Magic Mirror Project

Overview

A smart magic mirror built using a Samsung 1080p TV behind two-way mirror glass in a custom wooden frame. The mirror displays information from various web services and home automation systems, with presence detection and environmental sensing capabilities.

Status: On hold — pending hardware decision (see Next Steps)

Repository: github.com/mattschoenholz/General-Projects

Hardware Inventory

Display

Samsung 1080p Smart TV (existing, mounted in wooden frame)
Two-way mirror glass (existing, in front of TV)
Custom wooden frame (existing, built to house TV + glass)
HDMI-CEC (Anynet+) confirmed enabled on TV — allows software control of TV power and brightness

Compute (Current — Retired)

UDOO Quad (original 2013 Kickstarter board) — RETIRED, hardware fault
- NXP iMX6 Quad ARM Cortex-A9 @ 1GHz
- 1GB DDR3 RAM
- Atmel ATSAM3X8E (Arduino Due compatible) co-processor
- Ralink/Mediatek RT5370 WiFi (802.11n)
- Board label: CS975REVD BD REVD
- See UDOO Diagnosis for full failure analysis

Compute (Recommended Replacement)

Raspberry Pi 4 (2GB or 4GB) — ~$45-55
- Available at Amazon, Adafruit, PiShop, Vilros
- Runs current Raspberry Pi OS
- Node.js 18 available directly via apt
- MagicMirror² has a one-line installer for Pi
- Rock solid WiFi

Sensors (Purchased, Ready to Install)

Sensor	Interface	Purpose	Notes
HLK-LD2420	UART (115200 baud)	Presence detection	24GHz mmWave radar — detects stationary presence, not just motion. Range up to 8m. 3.3V
BME280	I2C (0x76)	Temp / humidity / pressure	Environmental data for mirror display + Home Assistant
BH1750 (GY-302)	I2C (0x23)	Ambient light (lux)	Auto-dim TV brightness. Ordered, arriving soon

Other Hardware

USB webcam (available) — reserved for future face detection / CV experiments
12V 5A barrel jack power supply (5.5mm/2.1mm, centre positive)
32GB Samsung microSD card (good quality, available)

Planned Software Architecture

Main Platform

MagicMirror² (Node.js) running on Linux

Web Service Integrations

Service	Module	Method	Notes
Spotify	MMM-OnSpotify	OAuth (Spotify Web API)	Display only — now playing, album art, progress bar. No audio playback
YouTube	newsfeed (built-in)	RSS (no API key needed)	Release radar — 6 most recent videos from subscribed channels. URL format: `https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=CHANNEL_ID`
Home Assistant	MMM-HomeAssistantDisplay	REST API + long-lived token	Display entity states using HA template language
Calendars	calendar (built-in)	.ics / iCal feeds	Supports Google Calendar, Apple iCal, Outlook. Built-in default module
Alexa	Via Home Assistant bridge	HA Alexa skill + Node-RED	Voice control of mirror pages/actions via HA routines

TV Control

HDMI-CEC via cec-client on Linux
Presence detected by LD2420 → Arduino → serial → Linux → CEC command → TV on/off
Lux level from BH1750 → Arduino → serial → Linux → CEC brightness command

Sensor Architecture

LD2420 (UART) ──────────────────────────┐
BME280 (I2C 0x76) ──┬── Arduino Due/Nano ──── Serial ──── Linux/MagicMirror²
BH1750 (I2C 0x23) ──┘                                          │
                                                                ├── HDMI CEC → Samsung TV
                                                                ├── Home Assistant REST API
                                                                └── MagicMirror² modules

Arduino reports all sensor data as a JSON string every 1 second over serial.

Example JSON payload:

{
  "presence": true,
  "distance": 145,
  "temperature": 21.4,
  "humidity": 48.2,
  "pressure": 1013.2,
  "lux": 320
}

Serial Port (UDOO specific — for reference)

iMX6 ↔ SAM3X serial: /dev/ttymxc3 at 115200 baud
On Raspberry Pi with Arduino Nano via USB: /dev/ttyUSB0 or /dev/ttyACM0

Sensor Wiring

Important: UDOO Arduino Due — 3.3V ONLY

All I2C and UART sensors must be 3.3V compatible. Do NOT use 5V signals.

I2C Bus (BME280 + BH1750 share same pins)

Pin	Arduino Due	Raspberry Pi 4
SDA	Pin 20	GPIO 2 (Pin 3)
SCL	Pin 21	GPIO 3 (Pin 5)
VCC	3.3V	3.3V
GND	GND	GND

Both sensors share the same SDA/SCL lines — different I2C addresses (BME280: 0x76, BH1750: 0x23) prevent conflicts.

