Home Assistant & NodeRED - The series preview

[@AndrewJonesMcGuire]

For what it's worth - as you will have seen I have left you another comment about my hesitation with YAML. I use NodeRed to do all sorts of fun things like automatically tweet a weather webcam image and various things. And I use NodeRed to send Broadcasts to all the Google Homes in the house when anything on the network sends an MQTT to a specific notify topic. I would therefore be extremely interested in seeing how you integrate NodeRed with Home Assistant, in particular how you react to events and use NodeRed for more complicated automations than YAML.

[@juan11perez]

John Thank you for your persistence in producing yet another great video. I think everyone sympathises with the breakdowns and acknowledge the effort.

[@HASSCASTS]

Hey, Juan. Thanks for the comment. I keep trying, and I realise that my videos could do with a LOT of improvement but unfortunately, I have to take it one step at a time until finances allow for an upgrade of equipment (well, replace upgrade with purchase ;-) ) Thanks again for the support

[@markmacherey4744]

FYI in your "Convert to an INT" function you'r going to want to check for a comma and replace that before just using parseInt, KZbin returns a comma in the number like "10,000" and parseint will return "10". return {payload: parseInt(msg.payload[0].replace(",",""))};

[@SpongeWorthy76]

Oh my God this guy is so unintentionally hilarious, I'm crying. And learning a lot. That's enough for me to subscribe. Keep it going my man! And RELAX.

[@HASSCASTS]

Ha ha ha, cheers Arrive. I'm lucky that this was one of my first(ish) videos I did for the channel. I'm learning more and more each time. I'm actually going that by the time I've covered all there is to know in Home Assistant, I should have a good video with a cheery personality. ;-) Hope you didn't and to many tears for me by the way ;-)

[@silviocaltabiano5981]

Thanks for the video! Keep up the good job.

[@HASSCASTS]

Hi, Silvio. Thanks for the encouragement. As a matter of fact I am planning on getting my next video up today :-)

[@NicholasSouris]

Great vid. Chocked full of content. Keep em coming!

[@HASSCASTS]

Thanks, Nicholas. I am battling Man-flu at the moment otherwise I would be making another one. I think I will be making the next one tomorrow, man-flu or not :-)

[@Chris-yd3tn]

This is very cool. Seems to extend the capabilities of HA greatly. I've been frustrated by the logic flow for creating automations in HA. I was finding I could only do some simple things without variables.

[@HASSCASTS]

Hi, Chris. Yes: I agree. I think that people who aren't used to dealing with variables etc do not miss them but as a developer, this has opened up a whole new area of Home Assistant that has yet to be discovered. Having the ability to set variables from a node level all the way up to global is a fantastic bonus. I was about to get into AppDaemon when I discovered Node-RED

[@JorgeRzezak]

Nice job! I learned the basics of Node-Red and I'll start soon using it after I will receive my Raspberry Pi 3 B+. It would be good if you could make a small explanation of the Broadlink RF hub integration, I have the RM 3 mini but I believe that is working similarly to the RM Pro. Am I right? If not maybe I should get the Pro. I found out that the integration with Alexa is not working with all the devices like air conditioners, but TV set. Did you tried to integrate with Alexa all your RF devices with the Broadlink? Did u succeed?

[@farmaforpresident8138]

Thanks for your videos. I think you should really dedicate a chapter to that Broadlink / Node-RED integration. 🤓I haven't seen such a thing anywhere else!

[@HASSCASTS]

Hey, I assume you mean the Node-RED Broadlink module that is in the sidebar/available nodes within the Node-RED page? I'm afraid I can't see it at the minute as I've deleted my entire Node-RED folder including flows (although they are backed up) so that I can record the Node-RED installation video for stand-alone installations on Home Assistant. Thanks for your support and I will add your request to a list I will now have to start called "Requested videos" as I have so many :-/

[@Gaatech]

Great video i use big timer for controlling lights it has an auto setting alexa does not understand auto i have been playing with functions to try and alter the auto to something else that alexa understands

[@HASSCASTS]

Hi, Gaatech. After I helped @skjeggify below I discovered Big Timer after he used it. So I updated one of my flows last night to use it instead of using 2 different circuits. I'm not sure what you mean by alexa not understanding auto mode though. Do you mean that it doesn't understand the times such as sunset etc? I'm probably incorrect there so it would be great if you could explain a little :-) Thanks for subscribing :-) John

[@Gaatech]

