .git, and without this folder you cannot run git pull to update the specific module, when the developer releases a new version.
Everything else of course works fine.

strawberry 3.141

@amanzimdwini it works, but I said putting -master in the config will not work, because then you have several problems

The only thing is without having the ability to use git you have to redo the whole process for every update, the correct installation steps are mostly in the readme of the module itself