@rubberduck that should be totally doable with python. And the mirror and python can be done. There are several module that use python scripts. Are you wanting to just turn the tv on and off?

your tv will need to be able to restart on the same hdmi port you have your video from your pi feeding into. just a thought.

If you want to just keep the tv on, but blacken the screen, your tv might have a screen saver or something … some do.

@BKeyport If you want to spin your own, take a look at Sams MMM-PythonPrint example he has posted in these forums. It can run any python script with little tweaking. It sure helped me get off the ground with this.

I’m going to flesh my OneButtons out to do many actions with just one button (or many actions with several buttons) and add the tv cec or lcd commands to sleep and wake up. And shutdown and Reboot. It can send any notification that is useful to the Mirror or modules running. I am thinking of having it do something fun like if double clicked fast… pop up a screaming halloween face… My brother likes to try to “Break” thinks. I want to give him a surprise.

I think it’s possible to do one button with maybe 6 or seven different actions. I’ve got four working so far and when I get it where I think it’s stable, I’ll put it out on git hub for some feedback.

This is my first working module. I wanted to make one button do more than one thing. This module uses a python script to poll the button state. The button can be pressed and released or it can be held down for a long period of approx 4 seconds.

I am currently using MMM-OneButton with the MMM-Pages module to PAGE_INCREMENT the pages upon a button press.
And to ARTICLE_NEXT for the default news module when the button is held.

I have to give Sam kudo for all his examples he has posted on this forum. He’s really helped me a lot.

I plan on making it even more useful by adding in the obligatory screen on/off. reboot pi, etc. But I am excited that I’m finally figuring this stuff out enough to actually make a working module.

If you want to try it out and give me some feedback, it’s located at
https://github.com/Kayakbabe/MMM-OneButton

@OldSunGuy Thats really cool! I’ll have to check that device out.

@sdetweil I’m looking at the configuration variable repetative and trying to figure out what it is for.

is this correct logic for true and false?

repetative: true
if your python script runs in a loop forever by itself so the spawn in node helper will just keep its connection to the python script open

repetative: false
if your python script runs one time, and you need node_helper to keep spawning over and over so you can get the info from the python script over and over

@OldSunGuy That’s because the browser software itself built into older TV’s and (even firestick, chromecast, appletv if they aren’t ever updated by their owners ) etc might not be compliant with the full newer html spec.

You also can find the situation where a web browser app on one of those older devices might have newer software insdie the app so it can display a website, that the builtin browser of the tv itself can’t display.

If that old TV/app/computer is running a really old browser software, it isn’t going to be able to execute the newer javascript versions.

So using the built in browser on older equipment is a crap shoot at best - especially with older televisions and old hardware that can’t be updated.

In those cases “casting” the output from the hardware running the serverside and clientside software over to the television is the only way to get it on the tv. The quality of the “casting” device is going to matter a LOT. Hardwiring with direct cables is always going to be the best.

But screen casting is really good now days. That said if you device only casts 720 and you have a 4k computer output and a 4k monitor it will look like crap. The screencast device can’t push the 4k info through it and will downgrade the signal to 720.
If you get a casting setup that matches the computer and monitor, it will look a lot better.

My old screen cast device looked horrible on my new 4k tv. So I gave it away and got a newer J5create screencast device that matches the output display on my pi and the capabilities of my best tv.
I can cast anything I want to the tv and it looks good.

many Chromecast /roku/hulu type devices are capable of recieving… but you might need a dongle added to your computer to send to it. I don’t use chromecast,firestick, etc.
Becuase I run the same software locally on my laptop and I just use the J5create to send the screen to my tv.

Sam,

Thank you for this MMM-PythonPrint. More than the sample module this really helped me follow how to wrap my head around how the script.js node_helper and anything else work together. The way you worded the variables and the input and output text really made sense and made it easy to follow what is happening. I am learning a lot. Again, Thank you.

Kelly

I figured it out. I wanted to round it off too. No decimal places.
You have to edit the template files. look for the showPrecipitationAmount if statement. I altered the output a little bit… see below for what I did.

in forecast.njk

                {% if config.showPrecipitationAmount %}
                    {% if f.precipitationUnits %}
                        <td class="align-right bright precipitation">
                            {{ f.precipitation }}{{ f.precipitationUnits }}
                        </td>
		                {% else %}
                        {% if f.pop %}
                            <td class="align-right precipitation">
                                {{(f.pop * 100).toFixed(0)}}%
                            </td>
                        {% endif %}
                        <td class="align-right bright precipitation">
                            {{ f.precipitation | unit("precip") }}
                        </td>
                    {% endif %}
                {% endif %}

I found info on the templates by googling nunchucks templates.

@kayakbabe said

I am getting the same error on a fresh sd card on a rpi 3B with buster 32bit installed. It has manually installed MagicMirror, node, etc., no extra modules, just the config sample copied to be config.js.
…
[2092:0905/201909.167187:ERROR:viz_main_impl.cc(186)] Exiting GPU process due to errors during initialization
[2132:0905/201909.521340:ERROR:gpu_memory_buffer_support_x11.cc(44)] dri3 extension not supported.
[2106:0905/201909.609131:ERROR:command_buffer_proxy_impl.cc(126)] ContextResult::kTransientFailure: Failed to send GpuControl.CreateCommandBuffer.
…

I did more digging and I am not sure if this is the right solution for a Raspberry Pi 3B running Buster
I followed the instructions on this page [https://www.raspberryconnect.com/projects/35-games/142-trying-out-opengl-on-raspberry-pi-3] and the viz_main and gpu memory buffer and other stuff disappeared. I’m now playing with the different settings in the raspi-config and going to up the split memory. I tried first with settings it to 128 , half of what they recommended, cause I’m just contrary my mama says. And MagicMirror does seem to run more smoothly than with the default buster install. BUT the pi is much worse at multi tasking now. I can’t have very many chromium windows going at once. So, i’m going to play with the video setttings more. I know I won’t be running chromium when the mirror is running. But if I put a lot of modules into the magic mirror… it would stress the pi too.

Anyway, perhaps this info will help you.

Note: on the last buster install, the raspi-config advanced options and performance options are a little different location in the menu than described in this article.

Kelly

@BKeyport You’ll be limited by the amperage of the Raspberry Pi power supply. You might be able to power about 3 feet of an led strip. But for anything longer, you will need more amperage. Look on Adafruit for “light painting” with a raspberry pi. They discuss the power needs of the strips. Also the more modules you have runnning, the more power the pi will use itself. SO… you might not even be able to power 3 feet.