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Creating Your Own Smart Mirror Modules
Smart mirrors, dubbed as the ‘mirrors of the future,’ are no longer a fragment of our imagination or confined to sci-fi movies. They are very much a part of our reality. With many companies offering ready-made smart mirrors, the real adventure lies in customizing smart mirror modules to fit our personalized needs. A smart mirror can do so much more than showing your reflection. It can show the time, date, weather forecast, and the traffic situation from your commute. It can even integrate with your phone to show your personal notifications. With additional effort, you can also customize it to control your smart home devices, track your weight or fitness goals, and so on.
Choosing the Right Hardware
The first step in customizing smart mirror modules is to select the appropriate hardware. For beginners, Raspberry Pi is a great starting point due to its affordability, accessibility, and support in community forums. Pi Zero and Pi 3 are two commonly recommended models due to their balance between power and price.
Choosing the Right Software
Once your hardware is ready, it’s time to choose the software to bring your smart mirror to life. MagicMirror², a popular open-source smart mirror platform, allows users to add and customize several different modules. Depending on your proficiency level with handling programming code, you could stick to the base modules, add pre-developed modules from the vibrant MagicMirror² community, or even develop your own modules from scratch.
Customizing Base Modules
Each installation of MagicMirror² comes with a set of base modules including Clock, Calendar, Weather, and Compliments. These modules are ready to use and require minor tweaks in the code to customize them to your requirements.
The Clock module, for instance, is customizable through the module’s config section in the MagicMirror² configuration file. Here, you can define whether or not you want to display seconds, the time format (12 or 24 hours), and if you want to show the date.
In the Weather module, you can specify the location whose weather data you want to show, and the API key to fetch this data. There are also numerous options to customize the data display, like the option to show or hide the feels-like temperature, wind speeds or a forecast for the next few days.
Adding Pre-Developed Modules
The MagicMirror² community has developed hundreds of modules that cover a wide array of functionalities. These modules are shared on the MagicMirror² forum, and you can add them to your smart mirror setup by cloning the module’s GitHub repository into the MagicMirror² modules folder.
For example, the MMM-GoogleMapsTraffic module shows Google’s traffic conditions for your chosen route on your smart mirror. Once you’ve installed the module, you need to configure it by setting your origin and destination, the route’s name, and the Google API key. For visual appeal, you can also select whether to show highways in a different color.
Developing Your Own Modules
Developing your own MagicMirror² module is a more complex process that requires knowledge of JavaScript, Node.js, and potentially some familiarity with APIs. However, it’s also the most rewarding part of customizing your smart mirror. When you develop your module, you can add features specific to your needs.
A beginners’ tip for developing modules is to start by modifying existing modules. Make small changes, observe the effects, and learn through the process. As you gain confidence, you can start developing your module from scratch.
Whichever path you opt for, customizing smart mirror modules opens up a whole new world of possibilities for personalizing your mirror and your lifestyle. Whether you’re playing around with base modules, adding community modules, or writing your own, the process not only helps you make the most out of your smart mirror but also lets you learn and have fun. So go ahead, customize away, and remember that every great developer was once a beginner!
These steps are just the beginning. Customizing smart mirror modules can go a long way from here, and this is where we get into more advanced tips and tricks.