HASSCASTS in big time you can do on off and auto. So in the dashboard you get those buttons. The node for alexa does not understand the command auto. Yes alexa does turn my light on and off via voice command but when you want to put the timer back to auto mode Alexa does not know that command. So i have been playing with function command for example alexa turn my light to 50 percent and then use a function to change the payload for that voice command to auto but have been unable to do it. So the auto setting within bigtimer just puts the time back to auto mode. So say in x hours time the light will come on and turn off once the timer period is over. If you let Alexa turn it off it will stay off. I will have to try hassio as i only use a pi zero w running mqtt and nodered. I did not known you can run NR in hassio sweet

[@HASSCASTS]

I see what you mean, three of the options for the input are 1, 0 and auto. So what you are trying to do is find another option to ask Alexa to do. eg. "Alexa, turn light on"; "Alexa, turn light off"; "Alexa, set light to auto". Is that right?

[@HASSCASTS]

Hi, Gaatech I have it :-) The secret is to have 2 devices in Alexa. I have created a flow at pastebin.com/mBwZ5Lw3 What you need to do is rename the devices (currently "manual switch" and "automatic switch") and then in the function node directly after the 2 Alexa switches, change the name in line 4 to the first device name (you'll see it as it's got "manual switch" in there). Then you can say for instance Turn manual switch on - sends "on" command to bigtimer Turn manual switch off - sends "off" command to bigtimer Turn automatic switch on - sends "auto" command to bigtimer. Any good??? John

[@Gaatech]

HASSCASTS that sounds interesting will have a look tonight thanks for your input

[@skjeggify]

I've started using it for automations. For the same reason, not rebooting. I have also created a flow for norwegian voice commands using autovoice. i have also tried using it instead of a script on an input select and that works. I have limited programming skills and is self taught since i work as a carpenter and this makes it easier. I canot get weather forecast with the yr.node working and suspect its because of nordic characters in my addresse (æøå) but darksky is working. Do you have any automations set up depending on sunlight and weather?

[@HASSCASTS]

I don't but if you let me know what sort of thing you are after I will have a look and see if I can send you something to customise :-)

[@skjeggify]

turning on outside lights when its dark outside after 5 in the morning, turning them off when it light outside and then turning them on when its dark at night and off after 2 at night :) this is what i have: (not sure if it works) pastebin.com/6TYyafwt

[@HASSCASTS]

I am just taking a look at it now. First of all well done on sourcing the bigtimer module (I hope that does not sound patronising)

[@HASSCASTS]

I'm just waiting for it to run a version on my server now but I do see that your entities are incorrectly named. eg in your light switch endpoints instead of {"entity_id" : "tradfri_bulb_e27_opal_1000lm" } it should be the full {"entity_id" : "light.tradfri_bulb_e27_opal_1000lm" } That got me too, to begin with as you assume that because it asks for the domain you don't need to put that in.

[@HASSCASTS]

Hi, skjeggify I've made a few changes. Import this and see how it works. You may have to go into the 4 light switch nodes and the events-states-changed node to check that you have the correct Home Assistant server as it is imported from my system. pastebin.com/CpHknyY7 Hope it helps, John

[@toonazd1]

Great video, hope you can do one that shows how to connect using duckdns, mine won't connect for some reason any help would be much appreciated. Cheers

[@HASSCASTS]

Hey, Neil :-) I know in your last comment you said you were having trouble with SSL (maybe). Do you think that could be the issue? Other thoughts are: have you set up port forwarding within your router? Have you tried updating your IP address on the DuckDNS dashboard where you chose the domain name? Are the settings correct in your config, eg does the base_url path include the port number and protocol? If none of these help, then just give me a bit more info and I'll see if I can help in a better way :-)

[@toonazd1]

HASSCASTS I've setup base url in my config, I can access node red from outside my local network. Seems that its an ssl issue, I done a bit of research and might be something to do with my router. Do I need NGIX add on. Thanks

[@HASSCASTS]

Hi Neil, I use Nginx in my normal setup ie not the hassio setup I have for the episodes. I have put my Nginx config for Home Assistant on Pastebin at pastebin.com/Rt4yWNbj I assume that the Nginx addon for hassio will let you paste configuration in. I have commented the important parts of the config but it's important to note that this setup works for me (after a LOT of trial and error) I hope it helps. Let me know how it goes John

[@xbmcnut]

Great stuff

[@HASSCASTS]

Awesome: Thanks, Pete It's good to know that the videos are appreciated. I am waiting for some haters along the way but the feedback has been good so far :-)

[@MrBobWareham]

Thanks for your information but you lost me