raspberry-pi alternatives

bhepler

@papak69 An easy solution to the WiFi signal is to buy a USB extension or flush-mount kit. You can mount the extension to the outside of your frame and plug the WiFi adapter in there, where it will be unencumbered by the aluminum.

tajno

Edit: wtf - again it posts on a wrong thread…

Edit2: To say something constructive: I’ve also expierenced some performance issues, I have an ISS livestream on my mirror, also one of the SERENE and a live windprofile of european temp&wind conditions. Sometimes its a little bit laggy - in background there are wheater forecast, wheater now, wunderlist with 1 list as to do and one included in calendar, calendar himself use 7 different links, 4 newsfeeds and last but not least my traffic forecast. So I’m not wondering about that :) - most of the time its no problem, just have a look if its swapping - than a reload of the mirror will help (pm2 reload mm).

papak69

thanks guys, I will investigate a bit more … udoo looks promising.

@bhepler what do you mean with flush mount kit? any link for that?

@tajno true … i have 2 calendars, weather + forecast, stocks, random image & newsflash + the rpi camera motion sensor … but would hate to remove any of it for sake of more speed …

tajno

@papak69

Another way would be to use the servermode - Than add a chromecast to your mirror/screen and open it in a browser with F11 as fullscreen.

Works pretty nice, I’m thinking about to made a hosting on my root servers and provide it over this way to my friends with limited technical knowledge (GIT & Puppet). Is my next project - but first I have to end this one, I’m building a new frame :).

bhepler

@papak69 Follow the link in my last post. It should be what you’re looking for.

alexyak

Here’s the alternative that you can use:

https://www.amazon.com/MINIX-Fanless-Windows-Dual-Band-Ethernet/dp/B01M1LA8MB/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1479087997&sr=8-15&keywords=Minix

cowboysdude

@yawns said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

That kind of depends what you intend to do. Basically you can use every box (spare laptop, full workstation, small devices like raspberry, …) running Windows, Linux or MacOS.
However the raspberry is strong enough for most users, so I’m curious why you are asking for a stronger alternative.
Don’t be to anxious about Linux, once you setup your magicmirror you don’t have to twiddle around with Linux all day long.

I am also looking for a much stronger or should I say powerful board for the mirror. I’m going to be building a 40" mirror that I want to do many things with … the Pi just doesn’t have enough power to handle some of the things I’d like it to do… Also the voice control module works so much better with a more powerful board… I know, I’ve tested it :)

bhepler

@cowboysdude Possibly something like the Zotac Zbox? It’s probably overkill. And at that price… it’s more expensive than the rest of your hardware.

alexyak

@bhepler it is an overkill. Atom based quad SoC with 4GB RAM should be enough.

cowboysdude

@bhepler said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

@cowboysdude Possibly something like the Zotac Zbox? It’s probably overkill. And at that price… it’s more expensive than the rest of your hardware.

I have been looking at that exact box!!! Great minds think alike :)

Was also looking very strongly at this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173128

A Former User

@alexyak Only under Windows… It bricks on trying to install Raspbian… I know because it happened to me…

tajno

Actually I got the problem that the RAM is filled and the system starts to swap - which made the mirror, obviously very slow.

Does anyone have similiar issues?

A pm2 reload does not really work - The only way is to kill electron and start the mirror again - than it works fine for like 12 hours. I don’t really get what the RAM is filling - Maybe its the iFrame Module? A clean installation will probably not have those problems, think it must be a module…

alexyak

@wjdw87 of course it wouldn’t run Raspbian because it’s built specifically for RPI. I’d stay with Windows.

A Former User

@alexyak sorry, i was not clear. No Linux Distros will install. . they also have android out of the box version and you can change over.

The problem is their jerry rigged bios.

Their android or windows packages at specific to the boxes, no installing of USB/other for they are not built for the boxes

Further the windows is only 32 bit, and the android does have 64 bit, admittedly

cowboysdude

Or go with another Linux distro… I installed it on a computer and installed the mirror on it… worked pretty good and MUCH faster :)

lolobyte

@tajno

do a cron job to restart your raspi every night!

amanzimdwini

@cowboysdude

any SHORT intro on how to put a MM onto an old laptop with Ubuntu running on it?
I have it on two Pis (2 and 3); managed to get it onto a Win10 box - Ubuntu is next :)

Thanks

cowboysdude

@amanzimdwini Installing MM is easy on Unbuntu.

I downloaded it and unpacked it into MagicMirror folder then in a terminal window:

npm install
npm start

Starts right up no issues :)

Pretty much everything works just as it did on a Pi except it’s a lot faster :)

amanzimdwini

@cowboysdude It was nearly that easy… on LTS 16.04 on an ancient Dell:

sudo npm install (failed)
sudo apt install nodejs-legacy
sudo npm install (succeeded)
npm start
-> Please create a config.js file

Thanks for the help!

Mykle1

@cowboysdude said in raspberry-pi alternatives:

Starts right up no issues
Pretty much everything works just as it did on a Pi except it’s a lot faster

So you’re running it on a Windows machine? I ask because I am too, only without being able to use the sudo command in Windows, some dependencies installations won’t work. i.e. MMM-voice. I really want to make a laptop MMM-NFL machine (with MMM-voice) for my son-in-law but that is the problem I am running into.

So, have you used MMM-voice on anything other than a Raspberry Pi?