A node that can be pressed to start/stop messages flow....?

General
1

Hi,
I spend a lot of time in NodeRed find it time consuming to manually disable a node temporally when debugging.

Is there a node that allows you to drop it into a flow and tap it to open or close the link it's on? A bit like the inject node with it's 'inject once' button press...

I've tried searching for 'switch' or 'pause' but not coming up with anything.

Any ideas? Ta

2

No, but you can do it with switch node and have it route based on a context variable that can be toggled with 2 inject nodes and a change node.

[
    {
        "id": "cceba20d74756a69",
        "type": "switch",
        "z": "333c7c68.2b3d34",
        "name": "flow.tap",
        "property": "tap",
        "propertyType": "flow",
        "rules": [
            {
                "t": "true"
            }
        ],
        "checkall": "true",
        "repair": false,
        "outputs": 1,
        "x": 460,
        "y": 740,
        "wires": [
            [
                "1f4583f12a69ac9c"
            ]
        ]
    },
    {
        "id": "ae2e908b5fd530f3",
        "type": "inject",
        "z": "333c7c68.2b3d34",
        "name": "",
        "props": [
            {
                "p": "payload"
            },
            {
                "p": "topic",
                "vt": "str"
            }
        ],
        "repeat": "",
        "crontab": "",
        "once": false,
        "onceDelay": 0.1,
        "topic": "",
        "payload": "true",
        "payloadType": "bool",
        "x": 330,
        "y": 620,
        "wires": [
            [
                "41b5cc5087da24d2"
            ]
        ]
    },
    {
        "id": "97b0c1500d7ea79c",
        "type": "inject",
        "z": "333c7c68.2b3d34",
        "name": "",
        "props": [
            {
                "p": "payload"
            },
            {
                "p": "topic",
                "vt": "str"
            }
        ],
        "repeat": "",
        "crontab": "",
        "once": false,
        "onceDelay": 0.1,
        "topic": "",
        "payload": "false",
        "payloadType": "bool",
        "x": 330,
        "y": 660,
        "wires": [
            [
                "41b5cc5087da24d2"
            ]
        ]
    },
    {
        "id": "41b5cc5087da24d2",
        "type": "change",
        "z": "333c7c68.2b3d34",
        "name": "",
        "rules": [
            {
                "t": "set",
                "p": "tap",
                "pt": "flow",
                "to": "payload",
                "tot": "msg"
            }
        ],
        "action": "",
        "property": "",
        "from": "",
        "to": "",
        "reg": false,
        "x": 490,
        "y": 640,
        "wires": [
            []
        ]
    },
    {
        "id": "631c7ed8fd16575b",
        "type": "inject",
        "z": "333c7c68.2b3d34",
        "name": "",
        "props": [
            {
                "p": "payload"
            },
            {
                "p": "topic",
                "vt": "str"
            }
        ],
        "repeat": "",
        "crontab": "",
        "once": false,
        "onceDelay": 0.1,
        "topic": "",
        "payload": "",
        "payloadType": "date",
        "x": 300,
        "y": 740,
        "wires": [
            [
                "cceba20d74756a69"
            ]
        ]
    },
    {
        "id": "1f4583f12a69ac9c",
        "type": "debug",
        "z": "333c7c68.2b3d34",
        "name": "debug 34",
        "active": true,
        "tosidebar": true,
        "console": false,
        "tostatus": false,
        "complete": "false",
        "statusVal": "",
        "statusType": "auto",
        "x": 620,
        "y": 740,
        "wires": []
    }
]
3

You can disable a node via the (right click) context menu.
Right click | Show action list | Disable selected nodes.

Unfortunately there is no keyboard shortcut for this action and I don't think you can specify your own, so it's no easier than using the node config dialog.

4

There is no default, but you can bind your own

image
image640Ă—387 16.2 KB

5

Ah yes, thanks. I tried that but nothing happened.
Turns out you have to press the tick button.

So as an experiment I defined shortcuts

  • alt-d = disable selected nodes (was browser URL box recent searches dropdown )
  • alt-e = enable selected nodes (was browser edit menu)

Now I can click a node to select it then alt-d to disable it.
:+1:

6

I can recommend ctrl-shift-e and ctrl-shift-d.
I've been using those for ages without any clashes with other shortcuts in both Firefox and Chrome.

7

Thanks for all the responses, does anyone with the skills fancy writing a node to do this? is it even possible...?

Thanks

8

Thanks, I did think about the 'switch' node, but that would be even more time spent setting it up, especially where I might want a dozen or so switches...
Shame there isn't a simple node to drop onto a line?
P

9

Try a 'gate' node, something like node-red-contrib-flowgate seems to fit your requirements, as it's just one node that is dropped into your flow, written by @gmag11
(I don't have a use, so haven't used it)

4 Likes
10

Perfect! Many thanks...

1 Like
11

I have been using this gate node to trigger events from my application. It has many queuing and triage options which I use to trigger events on demand from buttons on the dashboard. Pretty neat...

3 Likes
12

Hi @Mrb32,

If you wouldn't mind, could you post a little piece of what you use it for? Your use case sounds fascinating, and I would like to understand it better.

14

Pretty simple...

I use tasmota ESP8266 devices and nodered to control my model railway.
In the simplest use case, q-gates each hold a payload containing a list (array) of devices and commands corresponding to a route trains should follow.
A dashboard button is used to open the gate (either flush or peek), the payload is then processed by a flow that will send distinct messages to each device, setting turnouts and/or signals in the process.
The original payload is then sent back to, or retained by, the gate, so that it is ready for the next time I need it.

There are a couple of more complex uses but the post would turn into war and peace...

May be not so fascinating after all...
Cheers.

2 Likes
15

Hi @Mrb32,

Thank you for that description. Super interesting to me, because you're describing something I haven't done, nor had really considered doing.

From my not-having-used-this-yet postion, what you've described seems to me to be a very dynamic way of (essentially) scripting complex events. The idea seems a bit like the "scenes" concept in home automation: given x input, do all of these things with all of these otherwise tangentially related systems.

You use it for model railways (which is a cool use case). I might use it to trigger events in an irrigation system for a small farm.

I thank you. You've given me a lot to think about, which is always the best bit.

Cheers.

2 Likes
16

If you fancy seeing the railways in action, you can have a look at my youtube channel. I don't go into the nodered aspect much, but every movement (start/stop, diversion, other automatism...) is done using nodered and tasmota.

Here is a link to the latest video:

3 Likes