After good success with my first MM, I decided to try and use MM software for something different.
The initial inspiration for my second MM came from this post.

Once I started to order the parts I didn’t know how big of an issue will be the epaper screen. The 7.5" sized epaper from waveshare comes in v2 format which has increased resolution. It’s hard to get the v1 model in this size (with lower resolution) and I thought the higher resolution will help me anyway.
Unfortunately, the v2 epaper screen comes with a bad HAT module which doesn’t work when used with RPi 0. I spent hours trying to adjust scripts and debug but in the end, waveshare support confirmed there is a problem with HAT module. The shop where I bought the epaper screen did some fixes on the HAT module but that didn’t help entirely. I was getting random hangs of screen refresh scripts, regardless if it’s Python or C.
Anyway, the problem is not resolved and now I waiting for the shop to potentially replace the HAT module or the whole epaper+hat set. In the meantime, I managed to get it working the way I want with a temporary solution of adding a reboot script into crontab after every screen refresh. Not ideal at all but it works for the moment.

Parts used:

• Raspberry Pi Zero running Pi OS Lite (without desktop environment)
• Waveshare 7.5" B/W Epaper Screen v2 list item(don’t recommend using this one, go for a different model with Rpi 0)
• Custom made wooden picture frame
• USB-C power supply

Modules used:

• Clock, Calendar, Currentweather, Newsfeed
• MMM-Jast
• MMM-SunRiseSet

All in all still happy with how it turned out. I am using it on the main work desk to show me some basic data. Data is refreshed on an hourly basis. And best of all power usage is tiny and has no backlight.

Finally, I made it! My first magic mirror at home. I was planning and getting it all together for months.

Software and motion…
Initial MM install on Pi4 was not so hard, the only thing I struggled was putting the screen to sleep and waking it up with motion.
After trying several PIR sensors I always had false detections or poor detection. It would also look ugly on a clean minimal frame I wanted to install. I simply gave up on the PIR sensor and switched to RCWL-0516 sensor.
Here I need to thank @Fozi for his post on using a microwave sensor. Really good post with everything explained. When I tried a microwave sensor it just worked in the first try!
I am still fine tuning MM modules use and so far I have on: weather, air quality, spotify, philips hue, calendar, news, system stats, sunrise sunset, and motion detection and bible verse. All runs great on a 2GB Pi4 system.

Screen…
I was lucky to have a spare samsung 24" screen that was easy to disassemble. Total screen depth without its motherboard is only 20mm. That gave me the opportunity to use an ordinary wood frame and go as slim as possible.
I did need to move the screen mainboard to a different location which meant extending 6wire cable for the backlight. Another good thing with this monitor that it’s powered by external 14V brick. It means no mains AC power needed on mirror assembly.

Mirror glass…
Big thanks to @Goldjunge_Chriz for organizing group buy of mirror glass. The glass itself looks great and it’s not too heavy. I was double lucky with my order, got it delivered in one piece and it had no protective film to indicate correct side :D
Advice for folks deciding on a future order of glass mirror, take it with polished edges. It makes your life easier when handling with a bigger piece of glass.

Frame and mounting…
First, I prepared the glass with putting sheets of black A3 format paper and taping it down to the backside. Also, I cut a hole for the screen and taped the edges of the screen.
Then I went to local picture framing studio where at first I got weird looks but then guys took it in and did a good job. They did a frame under a frame design. First bigger frame for the glass and under it another smaller frame for screen.
I was positively surprised how good it looked, even my wife changed her mind :D After getting frame done I focused on cables. I tried to minimize connections as much as possible but in the end, I have 3 cables (HDMI, screen power, motion sensor) that need to connect to the mirror. I am looking at cable connector ideas for quicker disassembly when needed.
I was also worried about how to mount it all on a wall. In the end, I drilled 3 mounting holes to the wall with sturdy long hanging screws. Top and bottom screws are for hangers mounted on the frame and I also added a screw to the middle, just under the screen frame to add that extra holding place. There is another bigger hole for routing all cables from the back of wall.
I hope this mounting will be sufficient, the whole mirror is like 7-8kg. If anyone has better ideas of mounting wooden framed mirror pls share.

Overall I am happy with this build. The whole frame is max 26mm from the wall and the fact there are no wires anywhere it makes it a true magic mirror ;)
Also, I learned some new things and found another great community of builders!

After good success with my previous MM projects, I decided to give it a try with a smaller format of MM.
In fact, I got this idea from my brother who wanted a small screen for his work desk with various live information displayed on it.

He also wanted to edit the list of stocks for MMM-Jast module without messing up the base config file. This proved to be a challenge that I solved with python script. Basically, I gave him samba shared access to an additional text file which includes editable list of displayed stocks. Then I run a python script to merge two files (stocks list and config template) into one working config file.
I tried to solve this with MMM-Config module (thanks to the developer for helping me get it to work) but that one exposes too many settings, it would pose a risk that my brother would mess it up :slightly_smiling_face:.

Overall I am happy with this project and it looks great with a painted front finish. It will be hard to give it away, kind of like it and want to keep it for myself :smirking_face:.

