@fribse it’s not in the mirror config. you have to change the rasperrypi’s actual configuration

@MagicBeginner I actually think the mm will work great… provided that you have a way to access the data you want to display.

For example, my company uses SAGE 500 ERP and it does have an api that we can connect to and get info. The downside is that the person handing the SAGE 500 programming must create that api point.

If the company you are working for has that capability, then you can display whatever data they want you too. JSON is pretty easy with the mirror modules. You’ll just have to build a module for it. And there are lots of third party modules that you can dig into for examples of how to do that.

If they don’t already have some kind of ERP or CMS sytem already (which would make the most sense for them to enter and keep a database of historical information in) then you’ll have to build that for them too. Though you probably won’t want to do all this on a raspberry pi, the sd cards can get corrupted and all the data will be gone.

You have some choices to make about it and how serious they are about historical data tracking could impact the cost of the project for them. (reliable server, backups, automated backups, etc)

@D3dl3g if you get a free api key from openweathermap and then you can test with a known weather api that we all know works. (openweathermap works for me ). then you’ll narrow down the possibilities of why your particular setup isn’t working. 1) if it is the way you have installed the module, or 2) if the problem is with the weather endpoint you are trying to use. 3) maybe the uk weather api isn’t availble to you if you aren’t physically in the uk, 4) something else…

but getting the module working first in a known working configuration… will narrow down a lot of possibilities. it doesn’t mean that you can’t use the api you want later (unless that’s the issue).

I was at microcenter and bought a pimoroni inky touchscreen just to play with.

I’ve been fighting with teh MMM-flick-gesture module trying to add the airwheel gestures and learned I need to learn a lot more…

Since the pisupply Flick would be hanging below the mirror anyway… I’m thinking the inky display might be a better thing to use instead. And… it could display some things when the mirror is blacked out, and when the mirror is displaying, it could show instructions on how to use it to control the mirror pages and module.

I think I might be going down a rabbit hole.

I’m wondering if anyone has setup an inky display magic mirror. Have you?

@Radu_Stancu I would really like to have a copy of your module. I’ve been working with the code you posted at the beginning of this topic thread and I’ve gotten tap added. But the wheel just crashes my flick. I’m building a mirror for my Dad and I’d like to surprise him with one he can control with the flick. It would really impress him.

I hope you are still checking in on this magicmirror builders forum.

That’s really cool! I love the magnets to hold the cover over the hardware.

@drphil02 Well, you bought a Dakboard. You don’t buy a MagicMirror. MagicMirror is opensource and community supported, there isn’t a manufacturer. I suspect the Dakboard will always be more limited because they want to keep it simple to maintain and update. Less complication means it will support more people with LOTS less work to maintain and integrate updates as the third parties change their data formats and api’s.

Mich who made the MagicMirror and is spreading his joy and fun by making it available to anyone who wants it. Dakboard is actually profiting off of Mich’s project’s popularity by building and selling a very similar project as a “finished” item. I kinda doubt that without Mich in the first place a lot of these clones wouldn’t be out there in the world.

Since no one is making money of this… it isn’t ever going to be like what you want. Unless someone really really wants it, codes it and then decides to share their code. I am happy tinkering with MagicMirror, but if you want to step up and build the admin interface you are talking about… I’d give it a whirl. I’d be excited to. Go for it!

There is a great community behind the MagicMirror and people like Sam really have helped keep it alive. He’s on here everyday almost. I haven’t seen very many commercial electronics products last that long and still have active users.

@sdetweil I got it! That makes even more sense! Thanks!

@sdetweil I finally got it! Your hint on another forum post plus this… finally made sense to me after I stared at it a while.

for anyone else…

1. The pages module works on class names not actual module names.
2. MagicMirror uses the module name as the default css class for that module.
3. you don’t have to use the default class name in the pages module config, you can use the additional class you gave it instead.

so parts of my config now look like this:

{	
			module: "weather",
			classes: "nbweather",
			position: "top_right",
			config: {
				weatherProvider: "openweathermap", 
				type: "current",
				location: "New Braunfels",
				locationID: "4714131", //ID from http://bulk.openweathermap.org/sample/city.list.json.gz; unzip the gz file and find your city
				apiKey: "xxxxxxxxxxxxx"
			}
		},
		{
			module: "weather",
			classes: "nbweather",
			position: "top_right",
			header: "Weather Forecast",
			config: {
				weatherProvider: "openweathermap",
				type: "forecast",
				colored: true,
				showPrecipitationAmount: true,
				location: "New Braunfels",
				locationID: "4714131", //ID from http://bulk.openweathermap.org/sample/city.list.json.gz; unzip the gz file and find your city
				apiKey: "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
			}
		},
		{	
			module: "weather",
			position: "top_right",
			classes: "altusweather",
			header: "Altus Weather",
			config: {
				weatherProvider: "openweathermap", 
				type: "current",
				location: "Altus",
				locationID: "4529292", //ID from http://bulk.openweathermap.org/sample/city.list.json.gz; unzip the gz file and find your city
				apiKey: "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
			}
		},

and the config section for my pages module looks like this:

		module: 'MMM-pages',
		config: {
				modules:
					[[ "clock", "calendar", "nbweather", "compliments"],
					 [ "clock","MMM-SolarPicture","MMM-APOD","MMM-NewsAPI"],
					 [ "altusweather","MMM-MyScoreboard"]
					],

As you can see I used the class I gave each instance of the module instead of the module’s default class name.

Re: Default Modules

I found that I can use the new weather module many times for different locations.
I"m building a mirror for my Dad and he likes to watch the weather in different cities where his family members are located.

