Is Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ suitable to run MagicMirror?

balassy

Recently Raspberry Pi released a new model, named “3 Model A+”: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/new-product-raspberry-pi-3-model-a/

It is not only cheaper, but thanks to its lower profile it seems to be a better board for MagicMirror, compared to 3B. The drawback is that this board has only 512MB RAM. Is that enough to run MagicMirror?

Anyone tried it?

Thanks.
György

A Former User

@balassy
Maybe or not. Just using most of modules would be fine. But a few heavy modules and features need more power. Some might have a problem even in 3B+.

dwburger

I’m new to MM2.5 and have spent the last week trying to get my MM working on a Model 3-A+. My MM froze repeatedly, especially when trying to add new modules. I found npm-installs to be particularly slow. I finally decided to try my SD card in a 3-B+ and it’s worked much better. Admittedly, I’m new to RPi and MM2.5, but I can’t recommend using a 3-A+ for MM2.5.

balassy

Thanks for sharing your experience, @dwburger. For me slow npm install is not a huge problem, because it does not happen frequently, so it does not really matter if an update needs 5 or 10 minutes. But if it freezes or the Mirror itself freezes, than it is a serious issue.

Dear Reader, if you tried MagicMirror on RPi Model 3A+, please share your experience in this thread! Thank you.

dazza120

@balassy after how long does it freeze? I’ve got a pi 3b+ and that locks about every 2 days but now I’ve setup a cron job to restart pm2 every 2 days at 12 o’clock

Mitchawl

Hi guys,

New to the forum! I’ve seen the A+ but noted a couple of the changes. As per the OP, has anyone actually made a MM with the new A+ yet? I understand in principle it should work but I’d be devestated if it didn’t in the end!

Thanks guys

cowboysdude

@mitchawl Again here’s the problem. The mirror was built to run on a Pi… the issue lately has become that some are getting away from the Pi and using way more powerful boards [like me mini itx] because some of the modules I’ve made are too heavy for the Pi and they won’t work they require way too much in the way of power and memory…

So if you get a Pi you may be limited for some of the modules. I guess the real issue is to really think about what you’re going to use it for :)

Mitchawl

@cowboysdude Awesome thanks for the input. I have 0 coding experience or experience with Pi at all, and it seems the easiest way to go. I will be using the Mirror for very basic things - most likely weather/time/date, spotify/music feed and later adding the alexa component… But then looking through your modules I guess I would end up wanting to get more interesting once I’ve learnt the basics…

n21brown

I’ve tried it on a Ras Pi 3 A+ with limited success. Installation went fine but when powering up i had repeates errors regarding entropy and the display frequently went black and hung. This happened despite re-imaging mutliple times.

I plugged the SD card into a Ras Pi 2 B+ and had no problems.

Mitchawl

@n21brown I’ve gone for B+ in the end, seeing this makes me glad! Thanks for the help guys.