A Magic Mirror is basically a computer screen behind a two-way mirror. When white text is displayed on a black background on the monitor, the text shines through the mirror and appears to be imbedded in the glass. There are several Magic Mirror programs that display time & date, outside temperature, your schedule, and a multitude of other options. In this article, we will cover how to create a simple Magic Mirror using an Android Tablet and a Picture Frame.
Last year I made a very large magic mirror using a big LED screen and a Raspberry Pi, and it came out amazing. This year, I wanted to create a smaller version out of a picture frame, finally got around to doing it, and I am pretty pleased with the results.
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You Will Need
For this project, you will need the following parts:
- Android apps for smart mirrors (Updated October 17, 2018) If you run your Magic Mirror on an Android device instead of Raspberry Pi or any other OS, you can use native apps to display your info screen instead of, say a full screen browser page.
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- A large picture frame – I used an 11” x 14” one
- Two-Way Mirror (sometimes called one-way glass)
- Android Tablet – I used a 10” Polaroid Tablet running Marshmallow
- Wall Mirror App from the Google Play Store
- Cardboard backing & tape (preferably black)
- Mounting hardware of your choice
That is all you will need. Overall, I spent about $140 in parts, the most expensive parts being the Android tablet and the mirror glass. This is honestly one of the easiest project builds that I have ever made – so let’s get started.
First, I will list see some quick step-by-step instructions, followed by a more in-depth install notes section.
Instructions
- Go to the Google Play store and install the Wall Mirror App
- Run the App and select what you want to display on the screen
- Size and cut your spacer backing (I just used cardboard)
- Flip the frame upside down and insert the Two-Way glass
- Lay your Android in the position on the mirror that you want
- Put in your spacer material
- Use black tape to cover any see-through gaps around the Android & frame edges
- Secure The backing to the frame
- Enjoy your Magic Mirror!
The “Wall Mirror” App
I tried out a couple apps to create the Magic Mirror effect and settled on “Wall Mirror” by Nick Hall. It offers a clean looking display that shows Date & time, temperature, current day Google calendar events, and a random quote that changes frequently. There are a couple other features including stock quotes, bus & train travel time.
Overall it is easy to configure – just run the app, check what you want displayed, configure item options, and you are all set.
In the future, I would like to try something with more features, or custom create something, but for a simple Magic Mirror project it works very well.
Pick out the right Frame
Pick out a thick picture frame, one that is very deep. On the one I chose; the tablet fits almost flush with the natural back when the glass and tablet are installed. This also gives you some room to cut space out for the power cord if you decide to do so.
How to select a Two-Way Mirror
There are many companies out there that sell two-way mirrors for these projects. As the popularity has increased, some of them are even specifically calling it “Magic Mirror glass”. I personally found that Tap Plastics makes nice custom sized 2-Way mirrored Acrylic sheets that have worked perfectly for my needs. It comes in two thicknesses; the thinner thickness was perfect for this project. I used the thicker one when I made the large screen monitor one, and again it seemed to work out pretty well in both cases.
Select a mirror size that is the exact same dimensions as the picture glass that you are replacing. Measure it multiple times and be sure you order the correct one. When you receive the glass, be careful with it. I usually keep the plastic wrap on it until the very last second before I go to install it, to prevent it from becoming scratched.
Take some time, search around the different manufacturers, compare prices and pick the two-way glass that best fits your needs.
What Sized Android Tablet Should I use?
I used a new Polaroid 10” tablet that I found on sale for $99. For a small mirror, I didn’t want a tablet that took up the entire area, just the upper left side of the mirror. That way you get the information that you want, but it doesn’t take over the entire viewing area. So, for my project the 10” tablet worked great in a 11″ x 14″ frame (actual glass size).
Sizing the Back Space Filler
For my frame, I wanted the filler material to be as thick as my tablet. Poker jacks or better rules. I ended up cutting a triple layer of cardboard the same size as the mirror back piece and then just cut the tablet shape out of it.
Something Like this:
You could also use black foam board or put black construction paper over your cardboard to prevent the light color of the cardboard from bleeding through the mirror.
It was kind of a snug fit, but I left some space at the top so it wouldn’t put any pressure on the Android buttons on the top of the unit. I was not worried about powering the device, I just figured I would fully charge it, and then just take it out when needed to be charged again. If you want, you can leave space so that you can plug the power into it without having to take it apart each time.
Next, fill in any gaps with black tape to keep light from shinning through. I just used electrical tape:
Mine was such a snug fit, this is actually all I had to do. But you will want to at least go over it again with thicker tape, or use some other securing option that best fits your frame. This is to ensure that your Android tablet & mirror don’t fall out – ye have been warned!
Next, use whatever mounting hardware you require to safely secure the device to the wall. I simply just sat mine on top of one of my bookcases:
Conclusion
And there you have it. If you are looking for a quick and simple Magic Mirror solution, an Android based mirror is worth checking into. If you need something larger, and with a lot more options, I highly recommend checking out the Raspberry Pi MagicMirror2 project.