I would like to be able to do this on different “pages” using the pages module. I setup a PiSupply Flick Large to do the page incrementing and it’s working great. So, ideally I’d have his local weather on page 1 and on page 2 have about five weather locations for the family.

How would I do this? Would I have to copy and rename the weather module?

@karsten13 that is exactly what I did. I like having it outside the config.js so the config.js doesn’t grow to be a huge file. And so if I mess up when I add to the compliments.json, I won’t break the entire mirror.

I’m adding a whole lot of birthdays and lots of family specific dates. I like having the remoteFile setting so I can keep this data out of config.js.

@kayakbabe Well, I haven’t played with Docker ever. I also used the #MagicMirrorOS install method because it sounded super fast and easy. That said, I discovered some things about Docker. .And in the process discovered that the compliments.json I created was being erased/deleted/disappeared every time I stopped and started the raspberry pi.

For those who don’t know anything about docker… it’s kind of like a software publishing system where make sure your production server always has the files it is supposed to have and you can throw copies of that production server out super quick. This is a super lame description… but it was the reason I couldn’t solve my path issue. Because the “copy” of MagicMirror didn’t have a compliments.json in any of the folders that I tried to put it, that compliments.json was being removed every time I started up magic mirror from that Docker instance.

So in short I redid my sd card with a manual install and didn’t use any of the alternative methods (no docker image).

I also am able to set my compliments remote file to
remoteFile: “…/…/…/config/compliments.json”
and it works great.

and I can now put it anywhere I want on the pi so long as the relative paths are correct. I can keep it from being replaced if I want to update the modules.

@jacktar said in Compliments: RemoteFile Configuration:

Just for clarity to others, a local compliments.json
file should be located in /pi/MagicMirror/modules/default/compliments/ directory and referenced using only the file name in the config file.
e.g. remoteFile: ‘compliments.json’

So… what happens if we update the compliments module? Do our customizations in the compliments.json file get wiped out?
can we put the compliments.json somewhere else to protect it?

I’ve read the other posts, not sure I found all of them, and I"m still having a little problem. I can’t seem to get the right path to my compliments.json file. I have to admit I’m a bit rusty on my linux and doing things with the command path.

I notice the magic mirror config.js has base path is “/”
I’m going to assume that is the magic mirror directory itself and all things are supposed to run relative to that.

here is my issue:
I have the compliments.json located in the mirror’s config folder (I figured that would be the safest place to put it so it won’t get overwritten if I update anything. )
so in the config.js in the modules section for compliments I tried
remoteFile: ‘/mounts/config/compliments.json’
remoteFile: ‘/config/compliments.json’
remoteFile: ‘compliments.json’
remoteFile: ‘/home/pi/magicmirror/mounts/config/compliments.json’

none of those paths worked…
so please help me out. I’m guessing I need a relative path instead of absolute, or I’m adding or not adding a slash or something.

(I’m not breaking the module, so I think I"m just not getting to my compliments.json at all and the compliments module is just defaulting)

can someone help me find the post about a guy who installed the pir-sensor and got his pi stuck with the HDMI screen output of his pi turned off? I did the same thing.
Unfortunately I am a total idiot (there I said what you all are thinking for you) for not turning on SSH and so…

I need to edit the pi config or something. I’m pretty sure I saw the instructions for it on the post that I’m looking for. Only I can’t find it.

Kelly
(who knows just enough to get in trouble)

@DiogoSekeira
me too! I’m always learning. I think this is a great first project.
Also check out the projects on raspberrypi.org . I learned a lot about python an other languages by doing projects on there.
This magic mirror project is really neat becuase it will also help you do javascript development. If you are a web developer this is an incredibly fun way to learn more about what is possible to do on a website.

Basically the magic mirror is a website running javascript with some special added stuff to allow us to control our computer directly so we can do things like turn on / off our monitor, get data from sensors connected directly to the computer running the website and all sorts of fun things.

As we say in the United States, welcome to the rabbit hole!

re the sd card,

nope… the sd card is your “hard drive” without it, there is nothing for the operating system to live on, it has to remain inside your pi at all times to run the pi. The operating system has to be on it too.

nice thing… you can have several sd cards which have different setups (different OS and/or diff software) and simply power down, switch the sd card, then power up to completely switch what you are doing with your pi. Once you get your pi setup like you want, copy the sd card by making an image or by literally copying it to another sd card, and you have insurance against an sd card failure or disaster which ruins your pi.

no problem at all using the pi4 power supply. the key is the 5v… the extra A will just allow you to power more things that are connected to your pi. If you connected a higher voltage it would burn out your pi.

In my mind I liken the voltage to water pressure in a pipe… it needs to be constant, if the pressure goes up in a pipe, you can blow the fittings. Or if it’s too low, the water won’t get to the end of the pipe so it can be used.

The amperage is like the water available that can maintain the pressure in the pipe. So if I put a lot of tubes connected to my pipe, I need a lot of water to keep all those tubes and my main pipe filled up.

Silly way to think of it, but that’s how my Da explained it to me while he was doing some plumbing.

@sdetweil I figured out that your suggestions of encoding the new line worked for me.
So, instead of using
\n
which textNode was treating literally, I tried encoding it and using this
\u000A

so when I tried the following it looked just like I put it into my morecompliments.json

"roses are red\nviolets are blue\nand I need a line\nto start here anew "

then I tried
"roses are red\u000Aviolets are blue\u000Aand I need a line\u000Ato start here anew "

and it displayed like I wanted it to like so…

roses are red
violets are blue
and I need a line
to start here anew

perhaps this will help others.

@kayakbabe

For anyone who finds this thread,

my solution was just to reinstall everything. Apparently I messed up some code somewhere else. My custom.css was fine and I used it on the fresh install.