@marnus There are a couple of Alexa integration modules. A quick search through the module showcase section of the forums will give you some threads about installing and configuring these modules.

Please use the markdown features of the forum when posting code & log messages.

And yes, please post your config.js with the API keys redacted.

That looks like it will do just fine.

Please use the markdown features of the board when posting code.

@motdog - Okay, let’s get you fixed up. First step is how to use the markdown features of the forum. Read that real quick before you reply. Especially the part at the bottom about posting code.

By default, the current weather and the weather forecast don’t work. That’s because it needs a key to access the web API that contains the forecast data and it needs a location to load weather data. Let’s look at the part of config.js that is specific to the current weather module. It currently reads:

{
module: "currentweather",
position: "top_right",
config: {
	location: "New York",
	locationID: "",  //ID from htttp://bulk.openweathermap.org/sample/; unzip the gz file and find your city
	appid: "YOUR_OPENWEATHER_API_KEY"
        }
},

For starters, you can delete everything after the // characters on the line that reads locationID. That’s a helpful comment and isn’t executed by the system. Get rid of it to clean it up a bit.

You have to do two things here: Find the location ID for your area and you have to sign up for an OpenWeather API key. Location is easy. Go to OpenWeatherMap and search for where you live. Follow that link and use the search box to type in your city. I’ll use Little Rock, Arkansas as an example. When I search for that city, I get a handful of results. Pick one and click on it. You’ll get a webpage with current weather and forecast, right? Look at the URL of that page and you’ll see something like this: https://openweathermap.org/city/4898342

That seven digit number is the location ID. Plug that into the config.js as the value of the locationID key. Like so:

{
module: "currentweather",
	position: "top_right",
	config: {
		location: "New York",
		locationID: "4898342",  
		appid: "YOUR_OPENWEATHER_API_KEY"
	}
},

Once you have that, go back to your web browser on the OpenWeatherMap web page. At the top is a menu item called “API”. Click on it. You’ll be given several options on how to sign up for their service and obtain an API Key. Go ahead and register for the free tier. Once you’ve successfully registered, you can click on the Sign In option and you’ll be given a sub-menu that includes a link to “API Keys”. Follow that link and you’ll see the interface to generate an API key. Punch in a name for your key and click on “Generate”. It will show you a stream of gibberish. That is your API key. Copy that down, 'cuz you’re going to need it.

Now you just need to plug your API key back into the config.js file.

{
module: "currentweather",
position: "top_right",
config: {
	location: "New York",
	locationID: "4898342",  
	appid: "1234567890ABBACADABBA"
        }
},

Save your file and restart your Mirror process (pm2 restart 0). You should see the current weather. I’ll leave the configuration of the weather forecast as an exercise for the newbie.

@thijsmathijs - if any place was going to have it, Alibaba would be it. Presumably one of the many factories supplies panels to the monitor companies.

@jmartin1009 It sounds like your repository data is corrupted. Try this:

rm ./package-lock.json
rm -r ./node_modules
npm cache clear --force

and then attempt to reinstall electron.

@costascontis - There may be a switch in VLC player that tells it to stay on top. I’d start looking at switches there.

@sanaa1369 - The screen isn’t really locked, it’s just displaying the MagicMirror application in full screen. If you hit Alt+Q it should give you your command prompt back.

@stuartiannaylor - The standard MagicMirror installation is basically a web application that is displayed locally. The NPM application runs in the background and provides the data. It’s basically running a website. Electron is responsible for displaying that data on the screen. It does the work of combining HTML, CSS and Javascript into a screen’s worth of displayed information. NPM is the application layer, Electron is the presentation layer. On a full Raspi, electron is used because it skips all the unnecessary stuff like bookmarks, menus, borders, scroll bars, etc.

Server-only mode is just running the NPM application. Essentially, you’re just hosting the website and not depending upon Electron to present the information on the screen. Since you need something to actually show the data, you can use the built-in browser for the Pi Zero, which is Chromium. You’ll have to configure it a bit to hide the menu, scroll bars and the like, but it should work.

Note: Because the MM application is basically a website, if you open up the IP Whitelist, you can view the magic mirror interface from any web browser on your network.