@Sean Thanks. I have DDNS setup, I just prefer to keep all ports closed if possible. I also have VPN server setup in my router, but that really doesn’t help here.

From what I understand google action requires you to say to google home: “I want to speak to magicmirror” before you can trigger any command. Then the whole point with using voice to simplify is gone imo.

I will look into MMM-AlexaOnOff more and post if I succeed in connecting my google home.

So I got a Google Home Mini for Christmas, so I’ve tinkered around a bit to try to control MagicMirror with it… but I haven’t found a way yet.

Most posts seems to be either about Alexa or to run Google assistant on the RPi itself. But someone must have done this before…

My tests so far:

1. Created an IFTTT applet that triggered a webhook to send notifications via MMM-RemoteControl. But my mirror IP is local. I had it port forwarded before, but when I realized anyone could access my config.js I turned that off. So I gave this up.

2. The above but tried to also use Tasker on Android (and other similar apps I don’t remember the name on). I struggled with this and got nowhere. Also, if I would succeed, it would only work when my phone is at home.

3. I installed MMM-TelegramBot. So now I can control my mirror from anywhere by chatting with the bot and for example texting “/hideall” to it. All modules are hidden instantly. Cool! I could also write to the chat via the rest api:
   https://api.telegram.org/bot[token]/sendMessage?chat_id=[myuserid]&text=/hideall
   That wrote /hideall in the chat, but did not trigger the hide all action. I guess it is because a bot sent message cannot trigger a bot command.

4. Just now I found this:
   https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/9211/mmm-alexaonoff-simple-mirror-control-from-external-home-assistant-alexa-google-home-hass-io
   I haven’t tried that yet, but it is named AlexaOnOff and I found no mention of anyone using it with Google Home. Has anyone tested?

So… does anyone have any other bright ideas?

Not a solution to the root problem, but you can add the WatchDog module to automatically quit MM when UI freezes:

https://github.com/MichMich/MMM-WatchDog

Amazing! I have missed time stamps a lot when debugging. And now we get file and line nr too. Great work!

If you’re thinking about how much power you use… The screen uses ~0.5W in stand-by and the Pi averages around 3W. A smart outlet uses ~2W. So there’s not much to save.

I would leave it on 24/7 and focus on on putting the screen into stand-by mode as often as possible, as that is where the real savings are.

Thanks for a nice module! Added it as a countdown to Christmas Eve after request from my son

I added an empty title and instead set the output to: “%RESULT% days until Christmas Eve”. Looked good in my setup.

Just found this old module and added it to my mirror. With some unicode and html the result is pretty nice, so I thought I’d share it:

Ok, in Swedish, but it basically says “The sun… rises: / sets:”. I used dawn-sunrise and sunset-dusk for the time intervals. This gives approximately the time from when it’s almost dark to full day and vice versa.

Config:

		{
			module: 'mmm-suncalc',
			position: 'top_left',
			header: 'Solen',
			config: {
				latitude: xx.xxxx,
				longitude: xx.xxxx,
				text: '<table>' +
								'<tr><td>& #9728;</td><td>Går upp:</td><td>[dawn] - [sunrise]</td></tr>' +
								'<tr><td>& #9790;</td><td>Går ner:</td><td>[sunset] - [dusk]</td></tr>' +
							 '</table>'
			}
		},

Note that you need to remove the space between & and # in the config above. It was impossible to write the code in the forum otherwise. Also you need to change [ … ] to < … > for dawn, sunset etc.

How about seting up a google account and add the birthdays to the google calendar as recurring events. Then use the default calendar module to show it?

@mrheadbanger Not that it answers your question, but the compliments module can be configured in config.js to have your own custom compliments. See here:
https://github.com/MichMich/MagicMirror/tree/master/modules/default/compliments#default-value

That way you don’t have to edit the compliments.js file. It is also generally a bad idea to edit the modules’ files as it becomes harder to update to new versions of magicmirror.
The config.js and custom css file are kept when updating to a new version.

You can setup a VPN server at home. Many routers have settings for this.