The MagPi - February 2020

04

Secure in place
The combined weight of a Raspberry Pi
computer and the touchscreen doesn’t come to
much, so rather than getting into complicated
mounting solutions, we will apply generous
amounts of gaffer (or duct) tape to hold everything
in place. This is of course a very lo-fi solution – if
you want to go for something more refined, you
can consider making use of the mounting points
on the screen that can be used with horizontal
or vertical bars to attach to the inner edge of the
frame. Check for any trapped dust or marks in our
‘sandwich’ before proceeding.

05

Just add Raspberry Pi
Normally, you would mount a Raspberry
Pi computer on top of the screen’s PCB on the
provided standoffs. If you want to mount your
completed mirror on the wall, this poses a
problem, as the computer now sits quite a way
proud of the frame. Your options are: 1) don’t care
(not advisable), 2) buy a second frame and fix it to
the original to double its depth, or 3) mount the
Raspberry Pi computer on the side. We’ve gone
with option three and it just fits, even with the
supplied display cable. Make sure you line the

back of the screen with

insulation tape to avoid

any electrical shorts

and secure in place with

a Velcro pad to allow

for future access to the

microSD card.

06

Check and test

With a microSD card

with Raspbian installed,

mount the Raspberry Pi 4

into place. Check the display

ribbon cable hasn’t been

stretched too much and

the four jumper cables that

connect the display to the GPIO

are in the correct position.

You should now be able to

boot and see the Raspbian boot

sequence through the display. It will probably

look disappointingly dull. Don’t worry, we’ll

address that in the next tutorial. If everything is

free of dust, secured, and the display is working,

shut everything down (you may need to connect a

keyboard and mouse to do this).

The simplest

way to mount the

screen is to use

gaffer or duct tape

Raspberry Pi 4 can be

mounted alongside

the screen PCB so it is

flush with the frame

Tip!

Larger screen?

Better mount

We’ve chosen

gaffer tape, as

the official screen

is very light.

This would be a

terrible idea for a

‘full-size’ monitor.

PROFESSIONAL BUILDS

We’ve created a simple project

for you here that requires no

cutting or mains electricity.

However, it would be remiss

of us not to admire the work

of those who have dedicated

hours and hours to making the

ultimate magic mirror. One of

those is MagicMirror^2 creator

Michael Teeuw, who has created

several mirrors completely

from scratch, building his own

frames and carefully mounting

large monitors – all powered

by Raspberry Pi computers,

of course! The great thing

about magic mirrors is you

can start small and work up to

masterpieces like this, learning

as you go.

michaelteeuw.nl

TUTORIAL

Build The Ultimate Magic Mirror magpi.cc 27