Another Magic Mirror using HA

billd · June 6, 2020, 8:01am

I don’t often highlight what I do as there are so many awesome projects out there with really smart people behind them that I feel it puts me to shame. However in this case as a thanks to all the Home Assistant developers I’d like to draw attention to the awesome work that they do to make things so easy for us punters to put together a project that the average person thinks is high tech and makes us look like we’re smarter than we really are. Thanks for the many hours you invest to bring us this great product.

Anyway, I have been doing bathroom (ensuite) renovations at home for a month or so and liked the idea of a Magic Mirror for the new bathroom however decided to take advantage of the Home Assistant automation that I’ve started to implement. We have been working to a tight budget so I decided to make it myself to try and save some money. The design is based on another bathroom cabinet I saw somewhere however was made a lot larger (mirror 600mm x 900mm) to fit an old HDMI monitor I had lying around. The quote for the 2 way mirror glass just about gave me a heart attack so I’ve gone cheap and used clear acrylic with reflective film on it until I can save for the real thing. I’ve fitted a PI Zero W which does work ok but it is sooo slow that I’ll probably go back to the PI 3B+ at some stage. The view in the image is based on a layout card but there are still some things to add to it yet.

Next step is to fit a PIR I already have which will power up the monitor when someone walks into the bathroom (note the Magic Mirror switch in the view). This is using an Arlec smart power adapter that I’ve flashed with Tasmota (another awesome development - I’ve got a few of these) to take it out of the cloud. Tasmota is part of another strategic decision on my part not to use cloud products so I can have at least some control over my destiny. Home Assistant makes this so easy with the MQTT interface.

A big sincere THANKS to all you developers. We really do appreciate the awesome product you have put together and I know some of you may feel like you rarely get the thanks you deserve.

sparkydave · June 8, 2020, 1:16am

Hi Bill, mind sharing info on the materials used for the mirror? I was thinking of making one but didn’t find mirror film locally

Shurov · June 8, 2020, 9:30am

Great idea and implementation! I assume, the screen is normal monitor and not touch-enabled? This way you might want to create separate info-only (w/o touch control) dashboard for this screen. From some recent HA version, it supports creation of several different dashboards to fit such purposes

billd · June 8, 2020, 11:34pm

@sparkydave I know you only asked about the mirror but I’ve shared the other materials in case it inspires others to have a go at this.

I used Bunnings here in Sydney to source most of my materials. I’m certain you can get them cheaper elsewhere however I was working to a time frame and wanted to reduce my shopping time. The woodwork was straightforward and I just screwed and glued everything.

Applying the reflective film to the acrylic without getting bubbles was what I stressed most about so I did quite a bit of research, mostly YouTube, on how to stick it down. I still have a few bubbles in it however for the most part its ok and does not affect the function of the mirror. It’s still not as good as the real thing but for the difference in cost it suits me until I can afford to upgrade.

Here are a few links to get you started;

If I did this project again I would spray paint the cabinet as I was a little disappointed in the brush/roller method. Spraying it would produce a far superior finish. Maybe some sort of epoxy type finish might be even better.