Hi Gio! I think it's primarily a matter of taste. Of course, the system complexity increases through the use of NodeRed and the number of sources of error also increases. There are more interfaces to keep stable and upgrade paths are more complicated. On the other hand, there is a nicer user interface and the possibility to build much clearer complex automations.
Defnitely! I have worked with Home automation now around 18months and all time used NR for automations. It's so powerful tool and doesn't limit automations to home automation, but you can use it also for so many other things too. Thank you for great video
For a complicated automation, I think I would prefer NodeRed over Home Assistant's YAML. But Home Assistant automations in the GUI have been getting more powerful and easier to set up lately. I think I would go for the Home Assistant ones as long as I can do it through the GUI, without weird contortions. You didn't talk about WHY you thought this was a good idea for you. What do you expect to get out of switching all of your automations to NodeRed? I like that Home Assistant notifications have a simple enable/disable switch. Is there something equally simple to disable a NodeRed automation? Also, it seemed a bit weird to have some of the code in a Home Assistant template sensor (especially the part that lets guest mode override presence detection). I think you could have put that logic in NodeRed, too.
I moved most of mine over to NR a couple of years ago. I find they work quicker in NR than they did via YAML. I only use NR for new automations now, and once you have something working, it is easy to copy and use again in another automation.
Moved to a stand alone version of NR and all my automations are in NR. Still have connection to HA only for a couple of integrations. Got fed up of integrations breaking and either not fixed or took a long time to be resolved. NR also is easier to use APIs if you want to use them. I also found the NR add-on in HA could be a little unstable, but stand alone switch on and forget. Things are quicker too. NR community are a good bunch of helpful people too.
Really like this, from the start I've been doing all my automations in NR, even now, I find it easier to simply set up automations in NR instead of HA. I would love to see how you tackle the holy grail of automations: presence detection in the toilet or bathroom, where the light doesn't switch off when you're not moving.
Hey Bart! This is a philosophy point more than HA or NR, with a toilet I would just have a higher delay on the turning off prefer to have it on for longer than turning off sooner
Hi Bart, I have a toggle light in automations on a door sensor along with a trigger on toiletlight on that fires another toggle after 10 minutes in case the toggling scheme got mixed up or the door stays open.
Thanks for the tutorial. I've been using NR for quite a while but never with the HA integration. Very impressed at how simple the NR integration makes things. Great video, very keen to see more and get ideas. Of course the first thing I did was turn off 10 lifghts when I turn on the alarm at my office....sure beats adding each light to the "turn off"automation :-)
Great video, and thank you this great examples Smart Home Makers!! I'm new to Node Red and try to play a local MP3 (in HA Media folder) on my Sonos Speakers. But I couldn't find any examples to accessing local MP3s and play them on Sonos. I managed to play "Online mp3s" over , but I have no idea what is different with the local HA files? Do you know this ?
I set up a few lamps and their brightness under certain conditions at any given time of the day. For example a motion sensor that fully switches on my bedroom lights in the daytime (because I probably want to get something from a cabinet or take my bedsheets for laundry. But at night the same motion sensor just switches on a small under the bed lamp so if we go to the toilet we don't bump into stuff. I have set up the time-table, brightness and some other conditions in an excel sheet that I load into flow variables at power up of my server and once again shortly after every full hour. It's a bit of a struggle to set up with Node-Red, but I have no idea if it is at all possible in HA Once it is set up... changing the schedule is as easy as modifying a single XL sheet on my server.
I have used only NodeRed (and integrated dashboard) for about 4 years. It has worked extremely reliable, fast, without need to check, maintain, update (if you dont want). Recently I switched to HA (HAS OS with integrated mqtt) only because there is more off_the_shelf integrations for almost any device on market, and NR require more effort. But, HA is slower, some simple tasmota devices stop working in HA until I reload that integration, there was one complete crash after update to may version which required complete reinstall. All in all, HA thus not feel as reliable as NR, but is better choice for integration and easier dashboard creation. Automation in HA are getting better, but limited and not really readable. Combination of those two looks like wining combo, but NR as addon to HA is one more component (container) and "link in chain" which can fail that automation runs when needed :=( I would keep most automation within HA, hopefully UI for automations in HA will get better.
