# Nicedevil's Starting Questions
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454
**Category:** General
**Created:** [18 August 2019 15:39 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454 "2019-08-18T15:39:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Paul-Reed](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Paul-Reed)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 19:19 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/61 "2019-08-22T19:19:04Z")
Is there anything in the node-RED log when doing a deploy?
`node-red-log`
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### Author:  [@nicedevil](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/nicedevil)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 19:26 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/62 "2019-08-22T19:26:02Z")
I set up my logging inside the settings.js... but where can I read those messages?
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### Author:  [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 19:30 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/63 "2019-08-22T19:30:29Z")
Depends on how you started node red and what operating system.
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### Author:  [@Paul-Reed](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Paul-Reed)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 19:31 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/64 "2019-08-22T19:31:17Z")
> [@Paul-Reed](#):
>
> node-red-log
Just enter the above at the cmd prompt.
Alternatively, and maybe a better way would be to stop and restart node-RED, and watch the log.
`node-red-stop` & `node-red-start`
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### Author:  [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 19:31 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/65 "2019-08-22T19:31:20Z")
Search the forum. Lots and lots of questions and answers on this one
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### Author:  [@nicedevil](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/nicedevil)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 19:34 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/66 "2019-08-22T19:34:31Z")
I'm using node-red inside docker and did more than one restart on that π
So maybe the log files are located on a not persistant volume right now.
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### Author:  [@Paul-Reed](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Paul-Reed)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 19:36 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/67 "2019-08-22T19:36:13Z")
Aaah Docker!
I know nothing about docker installs, so I'll leave the discussion. Good luck!
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### Author:  [@nicedevil](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/nicedevil)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 19:38 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/68 "2019-08-22T19:38:28Z")
hahaha π Docker is fine so far.
What I tryed out right now. I exported my whole flow for backup and removed it.
Now I#m rebuilding it from the ground, maybe it was too much to handle for this one.
I'm having just 1 mqtt device now with one switch for the dashboard, that's it. Dashboard is loading instant now! Doesn't matter how often I hit the deploy button.
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### Author:  [@nicedevil](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/nicedevil)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 20:02 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/69 "2019-08-22T20:02:28Z")
ok... It seems to be fixed!
Just recreation of the flow with multiple mqtt devices instead of 4 with following switches to get out 8 topics for everything... maybe that was what was not the best solution. now it is loading as fast as it should be and no flickering on the refreshbutton....
I know some of you won't like that way to debug... but was the easiest for me, just try and error π
Thank you anyway! Will take a look at the timer thing now \<3
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### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 20:14 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/70 "2019-08-22T20:14:56Z")
When it was misbehaving was the editor window still responsive?
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### Author:  [@nicedevil](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/nicedevil)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 20:18 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/71 "2019-08-22T20:18:09Z")
in firefox sometimes not!
then I opened Edge and Edge Chromium and the old Internet Explorer to verify that that was maybe a firefox problem. All of these later 3 browsers got a responsive editor but the same problem with the dashboard.
Sometimes my firefox started to block any interactions with the mouse, couldn't even close it without using the task manager.
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### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 20:20 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/72 "2019-08-22T20:20:42Z")
Are you sure you did not have an mqtt loop or something that was hogging the processor. The change to the MQTT In architecture that you described should not have any noticable effect on anything, if it was functionally equivalent.
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### Author:  [@nicedevil](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/nicedevil)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 20:22 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/73 "2019-08-22T20:22:17Z")
mhhh could be, that could be a reason why now it is working as intended.
but I'm relativly sure that I rebuild near everything (topics/switches) like I did before... just without all the switches to split my topics.
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### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 20:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/74 "2019-08-22T20:27:32Z")
Obviously, if you wanted to, you could go back to your original flow and try disabling bits till at least the dashboard draws itself, even without data coming in. Having a look at the processor loading is worth while when there seems to be some sort of clog up to see if something is hogging it (run `top` in a terminal). If you suspect a possible mqtt loop then stopping the mqtt server will immediately stop the loop.
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### Author:  [@nicedevil](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/nicedevil)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 20:50 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/75 "2019-08-22T20:50:38Z")
my newly build flow looks bit cleaner now, so it wasn't that bad at all.
but I will keep it in mind for the future! Thank you all for the help right now and in the past!
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### Author:  [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)
#### Post date: [22 August 2019 21:26 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/76 "2019-08-22T21:26:53Z")
Meanwhile there is also this node that may help with setting timers from the dashboard
> **[@clysema/node-red-contrib-ui-week-schedule](https://flows.nodered.org/node/@clysema/node-red-contrib-ui-week-schedule)**
>
> A Week Schedule UI for the Node-RED Dashboard
(I've not tried it yet so can't comment as to how useable it is, or even if it does what you want...)
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### Author:  [@nicedevil](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/nicedevil)
#### Post date: [25 August 2019 08:49 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/77 "2019-08-25T08:49:14Z")
hey guys, still stuck with my harmony right now.
I can get to a point where I'm pretty happy with switching on/off and doing those activities on my harmony but:
is it even possible to return a message with a payload = "on" and some objects? All in one message of course so I only need 1 function for that π
f.e.
msg.payload = "on"
msg.payload.status = 1
msg.payload.activities = 123456789
?
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### Author:  [@ukmoose](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ukmoose)
#### Post date: [25 August 2019 09:10 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/78 "2019-08-25T09:10:23Z")
No a payload canβt be both a string and an object at the same time
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### Author:  [@nicedevil](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/nicedevil)
#### Post date: [25 August 2019 09:21 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/79 "2019-08-25T09:21:26Z")
wasn't the answer I wanna hear but now I know that I'm doing it right xD
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### Author:  [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)
#### Post date: [25 August 2019 09:30 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/nicedevils-starting-questions/14454/80 "2019-08-25T09:30:43Z")
But you could code things up like this
msg.payload = "on"
msg.status = 1
msg.activities = 123456789
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