There is a bit of a story here.

A friend was given about 10 of these Surface Pro 4s from work, we determined 8 worked and he had 8 working chargers, so we spent an evening with a few beers and installed Windows 10 on all 8. He gave me 2 of them, one with “some” battery and one that would only work plugged in.

I used the one with battery for a while but it didn’t last long so had limited usefulness, I looked up changing the battery and decided it wasn’t worth spending £40 on a battery, if changing it could ruin the device

Then I randomly saw a video about installing Linux on one of these, due to Microsoft end of life notice, out of the drawer it came and Ubuntu installed with the Surface kernel, a fun process but once again held back by the battery life.

My intended MM project is a 65" boardroom screen in the new office, displaying MM when the screen is otherwise not in use, but the office move is delayed due to issues with the refurb, so my office mirror is currently on a 27" monitor, wedged vertical on my desk

While looking for another project I found the Surface and thought it would make a good mirror, initially I just used a full screen browser then decided a native install would make this “portable” with a wifi connection and likely needing to be plugged in, but I can set it up where I am working, It has touch screen access to the calendar and the displays are truly stunning

So there you have it, why I am using a Surface Pro, running Linux as a mirror.

First page uses Calendar EXT3 and Agender EXT3 plus I wrote my own news module with short and long headlines because I have a lot of news sources

Second page (other than clock and weather) are all modules I wrote, making API calls to my PV array and various bits of info from the UK grid

The screens are not easy to photograph, but they are not reflective in real use

I have written a number of modules that access either public or free APIs that need a sign up

These show data from the UK grid, such as demand, generation by source, interconnectors, agile pricing, carbon intensity, frequency etc

These have been written for my use, but if there is any genuine interest, I will upload to Git

Let me know if you want to see them

@sdetweil

MM reinstall seems to have worked

Now to set it up properly

Thanks

This is an early development version of what will be my office display, used as a screensaver when the display isn’t in use
the actual display is a 4k 65" smart display, it is in storage until the office move

The 2 modules I wanted did not exist, so I wrote them both

UK Grid Status https://github.com/KayosPi/MMM-UKGridStatus
Does not require API’s and shows either realtime or snapshots of the UK grid

Solax PV https://github.com/KayosPi/MMM-SolaxPV
Displays information from a Solax PV inverter, customisable to show whatever you want to see. Needs an API and a serial number linked to that API

Now it works, I will make it look nice

I have created a module to read the Solax PV API when given a valid key and inverter serial number

It has a text mode and I am working on a graphics mode

I have also created a version that aggregates data from multiple inverters, using the same API, however unless you are an installer, O&M or have lots of inverters, this will not be any use

I am getting to grips with Github and will upload it when I have that sorted

I have written a number of modules that access either public or free APIs that need a sign up

These show data from the UK grid, such as demand, generation by source, interconnectors, agile pricing, carbon intensity, frequency etc

These have been written for my use, but if there is any genuine interest, I will upload to Git

Let me know if you want to see them

There is a bit of a story here.

A friend was given about 10 of these Surface Pro 4s from work, we determined 8 worked and he had 8 working chargers, so we spent an evening with a few beers and installed Windows 10 on all 8. He gave me 2 of them, one with “some” battery and one that would only work plugged in.

I used the one with battery for a while but it didn’t last long so had limited usefulness, I looked up changing the battery and decided it wasn’t worth spending £40 on a battery, if changing it could ruin the device

Then I randomly saw a video about installing Linux on one of these, due to Microsoft end of life notice, out of the drawer it came and Ubuntu installed with the Surface kernel, a fun process but once again held back by the battery life.

My intended MM project is a 65" boardroom screen in the new office, displaying MM when the screen is otherwise not in use, but the office move is delayed due to issues with the refurb, so my office mirror is currently on a 27" monitor, wedged vertical on my desk

While looking for another project I found the Surface and thought it would make a good mirror, initially I just used a full screen browser then decided a native install would make this “portable” with a wifi connection and likely needing to be plugged in, but I can set it up where I am working, It has touch screen access to the calendar and the displays are truly stunning

So there you have it, why I am using a Surface Pro, running Linux as a mirror.

First page uses Calendar EXT3 and Agender EXT3 plus I wrote my own news module with short and long headlines because I have a lot of news sources

Second page (other than clock and weather) are all modules I wrote, making API calls to my PV array and various bits of info from the UK grid

The screens are not easy to photograph, but they are not reflective in real use

@sdetweil

MM reinstall seems to have worked

Now to set it up properly

Thanks

@sdetweil said in Calendar EXT3 not displaying either local or remote:

@Kayos so, this should be the minimal config for ext3

{
  module: "MMM-CalendarExt3",
  position: "bottom_bar",
},

and you DID you the npm install IN the MMM-CalendarExt3 folder, right?

AND the MM default calendar is displaying events. as Ext3 gets events from the default calendar

Yes to all

I might have a bit of time to experiment further this evening

I am back with a fully current install

I have moved this from my build thread.
I tried last night and this morning and completely failed to get EXT3 showing anything

Base Setup
MagicMirror v2.31.0

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (ARM64)

Debian 12 / Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm

Initial install using default Electron setup (v35+)

Node.js initially v22 (required by MM), later downgraded to v18 for compatibility

What Worked -
EXT3 loaded successfully (no module errors)

calendar module fetched events from:

Outlook 365 ICS feed

GOV.UK Bank Holidays feed

EXT3 debug logs confirmed:

Events were parsed and saved

Views and scenes were initialized

DOM was constructed in memory

clock and other modules rendered normally

What Didn’t Work
EXT3 views never displayed (month grid, daily, upcoming)

No .calendarExt3 DOM elements injected in browser or Electron

Even the README-based example scene rendered nothing

No browser console errors

fetch() errors occurred when Node was downgraded, fixed with undici

Troubleshooting Steps Taken

mode: “month” → views + scenes - No visible output
Added header to force rendering - Still no view
Added clock + multiple regions - MM layout OK, EXT3 still hidden
Inspected DOM in browser - .calendarExt3 not found
Forced CSS override in custom.css - No change
Tried testView: true - Still no visible EXT3
Downgraded Node to v18 (for Electron 22) - Fixed fetch error
Patched calendarfetcher.js with const { fetch } = require(“undici”) - Fixed ICS loading
Installed undici@5.26.5 to match Node 18 - Resolved fetch issue
Downgraded Electron to v22.3.27 -No render issues, but still no EXT3 DOM
Tried server-only mode (npm run server) - Still blank EXT3

This morning I went back to a default MM install and setup my known good config, with EXT2 and my working modules

I would like EXT3 working though, seems I am missing something obvious when even the most basic config from the Readme loads the module but wont display

@sdetweil

Yes it does, I’ve updated it to show UK holidays and an outlook calendar of mine

Both work

I have tried again with EXT3, it loads but won’t output on either a connected screen or remote

I will need to dig into it, think I followed the setup and config properly

@sdetweil

And with that tiny, but crucial bit of info, I will get ext3 working

I deleted default from my config

@sdetweil

I failed to even get it to load and need a working display for tomorrow morning

I will return to it when I have time, EXT2 works, for now

Has been updated to the V2 api and the emoji icons removed as they don’t work with Electron

https://github.com/KayosPi/MMM-SolaxPV