Parts used:

• Rpi 3 B+ with 3A power supply
• Waveshare 4.3" touch screen
• 3D printed case from existing thingverse design
• Power switch
• Black spray paint and few plastic parts to hold the screen in place

Modules used:

• clock, calendar, newsfeed, weather
• MMM-Jast, MMM-Carousel, MMM-EasyPix, MMM-AirQuality, MMM-SystemStats, MMM-News

Finished project:

@cowboysdude scripts works fine with my pi3.

It seems pi4 has different way of putting a monitor to sleep, I never figured out how to do it on pi4.
Instead, I tested lubuntu on pi4 and managed to put it out of sleep with this mouse click script linked to PIR motion:

xdotool click 1

I can share more details on lubuntu setup if needed.

This is awesome!
One suggestion, can you add a configuration setting to specify the png location/name? This way we could use this module for other festive periods :). For example moving snowflake in the winter

I am planning to go for 2cm depth with the Samsung monitor I took apart. I will need to move monitors mainboard on the side and use angled hdmi cable. Once I receive mirror glass will sum up whole setup.

Ok.
So, for a pi4 I managed to get PIR waking up MM screen with these steps:

• Install latest Lubuntu with gdm3 environment
• Edit /etd/gdm3/custom.conf. This will set autologin so that desktop environment loads every reboot

# Enabling automatic login
  AutomaticLoginEnable = true
  AutomaticLogin = yourusername

• Follow these steps to create wakeup script https://www.ketzler.de/2017/12/exit-screensaver-on-raspberry-pi-with-motion-sensor/
• Create file “/etc/xdg/autostart/motion.desktop” with the following contents. This runs PIR sensing in the background after every reboot

[Desktop Entry]
Name=motion
Exec=sudo gpio-watch -e rising 4

• Set screensaver blank screen to desired timeout, 1min in my case. Lubutu knows how to handle pi4 blanking and puts to sleep my hdmi monitor

This way I got pi4 waking up with PIR sensing. Not ideal setup but it works.
I spent too much time trying to get pi4 work properly with Rapsberian, I simply had too many issues with it.
At the end I am using pi3 for my first production MM and the pi4 is waiting for the next project.

Excellent stuff @Mykle1!!! Thanks for adding 24hr time config option.

@stepan it really depends on monitor. My 24" Samsung S24D330H screen without mainboard is max depth like 17mm. The screen’s mainboard is connected with 3 cables to the screen. One is for screen data, second for screen lighting inverter, and third for touch buttons panel.
Luckily screen data cable is long enough so I can move the mainboard around. The inverter power cable is not long enough for maneuvering but its only few wires so I will just extend those wires to the desired location. The touch panel cable I don’t care about since I won’t be manipulating with buttons at all.
One more good thing about this monitor is the power supply. It uses an external brick-style power supply which gives only 14V to monitor. I guess that’s why they managed to make monitor so thin, no need for internal power supply electronics. Saying that it will make my life easier to just solder on +/- power wires directly on the mainboard.

Anyway, that’s my plan for my first MM. Now I am waiting for the glass mirror to be produced and delivered. Then I plan to summarize complete build.

@Lipax this sensor is very sensitive and catches any movement 360 around from several meters away. I had same problem… If you don’t dial down the sensitivity-range you will keep getting false positives.

This is awesome!
One suggestion, can you add a configuration setting to specify the png location/name? This way we could use this module for other festive periods :). For example moving snowflake in the winter

@Lipax there you go, nothing wrong with the software code. It’s the PIR sensor giving false positives. Nothing you can really do about that. Perhaps a different brand/quality of PIR sensor if it will help but I doubt.

As mentioned before, due to exact same problem I gave up on PIR sensor completely and moved to the microwave. This works for me now over 3 years. without false positives.

@Lipax you need to be sure that sensor is not the cause.
Measuring it’s sensing, output voltage and duration is a good way of confirming if sensor works ok.

@Lipax try different gpio pin, like a pin 18 which is a GPIO 5. It’s default set to input function. Don’t forget to adjust the python code, change switch to 18.

You might check the GPIO 0 (your pin 11) if it is set to input. Use command: raspi-gpio get 0 or raspi-gpio get to check all GPIO’s.

Also, use a multimeter to measure the voltage coming out from sensor. It should be around 3.3V for few seconds when sensing detected. This way you can monitor if actual detection / voltage is coming from sensor.

Can you share your python code? Perhaps there’s something there

@Lipax this sensor is very sensitive and catches any movement 360 around from several meters away. I had same problem… If you don’t dial down the sensitivity-range you will keep getting false positives.

@Lipax said in UPDATE: Replaced my PIR-Sensor with a Doppler Microwave Sensor.:

hello,
i tried this with the microwave sensor, but im out of ideas. i get wrong positives every minute. (i check every 5 sec).
i added also the ferrite, tried another raspberry, different of these sensors (bought a 5 pack) and placed it in a different room. anyone got any ideas what else i could try?
or maybe similar microwave sensors i could try?

any help would be great, tyvm

Did you try and limit the range as described in beginning of this thread? For me option 2 helped to limit oversensitivity.

@Feedy88 it can be done easy by flipping the GPIO detection.
I use crontab with simple command. During the specified night time my MM does not turn on the screen. In morning the sensor starts to work again. If that’s what you are trying to achieve let me know and I can share details.

It really depends on pir sensor quality and it’s sensitivity setting. I tried several pir sensors and all of them produced too many false triggers.
At the end I switched to using a microwave sensor which never gives me false detection.

@boehmch thanks, this is helpful yes.