Magic mirror serving multiple clients

[zack949]

Hello,

I have a server running a Debian virtual machine that I am currently running in server only mode. I have 3 devices connecting to this through the browser, but obviously it would be nice to have different displays on each mirror. How can I configure the server to serve multiple configurations, presumably a different port for each instance. I need some help configuring the client to have at least 3 different connections open for my various clients. Is this possible, has anyone had experience with this before?

[ninjabreadman]

@zack949 I think you’ll need to run three separate instances, but should be straightforward. You’ll want three installs (e.g. ~/MagicMirror1, ~/MagicMirror2, etc.). Suggest you install/build MM, then just copy the directory twice with all the dependencies. You’ll need to set each up on its own port to avoid collisions.

Interesting idea to permit multiple server instances from a single install, but I think it would become confusing for many. The single server/client does satisfy the vast majority of use cases atm.

[zack949]

I will look into that, is there a place where I can find a list of available commands for server controls. For example how do I stop the server once I start it? I do not have much in the way of experience for this and would appreciate any help you can give me.

[pinsdorf]

@zack949, could you report back after you got it solved? I think this is an interesting use case, which might be relevant for more people.

If you start your mirror with pm2 as suggested in documentation, then you can use commands like pm2 stop mm, pm2 restart mm, pm2 start mm to control your mirror.

I would make three different start scripts, e.g. mm1.sh, mm2.sh, and mm3.sh, where each one starts one specific instance. This is in line with @ninjabreadman’s suggestion to have three install directories.

[zack949]

What @ninjabreadman suggested worked wonderfully and could act as a long term solution. A gui could make the whole process of managing instances easier.

[ninjabreadman]

@zack949 I suggest you register mm1.sh, mm2.sh and mm3.sh with pm2 (per manual install guide). I would then also create a mm-start.sh that runs pm2 start mm1 && pm2 start mm2 && pm2 start mm3 and likewise for stop. You might even create an mm.sh that just sends the following command (e.g. mm.sh start) for all three MM instances managed by pm2, but that will require some bash scripting.

[zack949]

Is there currently any development to make a GUI for better visualizing config.js changes?

[ninjabreadman]

@zack949 Not of which I’m aware. Most dev effort is spent on the display/features end. It would also have to track the config options for dozens of regularly changing modules, which presents its own challenges.

I recommend using a syntax-highlighting code editor, like (the free) Atom. It will help with closing brackets/braces, and using the proper quotes. You can also run “Atom Beautify” in “Packages” regularly to keep formatting for legibility.

[cowboysdude]

@strawberry 3.141 didn’t you help someone accomplish this? I would LOVE to do this so my big mirror and bathroom mirror are both running the same thing… ;)

[strawberry 3.141]

@cowboysdude take a look at https://github.com/fewieden/MMM-syslog-slave thats the only thing were I connected multiple instances

[E3V3A]

This sound cool. But your need depends on how you want to interact with multiple instaces.

• One master MM with multiple non-interactive slaves:
  • Just open browser on new device and point to master MM IP, and expand to full-screen
• One master MM with multiple, one-at-the-time interactive slaves:
  1. Need some hardware hacking: try to find a way to connect several PIR, microphone to multiple monitors, could be over cable, wifi or bluetooth. (Seem hard and ugly to implement)
  2. Implement some kind of HDMI switching mechanism
• One master MM with multiple, all-independent interactive slaves:
  • Do what’s described above with using mm1,mm2,mm3,.... This surely would eventually overload a RPi, as you add different and concurrent modules.

[cowboysdude]

@strawberry-3.141 Thank you! @zack949 there’s a way to run one as master and others as slave… look at the response from strawberry :)

[serge cherpy]

@cowboysdude

Bonjour avec mon Français je voudrait savoir si vous avez réussi a conclure le multiple clients sur un pi, peut on échanger des informations pour que je reproduise le mème serveur sur deux poste client Merci Serge

[cowboysdude]

@serge-cherpy the only way to do this would be to set up a pi as a master and the rest as slaves…ie

one pi running your main mirror at [for example] 192.168.1.2:8080 [master]
Then running another pi and opening up a browser to 192.168.1.2:8080 [slave]

Is one way to do it. I don’t do it that way because all my mirrors do different things and have different purposes.

Bathroom mirror is an actual mirror
alarm clock mirror is a 10" touch panel that functions as an alarm clock
32" inch mirror is a home automation mirror

But the above method master->slave would work providing you have them all on the same network… if you wanted to run master on one network and the slave on another that would take more work :)