@shbatm Whoops. That’s the mistake I made. I switched to the wip branch but didn’t put the omx flag in there.

I’ll try it out tonight. Thanks for the update!

@shbatm Thanks for the different rendering process. It’s still very choppy for me, but it is noticeably better framerate.

Both techniques are maxxing my RasPi’s processor at 100% and I’m getting temperature warnings. But I’m just at the beginning of the process. Let’s see if I can’t cut that down a bit.

@Anhalter42 said in CORS using node_helper.js for Uber and Lyft APIs:

(or by pressing some shortcut which I forgot; search the forum if you want to know).

Try F12.

@Kimzer Most likely, it’s a problem with the Weather Underground database. If something is preventing them from receiving an update from the weather station they use to provide you with conditions, then they’ll just stay there until they resolve the issue.

You could try shifting the forecast to another location just to verify that the temperature does change over time. If other locations update, then the problem is on their end. If it doesn’t update temperature at all, then come back and we’ll see what we can find.

@Kimzer - If the camera won’t even take a snapshot, then none of this is going to work. Have you tried the various tutorials about getting the PiCam to work? The ones that are at the basic level of “I enter this command and it takes a picture right then and there and I can download it”?

Start with the official Getting Started Guide. Once you can get images from the camera to your Pi, come back.

If you can get the camera to produce images but have trouble getting Motion to work, follow my tutorial and the part where it says “at this point you can test it but…”, stop there. Change the parameter in the motion.conf file named output_pictures to on and change on_event_start to echo Motion Detected!. That should put a bunch of snapshots on your memory card. Test Motion by entering ./motion -c motion.conf and you should see motion writing messages to the screen.

@hermpi Will do. I’ll try to get that file to you this evening. Thanks.

Just FYI - I added a string of LEDs that are powered by a USB socket last night. Installed 'em under the edge of the frame, pointing towards the wall. My wife picked them up on sale for some reason. They plugged right in to the USB slot on the travel charger. Now they switch on along with the mirror.

@sync101 The only part I would watch for is that the Complete Setup Tutorial is designed for a Raspberry Pi. Amazon’s free servers don’t run Rasbian, so the automated script to install the Magic Mirror framework probably won’t work.

The good news is that the manual installation process is about all you’ll really need. The basic steps are:

• Install Git
• Install node.js and npm
• Install Electron
• Clone the Magic Mirror repository to the home folder
• Run npm install in the Magic Mirror folder
• Copy the config.js.sample file to config.js
• Run npm serveronly in the Magic Mirror folder
• Hit your VM by going to http://[ip address]:8080

I’ve found that the instructions/walkthrough in the thread about running the MagicMirror framework on a Pi Zero have been invaluable.

@Mykle1 No, it does not. You essentially pull the plug to turn it off. What I did at home was to plug it into a WeMo home automation outlet. I then used my phone to set up a schedule to turn the mirror off & on. And it ties into the Amazon Echo, so I can tell Alexa to turn the mirror off and on if I need it outside of the schedule.

The other downside is that the plug is only like 4 feet long. You may have to use an extension cord or (as I did) solder in an extension from a spare computer cord.

@twillster I did a little bit of speaker building a long time ago. A good portion of quality comes from getting the size of the enclosure exactly right to match the performance characteristics of the speaker. The speaker essentially thumps the air volume behind it and the difference between good sound and great sound is making sure that the air volume resonates well with how the speaker moves. You certainly can disassemble a computer speaker and mount it to your cabinet. You may even get some decent sound out of it. You probably will get better sound than you will out of the monitor speakers.

If you’re going to play around, I would look at Parts Express to source your speakers. They’ll sell you speakers of whatever size you wish and provide you with enough information that you can build enclosures into your mirror box if you wish. At the very least, the quality of the speakers will probably be better than disassembling something from Logitech.

Depending on the kit, Parts Express will also give you a PDF that will tell you what volume of air will work best with your speakers. If not, there are a few websites that will run the calculations for you.

I use a travel charger. It has an AC outlet for the monitor and a hefty USB socket for the Pi. Plus, you can plug other things into the USB sockets (such as LED lights).

