Thanks everyone. I have a freshly installed Raspbian with Jessie, made sure NodeJS is up to date and installed MM2. That workes fine (except for one cosmetic error message from a bash script I describe in another post). This error only occurs when installing MM2 via the one-line-installer promoted on the website. The problem I describe occurred independent of the way I install MM2z

MM2 runs fine with the sample config.js and throws the error I describe sometimes, but not always, when adding new modules. This happens without touching the standard config.js that came with MM as sample. It even happens during several rounds of completely deleting the MagicMirror-Folder and re-installing MM2 from
scratch.

That’s why I think the problem is independent of my or any config.js file. As you all imply that adding new modules should not change a thing unless I refer to them in the config.js, something else must be wrong.

As the problem persists after several re-installations of MM2, it must be based either within it, as an unknown bug, or somewhere in the dependencies outside the application.

Next, I will completely wipe my SD card and reinstall Raspbian to see if that helps…

@j.e.f.f Great! I keep learning about the way MM-modules work. Thanks a lot

@Mykle1 MM was / is running fine when adding new modules. So I think the problem does not stem from the config.js file in the first place. I add new modules exactly as you and each developer describes. My new additions last evening where:

• MMM-Traffic
• MMM-TrafficCal
• MMM-MyWeather
• MMM-Wunderground

All of them immediately broke my system after installing the module. This happened even without touching the config.js file! Removing the module from the folder again did not solve the problem.

After a complete reinstall of MM (deletion of the whole MM-folder) with all my current modules plus MMM-Traffic / MMM-TrafficCal the system worked fine with the sample config.js. I also tried my own config.js which incorporated the new models afterwards and it worked fine, too.

Then I wanted to add MMM-MyWeather / MMM-Wunderground. These were cloned to the modules folder and the system stopped working again. This time, a complete reinstall with all current modules plus one of these two did not solve the problem. As many people use these modules, I am sure these would generally run fine and the problem must be rooted somewhere else.

All together, it seems to me that MM screens the modules folder independent of the config.js file and throws the error. Is that possible?

Are there any other things I could check like correct versions of software MM depends on?
The only software I noticed during install was node which is version v6.10.3 and thus newer than the 5.xx.xx version described as necessary.

Thanks for all the feedback so far and willingness to help!

Thanks for the advice. I will give it a try.

As it always run fine despite the error messages, I was more concerned about the user experience when using the promoted way to install it.

@j.e.f.f Thanks for the clarification, that there are no polls while it is not visible.
One easy way would be to add a “smart timer” if you polled with increasing frequency depending on the start time. Also possible would be polling once after midnight to get an idea about the expected travel time without delays. This duration plus a buffer (e.g. three times the travel time; user customizable) could determine the dynamic start time when travel times will show up.

Different question: would it be possible to colours only in case of delays (=not show a “good” time in green but white)?

Sometimes when I add a new module, I get the following error message:

DISPLAY=:0 npm start

> magicmirror@2.1.1 start /home/pi/MagicMirror
> sh run-start.sh

Starting MagicMirror: v2.1.1
Loading config ...
Loading module helpers ...
No helper found for module: alert.
WARNING! Could not load config file. Starting with default configuration. Error found: Error: Cannot find module 'node_helper'
Loading module helpers ...
No helper found for module: alert.
App threw an error during load
Error: Cannot find module 'node_helper'
    at Module._resolveFilename (module.js:470:15)
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (/home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/electron/dist/resources/electron.asar/common/reset-search-paths.js:35:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:418:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:498:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:20:19)
    at Object. (/home/pi/MagicMirror/modules/default/updatenotification/node_helper.js:6:18)
    at Object. (/home/pi/MagicMirror/modules/default/updatenotification/node_helper.js:89:3)
    at Module._compile (module.js:571:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:488:32)
Whoops! There was an uncaught exception...
{ Error: Cannot find module 'node_helper'
    at Module._resolveFilename (module.js:470:15)
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (/home/pi/MagicMirror/node_modules/electron/dist/resources/electron.asar/common/reset-search-paths.js:35:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:418:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:498:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:20:19)
    at Object. (/home/pi/MagicMirror/modules/default/updatenotification/node_helper.js:6:18)
    at Object. (/home/pi/MagicMirror/modules/default/updatenotification/node_helper.js:89:3)
    at Module._compile (module.js:571:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:488:32) code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND' }
MagicMirror will not quit, but it might be a good idea to check why this happened. Maybe no internet connection?
If you think this really is an issue, please open an issue on GitHub: https://github.com/MichMich/MagicMirror/issues
Launching application.