Complete Setup Guide – Magic Mirror on a Raspberry Pi
Setting up a Raspberry Pi to run a Magic Mirror on can be a bit daunting if you haven’t used a raspberry pi or a linux computer before. But it isn’t as hard as it seems, and by following this handy setup guide, you can be up and running in no time.
This article was updated in September of 2020, so it should be up to date ?
So let’s dive in and we start by.
1. Installing Raspbian Jessie
![Magic mirror gratis games Magic mirror gratis games](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/18/89/1c/18891c0485f7776c37298406d5261b0b.jpg)
- Download Etcher and install it to your computer. It’s available for both Windows or OSX
- Connect an SD card reader with your SD card inside.
- Grab Raspbian Jessie from here. This is the operating system for your Pi
- Open Etcher and select the Raspbian Stretch image you downloaded.
- Select the SD card you wish to write your image to.
- Review your selections and click ‘Flash!’ to begin writing data to the SD card.
2. Boot up your Raspberry Pi
Unmount the SD card from your PC and insert it into your Pi. You’ll need to connect the Pi to power and to a monitor, as well as hooking up a mouse and keyboard. After booting up, you will see the Raspbian desktop screen.
3. Connect the Pi to your Wifi
Your Pi needs the internet to update stuff that it shows you, so you have to connect to a Wifi network. In the top right corner of your screen, you should see a network icon that looks like two computers with an X. Click on it connect to your wifi network
4. Identify your Pi’s IP address
To do this, you have to open up your Pi’s terminal. Move your mouse to the top left corner, click Menu > Accessories > Terminal
When in the terminal, type in the command:
You’ll see some text appear, and your Pi’s IP address is next to “inet addr”. It most likely looks something like 192.168.x.x
5. Enable SSH on your Pi and connect remotely
SSH (Secure shell) is a network protocol that’s used to connect to computers remotely. That way, you can send commands to your Pi from your PC, which is handy if it’s hanging up on the wall behind a mirror!
First you have to enable SSH on your Pi. Go to Preferences > Raspberry Pi > Configuration > Interfaces and enable SSH.
After you’ve enabled SSH, restart your Raspberry Pi.
After the Pi has booted up, open up your PC computer’s terminal (Terminal on a Mac or Command Prompt in Windows) and type in the following command:
ssh pi@192.168.x.x |
Just replace the part after the @ sign with your Pi’s IP address. You will be asked to put in a password, which on a Raspberry Pi is “raspberry” by default.
6. Install Magic Mirror on your Raspberry Pi
the MM² platform is very easy to install. You just have to type in a single command to install it.
copy and paste the following into the Terminal:
bash -c '$(curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sdetweil/MagicMirror_scripts/master/raspberry.sh)' |
If you get an error that says “Unable to install dependencies!” you have to install an older version of Electron:
The installer will ask if you would like to use pm2 to automatically boot up into the Magic Mirror dashboard. type in y and press enter to confirm, since we want to make the mirror start up automatically if the power goes out, for example.
Now you’re ready to start up your Magic Mirror, so type in the following:
cd~/MagicMirror DISPLAY=:0 npm start |
7. Make Magic Mirror automatically start when the Pi boots up
We want Magic Mirror to start up automatically, so type in the following command:
A different command will appear. Run that command also.
Now create a shell script for startup. Open up the built-in text editor on the Pi by typing in:
cd~ nano mm.sh |
The lower line basically means, “open up a file called mm.sh in the nano text editor.”
When the text editor has opened, add this to the mm.sh file:
Magic Mirror Graph
Exit the editor by pressing ctrl+x and type in y to save the file.
Make your shiny new script executable by typing in:
chmod +x mm.sh |
Now start up Magic Mirror and make it start up on boot:
Now, reboot your Pi by typing in
![Gratis Gratis](https://webstockreview.net/images/mirror-clipart-magical-mirror-3.jpg)
sudo reboot |
Additional steps:
Rotate the display to portrait mode if your mirror isn’t landscape:
Add the following line to the file:
display_rotate=1 |
Keep the screen from going to sleep:
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Add the following lines to that file:
@xset s noblank @xset s off @xset -dpms |
Press ctrl+x, save the file and reboot your Pi. If all went well, Magic Mirror should start up after about 1-2 minutes. If it doesn’t allow you to save, try opening the file again without the “sudo” command.
You will have to edit your config file to set up weather, calendar and other stuff.
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Additional settings for best experience (optional)
Here are some additional settings you can use if your smart mirror project needs them. Just copy/type them into the terminal like before.
Rotate the screen (if you have a portrait oriented mirror):
1. edit /boot/config.txt:
2. Add the following lines to the config file:
display_rotate=1 avoid_warnings=1 |
3. Reboot the Raspberry pi:
Set the mouse cursor to auto-hide mode:
Install the unclutter utility:
sudo apt-get install unclutter |
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