work in progress

cornusandu

Hello Guys,
work in progress , i think i will be done sometimes in January as i still want to cut a hole in the plywood and install a motion sensor to shut down and start my monitor. the raspberry will be running continuous until it will die i guess. Magic mirror and also on the background is running Alexa which i changed the wake word to Siri as i have in the area also an Echo so that will not respond both of them. I still have to see about microphones install situation and also am thinking to try two microphones on the same usb port for a better wake word situation considering position and distance of caller. I will cut a hole in the wall so that it will be a very thin frame. I was thinking also if you guys have any ideas if for a longer life of raspberry is better to run continuously or to shut down at night with a smart power plug at night and IFTTT at day when my cell (and of course myself ) are not home.

cowboysdude

Great job!

cornusandu

@cowboysdude thank you. It is quite a ride .

cowboysdude

@cornusandu It is a fun ride though :)

cornusandu

@cowboysdude Ohhh yeahhh :) a lot of head scratching and a bit of swearing. I reinstalled about 20 times . But finally got it working smoothly.

cornusandu

@cowboysdude Super cool community. Any advice on raspberry power? Should I cut electricity 12 hours a night with a smart plug? Or run it 24/7? Which is better for longer life?

Mykle1

@cornusandu said in work in progress:

Should I cut electricity 12 hours a night with a smart plug? Or run it 24/7? Which is better for longer life?

In my opinion, I would leave it running. As long as you keep the temp of the Pi somewhere in the neighborhood of 40°C. Personally, I prefer that to 365 unnecessary boots a year.

cowboysdude

@cornusandu I leave mine running all the time… have had no issues after a year so far :)

strawberry 3.141

@cornusandu if you just turn off the electricity is not that good for the hardware in terms durability, but if you create a shut down routine e.g. 5min before, than it should be fine.

cornusandu

@Mykle1 He is running at a stable 65 Celsius

cornusandu

I mounted back the fan. Now is down to 38.5 Celsius

Mykle1

@cornusandu said in work in progress:

I mounted back the fan. Now is down to 38.5 Celsius

I rest my case. :-)

Excellent!

enettekoven

@cornusandu Pretty slick looking MagicMirror! What monitor did you use?

cornusandu

@enettekoven It is a very old 19 inch 3d monitor, My wife decided that she want a curved monitor and this one was just sitting in the garage

noelandrews

Very cool! How have you done the full length mirror? Is that film over glass?

doubleT

@cornusandu said in work in progress:

the raspberry will be running continuous until it will die i guess.

@cornusandu said in work in progress:

Any advice on raspberry power? Should I cut electricity 12 hours a night with a smart plug? Or run it 24/7? Which is better for longer life?

As everyone else said, leave it running, don’t cut the power without shutting the RasPi down safely first. Two advices I would give you:

When everything is set up and running, and everytime you add a new feature/module, make an image of your sd card as backup!
Think about a UPS, Uninterruptible Power Supply. There are some add ons that combine a batterie that provides power for a few minutes and a circuit that will detect the power outage and initiate a safe shutdown. And when the power goes back on, it will go back to normal.

I learned both the hard way, but I’m still not done finding/setting up a good UPS solution.

cornusandu

@noelandrews it is polycarbonate two way mirror. A but expensive but it looks really good. Size 120 cm. 60 cm.

cornusandu

@doubleT thank you. UPS, I will have to shop around for something small and strong enough