Hi,
I'm looking for advice on a good way to monitor when the status of a switched device is different from the switch position.
I've been using Node-red for a few weeks now, learning how to control a number of ESP8266s using a Raspberry Pi, MQTT and Node-red dashboard. My ESP8266s are connected to relays controlling solenoid valves and a pump and also to flow, humidity and ultrasonic sensors, keeping the garden watered from the User Interface on my smart phone web browser.
I've noticed that sometimes the status of a switch in the Editor is different from the selected status in the UI. Thus, the switch position on the UI is "Off" but the status is "On", and the solenoid valve is actually open. To close it, I have to operate the UI switch to the On position and then to the Off position. I suspect that the cause of this is RFI or some other interference near the ESP8266 as I am sure it isn't an MQTT message coming from outside Node-Red. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the actual status of the relay was being reported correctly although I don't understand how this is being achieved.
I have looked at the Node-Red Status node and can extract the Status ("on", "off"). I had originally considered creating a variable which changed when the switch sent out "off" or "on" via MQTT but I was wondering whether there is a simpler or more elegant way of capturing the change of switch state?
Once I can get a notification of when the relay operates erroneously, I will be able to try to work out what might have caused it.
Thanks,
Tim
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