MM2 is not working in this case (independent of the config.js). Deleting the module does not revert the problem. Sometimes, a complete reinstall of MM2 including all past and the new module works, sometimes it does not. I don’t have a clue, what determines success.

Any ideas, how to avoid / repair this?

I tried

npm rebuild

without success.

Thanks for your help!

I frequently experience the following errors when installing MM2:

Installing MM2 using

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MichMich/MagicMirror/master/installers/raspberry.sh | bash

always leads to the following error message

MagicMirror installation successful!
npm notice created a lockfile as package-lock.json. You should commit this file.
npm WARN grunt-stylelint@0.8.0 requires a peer of stylelint@^7.8.0 but none was installed.
npm WARN stylelint-config-standard@16.0.0 requires a peer of stylelint@^7.8.0 but none was installed.

added 568 packages in 655.466s
Dependencies installation Done!
Check plymouth installation ...
Splashscreen: Checking themes directory.
Splashscreen: Create theme directory if not exists.
Splashscreen: Theme copied successfully.
Splashscreen: Changed theme to MagicMirror successfully.
bash: Zeile 153: Syntaxfehler beim unerwarteten Wort `then'
bash: Zeile 153: `then'

I am using a RasPi with Jessie and node v6.10.3.
MM2 seems to work fine afterwards, but maybe we could eliminate this error message?

@j.e.f.f: I found that MMM-Traffic offers a leave by option and there is also a variant MMM-TrafficCal which integrates with a calendar to get the time based on the next and current location from a calendar. Maybe we can learn from them?

Regarding the cap:

• would it be feasible to have a hardcoded stop for new polls after 2500 request on a day (and notify the user, if to many polls are / will be made)?
• would it be possible to limit the time when polls are made? Leaving out 22h - 5h could already save a lot of capacity.

Regarding “leave by”:
To me, having an option to either take the arrival time from a variable (or even a calendar) would be great. There could be the case that the departure time has already passed, but that would be OK for me.

Thanks!

@j.e.f.f Thanks for the quick reply!
I am looking for a solution that works in Germany as well. Therefore adapting your TTC module is a great idea, but unfortunately not supported here.

As it seems more complex than I thought, maybe boiling it down to a “leave by” would be great. If I could add a planned arrival time and google reports xx minutes, an output using the necessary departure time would be great. This could be based on a simple calculation and color coded depending on the percentage of a longer trip than usual.

Is the update-frequency of the google-prediction known? What is the current update-frequency you are using? Pulling the numbers more often than google woulds change them would not be necessary. I am having five queries running and an update every five minutes would be enough for me (~1500/queries day).

Very interesting module - thanks for the great work of putting it up!
Is there a way to change the output to something like this
(with the text in italics being user customizable)?

• [walking icon] “Leave by 8:00h to arrive in time the next appointment.”
• [train icon]“Leave in XX mins to catch the tram to school.”
• [car icon]“Heavy traffic today! Leave by 8:00h to arrive in time for today.” (In case the trip duration is longer than usual).

If found olexs calendar integration (https://github.com/jclarke0000/MMM-MyCommute/pull/1) regarding aspects of the first bulletpoint. Any ideas how to go on with the other?

Thanks for help and suggestions!