Android Client node-red

Dashboard
1

Hi,

New to node-red . I did my first button and text area in a dashboard.
Now i can access to http://localhost:1880/ui it is good !

My goal is to be able to open my ui from my android phone without browser.
Do you know if a free application exist on android to have a node red client and be able to open my node red ui ?

thanks

2

If you make a short cut of http://localhost:1880/ui on your Android desktop it will open in the browser without all the browser stuff around it.
Looks like a stand alone app this way.

1 Like
3

Alternatively if you open it in the browser then from the browser menu select Add to Home Screen that achieves a similar thing (possibly the same thing).

2 Likes
4

Have a search for MQTT clients, Home Remote seems quite good http://www.thehomeremote.com/

5

hi robbo

thanks for this tip !
i installed homeremote on my android phone.
now, i try to connect homeremote to my node red server
do you have a procedure to do so ?
thanks

6

If your not familiar with MQTT, then it's worth getting familiar with it and how it works. MQTT is a messaging system so your clients (like HomeRemote) don't interact with Node-Red directly but send a message via MQTT that Node-Red subscribes too and then can react too (or vice versa). It may seem a long winded way of doing things at first, but you'll find that as your system grows that it's easy to add and adapt if you base your system around MQTT.

https://randomnerdtutorials.com/what-is-mqtt-and-how-it-works/
https://www.hivemq.com/blog/mqtt-essentials-part-1-introducing-mqtt/

Just re-read your OP, if you want to open the Node-Red's /UI, then you'll need a browser of some sort, if you search for Kiosk browser in the play store then you'll find one that's more geared up for it and doesn't display URL's, and is full screen by default, etc.

7

http://www.thehomeremote.com/

Dunno.. all though it looks very nice, it doesn't appear to be an MQTT client in any way. Unless I miss something?

8

I believe there is an MQTT client. Search their forum for MQTT.

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You need to use the designer to configure MQTT stuff.

10

Assuming you decide to use MQTT you have (at least) two cases to think about

  1. You use a local MQTT broker on your network
  2. You use an external MQTT broker service like CloudMQTT

The advice given above by the board members will work fine with 1) when the phone is wifi connected to the same (home) network but it will not work if your phone is on 3/4G or connected to another network,,,,unless,,,,and here is a big risk in security that many have made,,,you open up a port forwarding in your router. NOT recommended

If you need to reach NR also from outside with your phone, I recommend you to design according to 2) and use best possible security options available (encryption, SSL, certificates)

A third very good alternative is to use Telegram, you can send commands & receive messages. There are threads in this forum describing as well

But none of the above will give you the NR gui

If you really want to expose the NR gui to the outside (means outside your home network) you should look into setting up your own vpn server or use a service named ngrok

I'm sure there are plenty more solutions possible. But just remember, exposing anything to internet requires SECURITY and SECURITY so always keep that in mind. (This is obvious to everybody, I know...)

11

You could use two MQTT servers for both internal and external, and only use the external for stuff that you really need to access when not at home and or just the status of a device on the external server, where the actual switching can only be done internally.

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Cool. I'll give it a go then. :blush:

Robbo via Node-RED Forum nodered@discoursemail.com schreef op 19 juni 2019 18:11:53 CEST:

13

You didn't say how you are running Node-RED. If it is on a Raspberry Pi under Raspian with the gui (desktop) enabled, you can do exactly what you ask, at the cost of a lot of resources and probably pretty terrible performance. The trick is to run a browser on the pi pointed to localhost:1880/ui and use RealVNC between the pi desktop and your phone. I don't recommend it, but it's there.

14

Hi,
To be more précise
I run node-red on raspberry pi with raspbian. I use node-red ui
i don't use vnc (desktop)
i just use node-red-ui and connect from android through http
i would like to know if another client on android is available instead of android browser ?

regards

15

There's no official package to load the editor ui or dashboard in any manner other than through a browser.

16

Ben, I can't stress this enough, get to grips with MQTT.

It doesn't take long to realise the possibilities.

Once you have it working, install one of the many MQTT client applications in the play store.

You'll be flying in no time.

17

An MQTT client will not help if you want to use the standard node-red dashboard. To do that you need a browser (there are of course several android browsers), or an appa that runs a browser as a component. If you don't want to use the dashboard then an MQTT client is indeed an option.

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Did you see my post above re. searching for Kiosk Browser in the app store? You'll need some kind of browser to access /ui as that is browser based.

19

Try wallpanel-android (from thanksmister on github). It has built-in MQTT client so you can send some info (battery, sensors) about your phone to Node-red. You can also control your phone (wake up, speak, turn camera streaming, display brightness etc.) from Node-red through MQTT or HTTP (REST) commands.

2 Likes
20

Good find, thank you...I will definitely look into it.

Another option (also available for iOS) is Blynk.
For node-red and blynk, there is a specific webservices module https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-contrib-blynk-ws

...have fun!