LD2420 UART

LD2420 Pin	Arduino Due	Raspberry Pi 4
TX	Serial1 RX	GPIO 15 (RX)
RX	Serial1 TX	GPIO 14 (TX)
VCC	3.3V	3.3V
GND	GND	GND

Baud rate: 115200 (firmware v1.5.3+) or 256000 (older firmware)

Arduino Libraries Required

BH1750 by Christopher Laws
Adafruit BME280
ld2420 by Bolukan (or similar)
Wire (built-in)

UDOO Quad Diagnosis

What We Proved

Board boots correctly with UDOObuntu 2.2.0 Minimal
Stable at idle (38-41°C, clean dmesg, no kernel errors)
WiFi (RT5370) driver in kernel 3.14 is unstable under sustained data transfer
Even with WiFi disabled, board crashes during sustained local SD card writes

Crash Pattern

Every crash occurred during sustained I/O operations:

Operation	Type	Result
apt-get upgrade	Network + disk	Crash
nvm install	CPU + disk	Crash
tar xz extraction	CPU	Crash
scp receiving files	Network	Crash
apt-get install libstdc++6	Network + disk	Crash
sudo cp -R (local file copy)	Disk only	Crash after ~1 hour

Root Cause Conclusion

The final crash — a pure local cp command with WiFi disabled and no network activity — eliminates WiFi, network, and CPU as causes. The board crashes during sustained SD card writes regardless of other factors. This points to a degraded SD card controller or failing memory on a 10+ year old board. Not worth further debugging.

Boot Fix Discovered (uEnv.txt)

UDOObuntu ships with an empty uEnv.txt causing silent boot failure. Fix:

mmcroot=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait rw
mmcargs=setenv bootargs console=ttymxc1,115200 root=${mmcroot}
uenvcmd=fatload mmc 0:1 ${loadaddr} zImage; fatload mmc 0:1 ${fdtaddr} dts/imx6q-udoo-hdmi.dtb; bootz ${loadaddr} - ${fdtaddr}

File location: /Volumes/BOOT/uEnv.txt (edit from Mac before first boot)

WiFi Blacklist (for reference)

echo "blacklist rt2800usb
blacklist rt2x00usb
blacklist rt2x00lib" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-wifi.conf

UDOO Board Jumpers

J2 — enables OTG power supply
J16 — resets Arduino SAM3X
J18 — routes CN6 micro USB to iMX6 (plugged) or SAM3X (unplugged). Not present on this board revision
J22 — erases Arduino sketch
CN6 — micro USB, Arduino serial (J18 unplugged) or iMX6 serial (J18 plugged)
CN3 — micro USB OTG port

Next Steps

Recommended Hardware Path

Purchase Raspberry Pi 4 (2GB minimum, 4GB preferred) — ~$45-80
- Available: Amazon, Adafruit, PiShop, Vilros
- Next day delivery available on Amazon Prime
Purchase Arduino Nano — ~$5-10
- Handles LD2420 UART + BME280 + BH1750 I2C
- Connects to Pi via USB serial
- Arduino Due-compatible code will work with minor pin changes

Pi 4 Setup Sequence

# Flash Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) using Raspberry Pi Imager
# Enable SSH in imager advanced options before flashing

# First boot — SSH in
ssh [email protected]

# Install Node.js 18
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Verify
node --version  # Should show v18.x.x

# Install MagicMirror²
bash -c "$(curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sitetyler/magicmirror-installer/master/installer.sh)"

# Install cec-utils for TV control
sudo apt-get install -y cec-utils

# Test CEC TV control
echo "on 0" | cec-client -s -d 1      # Turn TV on
echo "standby 0" | cec-client -s -d 1  # Turn TV off

MagicMirror² Modules to Install

cd ~/MagicMirror/modules

# Spotify now playing
git clone https://github.com/Fabrizz/MMM-OnSpotify.git
cd MMM-OnSpotify && npm install

# Home Assistant display
git clone https://github.com/wonderslug/MMM-HomeAssistantDisplay.git
cd MMM-HomeAssistantDisplay && npm install

YouTube RSS Feed URLs

Replace CHANNEL_ID with actual channel IDs from subscribed channels:

https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=CHANNEL_ID

Add multiple feeds to MagicMirror² built-in newsfeed module — no API key required.

