How to find "who" sent a message?

General
1

I have a flow which has been working quite happily.

I have done a slight edit of the flow and I am noticing that the bigtimer node keeps going to MANUAL OFF.

I've put debugging on the input and I am seeing an OFF message going in.

But how can I find from where it is coming?

Thanks in advance.

2

How is the message received?

3

Debug node.

As I am only showing msg.payload I can't really see much else - in this case.

But other ones I see all the message parts but I can't resolve a sent from this node part.

4

I'd suggest switching to showing the whole message, rather than just the payload. It might give you a few clues as to the origin.

Other than that, it's probably just a matter of moving the debug node, or adding additional ones, back along the path(s) until you find the origin of the message. And have a think about which nodes could and which couldn't generate the message, to narrow down the options.

5

Ok, here's another message from another part of the flow.

{"_msgid":"ccc347a4.18e4f8","topic":"","payload":"2019-12-17 20:01:32  -->  reset","_event":"node:b9f15963.64a1a","ttl":0,"_queuetimestamp":1576573292257,"_queueCount":1}

WHO sent the message?
How can I find the node?

6

You didn't answer my question so let me restate it. you have a node at the start of the flow that receives the message and sends t along. What type of node is this? a sensor, an http-in, mqtt-in?

7

I can't answer that.

AFAIK the messages are coming from bigtimer - which I only recently updated.

There is a few other nodes along the track but they are controlled by the original message.

But somewhere along the line these "rogue" messages are coming along and messing up the functionality of the flow.

Does that help?

8

This MAY be a problem:

function node code:

switch (msg.next) {
    
    case 1:
        msg.delay = msg.runtime1;
        msg.payload = 1; 
        msg.next = 2;
        break;
    case 2:
        msg.delay = msg.runtime2;
        msg.payload = 2;
        msg.next = 3;
        break;  
    case 3:
        msg.delay = msg.runtime3;
        msg.payload = 3;
        msg.next = 4;
        break; 
        
    case 4:
        msg.delay = msg.runtime4;
        msg.payload = "OFF";
        msg.next = 5;
        break; 
    case 5:
        msg.delay = msg.runtime4;
        msg.payload = 5;
        msg.reset = true;
        //msg.next = 1;
        break; 

}

return msg;

msg.next increments with each pass and msg.reset is set to true if msg.next is 5.

It used to work fine. Now it is just going nuts sending weird/random messages which is driving the display it goes to crazy with brightness.

This is part of the flow:

[{"id":"bfb00242.9bfce8","type":"switch","z":"83bf3de4.b9429","name":"","property":"payload","propertyType":"msg","rules":[{"t":"eq","v":"Dawn","vt":"str"},{"t":"eq","v":"Dusk","vt":"str"}],"checkall":"true","repair":false,"outputs":2,"x":190,"y":1700,"wires":[["24ab3b76.2e1e64","f8d4dc92.4e2ab"],["cc25e9fa.095798","b717b6df.8bcec8"]]},{"id":"b717b6df.8bcec8","type":"trigger","z":"83bf3de4.b9429","op1":"","op2":"1","op1type":"nul","op2type":"num","duration":"30","extend":false,"units":"min","reset":"reset","bytopic":"all","name":"Start","x":350,"y":1710,"wires":[["14b6b1de.cd731e"]]},{"id":"14b6b1de.cd731e","type":"function","z":"83bf3de4.b9429","name":"Initialize","func":"var interval = flow.get('Time_delay') || 10;\n\ninterval = (interval * 60000);\ncontext.set(\"interval\",interval);       //  for debuging\n//var interval = 30*60000;  //  (30 minutes)\n//  interval = 3000;        //  Test\n// Define runtime1\nmsg.runtime1 = interval;\n\n// Define runtime2\nmsg.runtime2 = interval;\n\n// Define runtime3\nmsg.runtime3 = interval;\n\n//  Define runtime4\nmsg.runtime4 = interval;\n\n//  Define runtime5\nmsg.runtime5 = interval;\n\n// Next  to be activated is number 1\nmsg.next = 1;\n\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"x":360,"y":1750,"wires":[["9e68c7a9.1756d8","39513fbf.c38d1"]]},{"id":"9e68c7a9.1756d8","type":"function","z":"83bf3de4.b9429","name":"Cycle next value","func":"switch (msg.next) {\n    \n    case 1:\n        msg.delay = msg.runtime1;\n        msg.payload = 1; \n        msg.next = 2;\n        break;\n    case 2:\n        msg.delay = msg.runtime2;\n        msg.payload = 2;\n        msg.next = 3;\n        break;  \n    case 3:\n        msg.delay = msg.runtime3;\n        msg.payload = 3;\n        msg.next = 4;\n        break; \n        \n    case 4:\n        msg.delay = msg.runtime4;\n        msg.payload = \"OFF\";\n        msg.next = 5;\n        break; \n    case 5:\n        msg.delay = msg.runtime4;\n        msg.payload = 5;\n        msg.reset = true;\n        //msg.next = 1;\n        break; \n\n}\n\n    return msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"x":540,"y":1750,"wires":[["e7a56f9a.9fcfc"]]},{"id":"e7a56f9a.9fcfc","type":"delay","z":"83bf3de4.b9429","name":"","pauseType":"delayv","timeout":"5","timeoutUnits":"seconds","rate":"1","nbRateUnits":"1","rateUnits":"second","randomFirst":"1","randomLast":"5","randomUnits":"seconds","drop":false,"x":520,"y":1790,"wires":[["9e68c7a9.1756d8","48d676f5.1cbf78","ea72f1d.b06ae9"]]}]