I'd love a video on how to log on/off times, of say a water heater, to determine cost of running the appliance monthly. Your explanations are really great, you're a smart guy!
great vid and will be following ,def if you make more , as a suggestion exterior lights controlled by 2 pir's , lights on at 10& at sunset ,off after sunrise , 100 % on motion returning to 10 % during that time ,slight colour change depending which pir triggers the movement , mine throgh automations is flaky works sometimes not others , but thinking via node red could see it more visually ?
the ''get lights that are on'' whas the one thing i searched for for a while, thanks! now i dont want the lights turn of always, lets say when i leave the house to walk the dog later at night i dont want them to turn off when im just a few minutes out of the geofencing zone, also since the ''is_home'' state is not so quick and takes up to 5 minutes to find out i am home. i want to make a button in the dashboard to switch this ''get entities and turn off'' to ON and OFF, is that hard? i thought via a switch in helper, but i am not sure how to implement it in node-redd.
Nice - I was using loop timer for some NR related to my front or back doors - if they remained open for a certain amount of time - make announcements, but that doesn’t work any more. Eztimer and big timer are not the same type of timers.
@@SmartHomeMakers thnx for pointing me in the right direction for "wait until" this gave me the buffer time and the check status of the door. If open, play sound on speaker, and notify via phone, then loop back to "wait until" to check if status off. If not off, repeat that timer window again and notify until door/window is closed. Best solution for my notifications! It made these automations better than previously with loop timer. Thanks.
Great tutorial! Is there a way to exclude certain lights from the array for example i am leaving the house but it is night and i want to leave my outside lights still on ?
Gio, great video. I was also wondering if move to NR but for now still mixed up. I tried to replicate the notification but in my android doesn't pop up and also the Nest doorbell camera doesn't show any images. Just a question: where do I have to define the ACTIONs?? Keep doing this videos. Ciao
@@SmartHomeMakers Thanks Gio for the quick replay. My question is OPENDOOR correspond to an automation, a script or what? This is not clear for me. Thanks again
@@mariopalma3802 think of it like a tag or a reserved word that we create to identify the event in the event message later on (I’m using it in the switch)
i strugle with node red a lot, as i need lots of conditions in my flows and injection each and every state into other parts of the payload just to arrive in a final decision node m repeat serval things until or other stuff dosnt work inuitevly in node red, why is it so hyped :O ?
I just made the opposite decision, leaving / removing node-red and converting it to automations in HA. Back then node-red was my only option for complicated (and also easy) automations. Since the coming of the UI in automations things got a lot easier. I hope this will become even more efficient and it has since 2022.7. Kudo's to the devs. Could you instead teach us more about blueprint development?
@@SmartHomeMakers I guess I'm just a bit confused. You already have presence in HA and you'd be using the same entity in NR using the zone node. Just seems like an extra step.. unless I'm missing some advantage to the sensor template. (Not saying that your way is wrong, just different) :)
I have a tuya based contact sensor. I have the local key, id and the ip address for it, I am not able to add it to local tuya in homeassistant. Please guide how can I add it via .yaml configuration to local tuya. Kindly guide.
Hey man, great tutorials. Actually, I want to use node-red to integrate coolmasternet with a home automation system. Do you know how to configure a node to send and receive API calls to coolmasternet? For the record, it has a full rest API. Can you guide me to just the basic setup kind of, rest I will manage? coolautomation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/09/CoolMasterNet-REST-API-spec.pdf
Do you think I’m making the right decision ?
Hi Gio!
I think it's primarily a matter of taste. Of course, the system complexity increases through the use of NodeRed and the number of sources of error also increases. There are more interfaces to keep stable and upgrade paths are more complicated. On the other hand, there is a nicer user interface and the possibility to build much clearer complex automations.
Great point of view I will give it a go and live with it for a while :)
Defnitely! I have worked with Home automation now around 18months and all time used NR for automations. It's so powerful tool and doesn't limit automations to home automation, but you can use it also for so many other things too. Thank you for great video
For a complicated automation, I think I would prefer NodeRed over Home Assistant's YAML. But Home Assistant automations in the GUI have been getting more powerful and easier to set up lately. I think I would go for the Home Assistant ones as long as I can do it through the GUI, without weird contortions.
You didn't talk about WHY you thought this was a good idea for you. What do you expect to get out of switching all of your automations to NodeRed?
I like that Home Assistant notifications have a simple enable/disable switch. Is there something equally simple to disable a NodeRed automation?
