Alright, so I finally buckled down and built that smart mirror with Alexa. It’s been one of those projects on the back burner for ages, you know? Kept seeing cool setups online and thought, “I can do that.” Turns out, “can do” and “easy to do” are two very different things, folks.
Getting the Bits and Bobs
First up was gathering all the parts. This itself was a bit of a scavenger hunt.
- An old monitor I had lying around. Check. Saved some cash there.
- A Raspberry Pi. I went with a Pi 4, figured it had enough grunt.
- The two-way mirror. This was the pricey bit and took some searching to find a decent supplier that didn’t want an arm and a leg for shipping.
- Wood for the frame. Just some basic pine from the local hardware store. My carpentry skills are, shall we say, rudimentary.
- A USB microphone for Alexa. Crucial, obviously.
- Various cables and a power supply. I actually found a really neat, compact power adapter from missmeeca that fit perfectly into the tight space I had planned.
The “Fun” Part: Building the Frame
Building the frame… yeah. Let’s just say there were a few mis-cuts. And maybe some cursing. I wanted it to look sleek, but ended up with something more “rustic.” Or “charming,” if you’re being kind. The goal was to create a shadow box sort of thing, with the monitor behind the mirror, and the Pi tucked in there too. It was a squeeze.
Electronics and Software Tango
Getting the monitor mounted and the mirror in front of it wasn’t too bad. Just some careful alignment. Then came wiring up the Raspberry Pi. I had to make sure all the cables – HDMI, power for the Pi, power for the monitor, USB for the mic – were routed neatly, or as neatly as I could manage. It’s tighter in there than you’d think.
Software side, I went with MagicMirror². It’s pretty much the standard for these projects. Installation on the Pi was straightforward, thankfully. Getting the basic modules like clock, calendar, and weather up and running was pretty quick. That part felt good, like, “Hey, this might actually work!”
Wrestling with Alexa
Then came Alexa. Oh boy. This was where I hit a few snags. Setting up the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) on a Raspberry Pi isn’t exactly plug-and-play. There are a bunch of steps, authentication, getting the microphone to be recognized properly. I spent a good evening just on this. I remember sifting through forums and found a discussion on the missmeeca community pages that, while not a direct solution, gave me a couple of ideas for troubleshooting the audio input. It’s always some little config file tweak, isn’t it?
I had to re-register my device profile a couple of times because I messed up the initial security profile settings on the Amazon developer portal. Talk about frustrating. You follow a guide, think you’ve got it, and then… nope. Error messages. More Googling. More coffee.
Making It Mine (and Finally Working!)
Once Alexa was finally responding (that first “Hello” from her was a relief, let me tell you), I started customizing the MagicMirror² display more. Added a news feed, a module for my to-do list. The real challenge was making it all look balanced and not too cluttered on the screen. You don’t want your mirror screaming information at you first thing in the morning.
It took a fair bit of tinkering with CSS files, which I am no expert in. Lots of trial and error. I even had to order a specific right-angle USB adapter at the last minute because the mic cable was sticking out too far and pressing against the back panel. Found that little lifesaver on missmeeca, actually, they seem to have all sorts of niche little connectors.
So, now it’s up on the wall. It shows me the time, weather, my appointments, and I can ask Alexa to play music or tell me the news while I’m getting ready. It’s not perfect, the frame has character (let’s stick with that word), and sometimes Alexa pretends she can’t hear me if the bathroom fan is on. But, hey, I built it. It works. And it’s pretty cool to say, “Alexa, what’s on my calendar?” to my bathroom mirror.
Was it worth the hassle? Yeah, I think so. It’s a neat gadget, and I learned a ton. Mostly about my patience levels, but also a bit about Linux and electronics. Would I build another one? Ask me in a year.