# Are there any basic timers
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/are-there-any-basic-timers/27470
**Category:** General
**Created:** [29 May 2020 01:20 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/are-there-any-basic-timers/27470 "2020-05-29T01:20:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@omono35](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/omono35)
#### Post date: [29 May 2020 01:20 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/are-there-any-basic-timers/27470/1 "2020-05-29T01:20:49Z")
I am brand new to Node-Red but I am trying to make or find a simple timer. I know there are a few things like bigtimer but they all seem to be based of times of day and such.
I just want a timer that I can type in a number and press "start". It will then run for the number of minutes entered and then stop. (this is for a raspberry pi so a simple output of 1 and 0)
It should also be able to stop at any point if a "stop" button is pressed.
Bonus would be if there was a visual. At the very least, a countdown visible on the dashboard, better if there was like the doughnut graph going from full to 0.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
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### Author:  [@gerry](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/gerry)
#### Post date: [29 May 2020 01:50 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/are-there-any-basic-timers/27470/2 "2020-05-29T01:50:24Z")
Send bigtimer the command “timer 30” and it runs for 30 seconds. Granted it does a bunch but as a basic timer it does that also. Any timer that displays on the dashboard is going to be up to you to code. Bigtimer is supported well and a bunch of people appear to use it. I tried several different timers before settling on that one and I feel most will tell you bigtimer is a good choice. If it doesn’t do what you want I would be astounded.
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### Author:  [@JGKK](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/JGKK)
#### Post date: [29 May 2020 05:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/are-there-any-basic-timers/27470/3 "2020-05-29T05:11:00Z")
Have a look at this flow in a thread a while back:
> [@Help with contexts please](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/help-with-contexts-please/23602/12):
>
> Here is one with ui: [{"id":"c1fd7048.fbcb48","type":"delay","z":"f954564f.03e718","name":"","pauseType":"delay","timeout":"1","timeoutUnits":"seconds","rate":"1","nbRateUnits":"1","rateUnits":"second","randomFirst":"1","randomLast":"5","randomUnits":"seconds","drop":false,"x":460,"y":760,"wires":[["f07ada4b.c33cb8"]]},{"id":"f07ada4b.c33cb8","type":"function","z":"f954564f.03e718","name":"decrement","func":"const previo…
This is a visual countdown timer with seconds as the unit but it could be easily changed to minutes.
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### Author:  [@omono35](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/omono35)
#### Post date: [29 May 2020 16:32 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/are-there-any-basic-timers/27470/4 "2020-05-29T16:32:11Z")
that is actually almost perfect. Thank you!
Now I just need to figure out how to have it send the 1 and 0 to the raspberry pi gpio out node.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [28 July 2020 16:32 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/are-there-any-basic-timers/27470/5 "2020-07-28T16:32:12Z")
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