Also, it seemed a bit weird to have some of the code in a Home Assistant template sensor (especially the part that lets guest mode override presence detection). I think you could have put that logic in NodeRed, too.
@@Shellyfi thanks buddy!
After using Node Red I can't see how anyone would ever use HA's automations again. It's incredible.
I have done my part and liked the button so that the node red series can continue
Nice one!
I moved most of mine over to NR a couple of years ago. I find they work quicker in NR than they did via YAML. I only use NR for new automations now, and once you have something working, it is easy to copy and use again in another automation.
Thanks Neil for sharing ! It is time for me to get them all in there !
Moved to a stand alone version of NR and all my automations are in NR. Still have connection to HA only for a couple of integrations. Got fed up of integrations breaking and either not fixed or took a long time to be resolved. NR also is easier to use APIs if you want to use them. I also found the NR add-on in HA could be a little unstable, but stand alone switch on and forget. Things are quicker too. NR community are a good bunch of helpful people too.
Great tutorial as usual. Always useful to see examples use cases for Node Red for inspiration. Keep up the great work.
Thanks Brian!!
Big fan of Nodered, keep them coming in. Great video and let me learn more about it, I really do appreciate it.
Thanks buddy!!
Looking forward to Ep 2
Really like this, from the start I've been doing all my automations in NR, even now, I find it easier to simply set up automations in NR instead of HA. I would love to see how you tackle the holy grail of automations: presence detection in the toilet or bathroom, where the light doesn't switch off when you're not moving.
Hey Bart! This is a philosophy point more than HA or NR, with a toilet I would just have a higher delay on the turning off prefer to have it on for longer than turning off sooner
Hi Bart, I have a toggle light in automations on a door sensor along with a trigger on toiletlight on that fires another toggle after 10 minutes in case the toggling scheme got mixed up or the door stays open.
Did that years ago. Never looked back!
Great call!
Thanks for the tutorial. I've been using NR for quite a while but never with the HA integration. Very impressed at how simple the NR integration makes things. Great video, very keen to see more and get ideas. Of course the first thing I did was turn off 10 lifghts when I turn on the alarm at my office....sure beats adding each light to the "turn off"automation :-)
Thanks Peter!!
It's amazing, congratulations!
I didn't know you had to long tap in the message to see the action buttons eheh...
Thanks Rogerio!
It absolutely doesn't hurt sending off commands to the lights that are already off. It's a few bytes over mqtt.
Hey Ivan what about unavailable devices?
@@SmartHomeMakers if they are tcp controlled, yes they could lock up homeassistant, if udp - no problem.
Great video, and thank you this great examples Smart Home Makers!! I'm new to Node Red and try to play a local MP3 (in HA Media folder) on my Sonos Speakers. But I couldn't find any examples to accessing local MP3s and play them on Sonos. I managed to play "Online mp3s" over , but I have no idea what is different with the local HA files? Do you know this ?
I set up a few lamps and their brightness under certain conditions at any given time of the day.
For example a motion sensor that fully switches on my bedroom lights in the daytime (because I probably want to get something from a cabinet or take my bedsheets for laundry. But at night the same motion sensor just switches on a small under the bed lamp so if we go to the toilet we don't bump into stuff.
I have set up the time-table, brightness and some other conditions in an excel sheet that I load into flow variables at power up of my server and once again shortly after every full hour.
It's a bit of a struggle to set up with Node-Red, but I have no idea if it is at all possible in HA
Once it is set up... changing the schedule is as easy as modifying a single XL sheet on my server.
I have used only NodeRed (and integrated dashboard) for about 4 years. It has worked extremely reliable, fast, without need to check, maintain, update (if you dont want). Recently I switched to HA (HAS OS with integrated mqtt) only because there is more off_the_shelf integrations for almost any device on market, and NR require more effort. But, HA is slower, some simple tasmota devices stop working in HA until I reload that integration, there was one complete crash after update to may version which required complete reinstall. All in all, HA thus not feel as reliable as NR, but is better choice for integration and easier dashboard creation. Automation in HA are getting better, but limited and not really readable. Combination of those two looks like wining combo, but NR as addon to HA is one more component (container) and "link in chain" which can fail that automation runs when needed :=( I would keep most automation within HA, hopefully UI for automations in HA will get better.