The flow value is set to 15. (15 seconds)
Originally it was a fixed value of 30 minutes - as you may see in one of the function nodes.

9

Is anything connected to the input of the bigtimer node?

10

Just buttons to control its mode:

On
Off
Auto
Sync
Toggle

Though I am/was getting erroneous messages coming through which didn't used to happen.

Yeah, ok. That is probably causing the problem, or at least not helping.

The initialize node (in the flow I posted) is possibly the problem.

Walk through:
A sunset message comes through from bigtimer.
That goes through a trigger node which "delays" the message 30 minutes.
It sends out a 1 then.

That goes to the initialize node which sets up a message to set up a set of pulses.

That goes into the cycle next value node (function) which increments the message and sends on messages to a delay node which is (I hope) variable.

Just checked. Yes the override with msg.delay is set.

That then loops through 5 steps and at the end stops/resets the sequence. Or should/used to.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and (I think) "OFF" are sent out.

Those are sent at a 30 minute interval - originally - but that was getting a bit late before the display was turned off.

I thought I would reduce that to 15 minutes. That could be when it all went to pot.

I am seeing a lot of messages msg.reset = true being sent.
(Or were)
I went back to the original code and it seems to be behaving itself a bit better.

So:

Probably I stuffed up with the new bit of code in the initialize node.

The top two lines are swapped to change how it behaves.
Granted there is a stuff up with the maths done in line 3:
interval = (interval * 60000); because that should be used with line #2 only.

Any other elephants I am missing?

var interval = 30*60000;  //  (30 minutes)
//var interval = flow.get('Time_delay') || 10;

interval = (interval * 60000);
context.set("interval",interval);       //  for debuging
//  interval = 3000;        //  Test
// Define runtime1
msg.runtime1 = interval;

// Define runtime2
msg.runtime2 = interval;

// Define runtime3
msg.runtime3 = interval;

//  Define runtime4
msg.runtime4 = interval;

//  Define runtime5
msg.runtime5 = interval;

// Next  to be activated is number 1
msg.next = 1;

return msg;

I've modified the code to this to make it better:

Oh, I context.set() so I can see what the node is doing.
Nothing more.

var interval = 30*60000;  //  (30 minutes)
//var interval = flow.get('Time_delay') || 10;
//interval = (interval * 60000);

context.set("interval",interval);       //  for debuging
//  interval = 3000;        //  Test
// Define runtime1
msg.runtime1 = interval;

// Define runtime2
msg.runtime2 = interval;

// Define runtime3
msg.runtime3 = interval;

//  Define runtime4
msg.runtime4 = interval;

//  Define runtime5
msg.runtime5 = interval;

// Next  to be activated is number 1
msg.next = 1;

return msg;