Node-Red to manage garage door and send SMS stopped sending SMS

General
21

Okay, the install of the script you linked to appears to have removed the old and installed the new.

I can now get back to the Node UI at :1880 and my HTML pages are opening and closing the door again, but the messages that should show up in the html and the sms are not.

I am now back to where I was when it first failed.

I see this in the debug, even after I have entered the twilio account values.:
Client requires an Account SID and Auth Token set explicitly or via the TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID and TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN environment variables

22

What exactly do you mean by that?

23

In my HTML, there is an area where actions of the door or actions taken by the PI are displayed. For example, when the garage opens, it should say: ""Garage Door is Opening - 9:17 AM Monday, December 23, 2024" where the red circle is.

The message is in the debug as having been sent, but it is not showing up in the HTML.

So, now I believe I either have two problems, or the real problem is happening earlier in the flow. Because it is not inserting it into the HTML, or sending the SMS.

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24

Sorry, I don't recognise your use of the terminology "In my HTML".

Are you using node-red-dashboard, @flowfuse/node-red-dashboard, an http-out node, or some other means to serve your HTML?
Maybe this is what Twilio provides?

What is the URL of your HTML?

25

Well, it is all working again. I have no idea why.
While waiting for another thought from you fine people, I decided to fix a warning I was seeing in the debug about the credentials not being encrypted.

I edited the settings.js file to add my credentialSecret.

I restarted the Pi and my flow changes were gone, so I started reading about how to save the flow, I had been clicking "Restart Flows".

After several flow deployments choices, I accidentally clicked on "Deploy" rather than one of the submenu options and it all started working.

I want to thank each of you for your comments. I still don't know what was wrong, but I am so relieved it is working again.

1 Like
26

Export, and backup your flows :wink:
or use the projects feature (but that is for another day)

27

Yep. Restoring my last backup was my first go at fixing it. I think it was an OS or NODEJS issue.

Thank you for all your thoughts and advice!

28

I'm back. So I now think there wasn't anything wrong with my flow or with the OS, but rather something else.

This all started on December 10, on January 10 it happened again.

Remember when I said I chose a different "Deploy" button at the top and it started working? Well, this is the case after any reboot.

I need to open the flow and click Deploy to get it working after a reboot.

I am looking for pointers on what may be wrong or where to look to find out why, after years, it now will not auto deploy after start up.

29

Do you get the same problem if you just restart node-red using
node-red-stop
node-red-start
Show us the command window output that you get from those commands.

30

pi@garagedoor:~ $ node-red-stop
Stop Node-RED

Use node-red-start to start Node-RED again


pi@garagedoor:~ $ node-red-start

Start Node-RED

Once Node-RED has started, point a browser at http://192.168.254.144:1880
On Pi Node-RED works better with the Firefox or Chrome browser

Use   node-red-stop                          to stop Node-RED
Use   node-red-start                         to start Node-RED again
Use   node-red-log                           to view the recent log output
Use   sudo systemctl enable nodered.service  to autostart Node-RED at every boot
Use   sudo systemctl disable nodered.service to disable autostart on boot

To find more nodes and example flows - go to http://flows.nodered.org

Starting as a systemd service.
18 Jan 18:35:48 - [info]
Welcome to Node-RED
===================
18 Jan 18:35:48 - [info] Node-RED version: v4.0.8
18 Jan 18:35:48 - [info] Node.js  version: v20.18.0
18 Jan 18:35:48 - [info] Linux 6.1.21+ arm LE
18 Jan 18:35:54 - [info] Loading palette nodes
18 Jan 18:36:18 - [info] Dashboard version 3.1.7 started at /ui
18 Jan 18:36:35 - [info] Settings file  : /home/pi/.node-red/settings.js
18 Jan 18:36:35 - [info] Context store  : 'default' [module=memory]
18 Jan 18:36:35 - [info] User directory : /home/pi/.node-red
18 Jan 18:36:35 - [warn] Projects disabled : editorTheme.projects.enabled=false
18 Jan 18:36:35 - [info] Flows file     : /home/pi/.node-red/flows.json
18 Jan 18:36:35 - [info] Server now running at http://127.0.0.1:1880/
18 Jan 18:36:36 - [info] Starting flows
18 Jan 18:36:39 - [info] Started flows
18 Jan 18:36:44 - [info] [sms:sms] SMa...96 | +15555551212 | <hr>Garage Door Controller is starting - 6:36 PM Saturday, January 18, 20                  25
18 Jan 18:36:44 - [info] [sms:sms] SMb...ad | +15555551212 | Garage Door is Closed - 6:36 PM Saturday, January 18, 2025
18 Jan 18:36:44 - [info] [sms:sms] SM7..b6 | +15555551212 | <hr>Garage Door Controller is starting - 6:36 PM Saturday, January 18, 20                  25
18 Jan 18:36:44 - [info] [sms:sms] SM3...fa | +5555551212 | Garage Door is Closed - 6:36 PM Saturday, January 18, 2025

The flows are working properly without clicking "Deploy"

It's strange that the console is now showing Node-Red data and all output is coming to the console.

When I do a node-red-restart it comes back to a prompt.

31

The command node-red-start starts node red and then shows the node red log.

Reboot, then run
sudo journalctl -u nodered -b 0 -n all -f -o cat
Which should show the log since rebooting.

32

one question - why does the garage door controller seem to start twice ?

(PS - if you want to restart and view the log then you can use node-red-reload instead of node-red-restart)

33

Though, for some reason that I do not understand, node-red-reload sometimes misses off the first few lines of the startup log, which is why I tend not to recommend it.

34

well it just calls journalctl - but with -n 0 - so it logs from the moment it gets called. As this is immediately following the service start then iI'm surprised there is time to miss anything much. If we set it to a larger number then the log tends to start with "stopping" or whatever happened previously rather than the start of this run - which IMHO is more confusing.

35

I can't get it to do it now. I will watch for the next time it happens.