All great points, one think to add is the addition of trying node red on its own server or virtual server not as an add on
I'd love a video on how to log on/off times, of say a water heater, to determine cost of running the appliance monthly. Your explanations are really great, you're a smart guy!
Thanks VJ not too sure about the smart guy part
great vid and will be following ,def if you make more , as a suggestion exterior lights controlled by 2 pir's , lights on at 10& at sunset ,off after sunrise , 100 % on motion returning to 10 % during that time ,slight colour change depending which pir triggers the movement , mine throgh automations is flaky works sometimes not others , but thinking via node red could see it more visually ?
Yes and you can test each path in an easy way !
the ''get lights that are on'' whas the one thing i searched for for a while, thanks! now i dont want the lights turn of always, lets say when i leave the house to walk the dog later at night i dont want them to turn off when im just a few minutes out of the geofencing zone, also since the ''is_home'' state is not so quick and takes up to 5 minutes to find out i am home. i want to make a button in the dashboard to switch this ''get entities and turn off'' to ON and OFF, is that hard? i thought via a switch in helper, but i am not sure how to implement it in node-redd.
Nice - I was using loop timer for some NR related to my front or back doors - if they remained open for a certain amount of time - make announcements, but that doesn’t work any more. Eztimer and big timer are not the same type of timers.
Wait until feels more like a logical flow when things are predictable in your home ! What was your work around ?
@@SmartHomeMakers thnx for pointing me in the right direction for "wait until" this gave me the buffer time and the check status of the door. If open, play sound on speaker, and notify via phone, then loop back to "wait until" to check if status off. If not off, repeat that timer window again and notify until door/window is closed. Best solution for my notifications! It made these automations better than previously with loop timer. Thanks.
Great tutorial! Is there a way to exclude certain lights from the array for example i am leaving the house but it is night and i want to leave my outside lights still on ?
For sure there is using some regex logic! I remember finding it online on a blog post !
Gio, great video. I was also wondering if move to NR but for now still mixed up. I tried to replicate the notification but in my android doesn't pop up and also the Nest doorbell camera doesn't show any images. Just a question: where do I have to define the ACTIONs?? Keep doing this videos. Ciao
Hey Mario thanks for the kind words !In the notification object !!
@@SmartHomeMakers Thanks Gio for the quick replay. My question is OPENDOOR correspond to an automation, a script or what? This is not clear for me. Thanks again
@@mariopalma3802 think of it like a tag or a reserved word that we create to identify the event in the event message later on (I’m using it in the switch)
i strugle with node red a lot, as i need lots of conditions in my flows and injection each and every state into other parts of the payload just to arrive in a final decision node m repeat serval things until or other stuff dosnt work inuitevly in node red, why is it so hyped :O ?
Great video ,
Thanks Pannie
I just made the opposite decision, leaving / removing node-red and converting it to automations in HA. Back then node-red was my only option for complicated (and also easy) automations. Since the coming of the UI in automations things got a lot easier. I hope this will become even more efficient and it has since 2022.7. Kudo's to the devs. Could you instead teach us more about blueprint development?
As smart home enthusiasts it is always great to experiment and try new things before forming a strong opinion. We are just on the reverse path:)
Is there a reason you used that sensor template for people being home/away, rather than just use the zone node in node-red?
So that I can have one central data point for both HA and NR!
@@SmartHomeMakers I guess I'm just a bit confused. You already have presence in HA and you'd be using the same entity in NR using the zone node. Just seems like an extra step.. unless I'm missing some advantage to the sensor template.
(Not saying that your way is wrong, just different) :)
Is it for windows only? How Can I use it on my
you can host node red on many devices!
I have a tuya based contact sensor. I have the local key, id and the ip address for it, I am not able to add it to local tuya in homeassistant. Please guide how can I add it via .yaml configuration to local tuya.
Kindly guide.
Now I'm going to assume you've already...... Terrible!! In a hurry??
Life is too short :)
@@SmartHomeMakers Yes you're right, Certainly when it's necessary to use the "rewind" and "slow motion" Button.
Hey man, great tutorials. Actually, I want to use node-red to integrate coolmasternet with a home automation system. Do you know how to configure a node to send and receive API calls to coolmasternet? For the record, it has a full rest API. Can you guide me to just the basic setup kind of, rest I will manage? coolautomation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/09/CoolMasterNet-REST-API-spec.pdf