@twillster My suggestion is to look into portable Bluetooth speakers. Something thin with decent dynamic range. Either mount them in the cabinet or just keep them nearby. The Pi 3 has bluetooth onboard and you could use that instead of trying to rig up something hardwired.

Start with the MMM-Podcast module.

From the page you linked:

Options:
--merge-logs                 do not postfix log file with process id
--log-date-format    prefix logs with formated timestamp
-l --log [path]              specify entire log file (error and out are both included)
-o --output            specify out log file
-e --error             specify error log file

So…

pm2 stop mm
pm2 start mm -o "/dev/null" -e "/dev/null"
pm2 save

I used PM2 to manged the Motion process in my first mirror. That code was fairly unstable and would crash 2-3 times a day. PM2 was a decent solution for that problem.

Now, I use it mostly out of habit. It also makes restarting the mirror process easy instead of having to reboot the entire Pi.

@j.e.f.f said in MMM-MyCommute:

If you don’t want a header, then just omit it.

Aha. Very nice. If you get the chance, please update the README with this information. It changed on me and I couldn’t figure it out for a while.

I used a WiFi dongle on my first mirror. In certain areas of the house, connectivity was pretty poor. I had installed a USB port into the box in case I needed to plug in a keyboard/mouse and troubleshoot. Plugging the WiFi dongle into that external port solved my WiFi problems right nicely.
So it sounds like you’re on the right track. And disabling the onboard WiFi is pretty easy.

@raymate said in Does it work with RASPBIAN JESSIE WITH PIXEL:

I shall blank my me card and start fresh

Okay. If you do that, don’t worry about the rm -rf MagicMirror command. On a fresh card, this folder will not have been created. If you wipe your card and write the Jessie image to the card, start at the second block of commands (sudo apt-get update).

Forgive me for not getting this but should I let the Raspian install and boot into the desktop as a standard fresh install does or should I turn of the auto login?

You will want to keep the auto-login to desktop option.

If I do leave the desktop running do I run the main install line for MM2 from the terminal window launched from the desktop or should I SSH into the Pi from another computer to start the install command line running?

Technically, either one will work. I find it is easier to SSH into the Pi and install it from another computer. There are a few commands I copy & paste from the Complete Setup Tutorial. I usually have a browser window open to that tutorial and the SSH terminal open at the same time and copy & paste from one to the other. I directly work on the Pi only long enough to ensure 1) the WiFi is set up properly, and 2) the SSH server is working.

So if I get this right, once I get it working the Pi boots into Pixel then the MM2 will auto run?

Not quite. You’ll need something to tell the Pi to start the MM2 process. I prefer to use a program called PM2. It’s one of the two options from the MM2 Github page. It takes about five steps to get it configured.

1. Create the mm.sh file.
2. Install PM2.
3. Tell PM2 to set up. This includes running the command it tells me.
4. Use PM2 to run MM2 via the mm.sh file created in step 1.
5. Save state. PM2 will automatically keep MM running upon boot or crash.

Very new to this sorry :)

No worries. We all started somewhere.

@raymate Yeah, it works with Raspian & Pixel. That’s the preferred method, actually.

Let’s try this. We’ll remove your failed MagicMirror installation, update your Pi to the latest versions of everything and then re-run the auto-installation.

Start by deleting the last attempt to install the mirror:

cd ~
rm -rf MagicMirror

Next, we’re going to clean out included software that you aren’t going to use for the Mirror and then update the software you are going to use for the Mirror. Each of these four commands is going to take a while. Click “y” when it asks to confirm.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get remove --purge idle3 java-common libreoffice* minecraft-pi scratch nuscratch penguinspuzzle python-minecraftpi python3-minecraftpi smartsim sonic-pi wolfram-engine
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get upgrade

At this point, let’s try the automated installer again.
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MichMich/MagicMirror/master/installers/raspberry.sh | bash

That hopefully should complete with no errors this time. Let us know how it goes.

@erik72 If you’re working directly on the pi, you can use ctrl+q to stop the interface and return to the terminal. If you’re using SSH to remote into the pi, then ctrl+c should stop it right nicely.

You can always check to see if the mirror is running by typing ps ax | grep node. If you get anything in response more than 6957 pts/19 S+ 0:00 grep --color=auto node (where 6975 will be some random number) then the MM process is running and you’ll need to shut it down in order for it to process your changes.