Calculate time difference - hass.io

General
1

Hi,

I am really new to node-red and json etc so sorry if my question seems trivial. This is my first try with a function node!

I am currently setting up a notification that will tell me if an entity has been unavailable more than one minute. In order to not to complicate things I look for a state change and verify that the previous state was unavailable and that the new state is not unavailable.

I can the look at the message which gives me information about when the state change to unavailable (old_state) and when it changed to anything that is not unavailable (new_state). I would now like to calculate the time difference.

The format of the time when the state changed is as follows:
old_state: "2019-02-25T08:57:24.387431+00:00"
new_state: "2019-02-25T08:57:26.326909+00:00"

I would like to calculate the time difference in seconds. If the time difference is more than 60 seconds I want to pass on a message with the payload that includes the entity_id and the time difference). I will then base a notification on this information. My intention is to use a function node. My attempt so far looks like this:

var timediff = 0
timediff = (msg.payload.event.new_state.last_changed) - (msg.payload.event.old_state.last_changed);
if (msg1 > 60){
    return (msg.payload.entity_id, timediff)
}

I guess this is hopelessly wrong and therefore I need your help.

2

First thing is that you should alway return an object.

i.e. return msg; which is why it is autofilled in when you open a function node :slight_smile:

3

Ok - so an else and then return an object that I can then use to prevent the next step in the flow.

4

Also I imagine you wanted timediff > 60 and note the timestamps in javascript are in milliseconds.
If you want to prevent the next step in the flow then don't return anything and it will not pass on a message.

5

It is not the fact that you didn't return anything that it is complaining about, it is the fact that you did return something, but it wasn't an object.

6

So it should be
timediff > 60000

The "it wasn't an object" is not clear to me (yes I am really new at this).

7

You have
return(msg.payload.entity_id, timediff)
I don't know what you are trying to do here, but if you return anything then it must be a javascript object. If you want to pass on the id and timediff in a message then maybe you want something like

msg.payload = {id: msg.payload.entity_id, timediff: timediff}
return msg
8

So now I have:

var timediff = 0
timediff = (msg.payload.event.new_state.last_changed) - (msg.payload.event.old_state.last_changed);
if (timediff > 60000){
    msg.payload = {id: msg.payload.entity_id, timediff: timediff}
    return msg
}

Does that make more sense?

I get no error message but I get no message to the debug node.

9

Insert this line after the timediff calculation
node.warn("timediff is: " + timediff)
That will show that output in the debug window when that line is run.

10

I removed the if statement to make sure a message was returned.
I got timediff: NaN
I guess the format of msg.payload.event.new_state.last_changed is a string and not a number.

11

Yes, I think you are right. Where are the timestamps coming from? If you cannot get them as numbers then you can probably do

var lastTime = new Date(msg.payload.event.new_state.last_changed)

to convert it into a timestamp.

12

They come from home assistant. I will try the conversion you suggest.

13

That seems to work fine. Now I will only reinsert the if statement.

14

Thanks for all help - works lika a charm. Lots of new knowledge for me!

1 Like
15

Excellent. Glad to be of help.

16

Can you share how it looks? send a flow please