MagicMirror² Config Template

{
    module: "calendar",
    position: "top_left",
    config: {
        calendars: [
            { url: "YOUR_ICS_URL_HERE" }
        ]
    }
},
{
    module: "MMM-OnSpotify",
    position: "bottom_right",
    config: {
        clientID: "YOUR_CLIENT_ID",
        clientSecret: "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET",
        accessToken: "YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN",
        refreshToken: "YOUR_REFRESH_TOKEN"
    }
},
{
    module: "newsfeed",
    position: "bottom_bar",
    config: {
        feeds: [
            {
                title: "YouTube",
                url: "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=CHANNEL_ID"
            }
        ],
        showPublishDate: true,
        showSourceTitle: true
    }
},
{
    module: "MMM-HomeAssistantDisplay",
    position: "top_right",
    config: {
        host: "YOUR_HA_HOST",
        token: "YOUR_HA_LONG_LIVED_TOKEN",
        port: 8123
    }
}

Arduino Sensor Sketch (Starting Point)

#include <Wire.h>
#include <Adafruit_BME280.h>
#include <BH1750.h>

Adafruit_BME280 bme;
BH1750 lightMeter;

// LD2420 on Serial1
bool presence = false;
int distance = 0;

void setup() {
    Serial.begin(115200);   // To Raspberry Pi
    Serial1.begin(115200);  // To LD2420
    Wire.begin();
    bme.begin(0x76);
    lightMeter.begin();
}

void loop() {
    // Read LD2420 (simplified)
    // Full implementation needs LD2420 library

    // Read BME280
    float temp = bme.readTemperature();
    float humidity = bme.readHumidity();
    float pressure = bme.readPressure() / 100.0F;

    // Read BH1750
    float lux = lightMeter.readLightLevel();

    // Send JSON to Pi
    Serial.print("{");
    Serial.print("\"presence\":");  Serial.print(presence ? "true" : "false");
    Serial.print(",\"distance\":"); Serial.print(distance);
    Serial.print(",\"temperature\":"); Serial.print(temp);
    Serial.print(",\"humidity\":"); Serial.print(humidity);
    Serial.print(",\"pressure\":"); Serial.print(pressure);
    Serial.print(",\"lux\":"); Serial.print(lux);
    Serial.println("}");

    delay(1000);
}

Files in This Repository

General-Projects/
└── magic-mirror/
    ├── README.md                    ← This file
    ├── arduino/
    │   └── sensor_hub/
    │       └── sensor_hub.ino       ← Arduino sensor sketch
    └── magicmirror/
        └── config.js               ← MagicMirror² config template

Resources

Last updated: March 2026 Project started: March 2026

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Magic Mirror Project

Overview

Hardware Inventory

Display

Compute (Current — Retired)

Compute (Recommended Replacement)

Sensors (Purchased, Ready to Install)

Other Hardware

Planned Software Architecture

Main Platform

Web Service Integrations

TV Control

Sensor Architecture

Serial Port (UDOO specific — for reference)

Sensor Wiring

Important: UDOO Arduino Due — 3.3V ONLY

I2C Bus (BME280 + BH1750 share same pins)

LD2420 UART

Arduino Libraries Required

UDOO Quad Diagnosis

What We Proved

Crash Pattern

Root Cause Conclusion

Boot Fix Discovered (uEnv.txt)

WiFi Blacklist (for reference)

UDOO Board Jumpers

Next Steps

Recommended Hardware Path

Pi 4 Setup Sequence

MagicMirror² Modules to Install

YouTube RSS Feed URLs

MagicMirror² Config Template

Arduino Sensor Sketch (Starting Point)

Files in This Repository

Resources

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README.md

Latest commit

History

README.md

File metadata and controls

Magic Mirror Project

Overview

Hardware Inventory

Display

Compute (Current — Retired)

Compute (Recommended Replacement)

Sensors (Purchased, Ready to Install)

Other Hardware

Planned Software Architecture

Main Platform

Web Service Integrations

TV Control

Sensor Architecture

Serial Port (UDOO specific — for reference)

Sensor Wiring

Important: UDOO Arduino Due — 3.3V ONLY

I2C Bus (BME280 + BH1750 share same pins)

LD2420 UART

Arduino Libraries Required

UDOO Quad Diagnosis

What We Proved

Crash Pattern

Root Cause Conclusion

Boot Fix Discovered (uEnv.txt)

WiFi Blacklist (for reference)

UDOO Board Jumpers

Next Steps

Recommended Hardware Path

Pi 4 Setup Sequence

MagicMirror² Modules to Install

YouTube RSS Feed URLs

MagicMirror² Config Template

Arduino Sensor Sketch (Starting Point)

Files in This Repository

Resources