Question re: node-red-contrib-time-range-switch

General
1

This question is specifically about the node-red-contrib-time-range-switch node. I've successfully implemented it to control a flow restricted to a time range (I'm on the USA east coast). I've set the range to 7:30 (AM) to 22:00 . Seemed to work fine at first, but then I see that sometime during the afternoon or early evening, the date has cycled to the next day. So, when I checked it at about 9PM (21:00) today, the node thinks it's filtering from 7:30 to 22:00 on the following day.
I was presuming it would base its time on my Windows system clock. No mention anywhere about where any of the available time-related nodes get their time from. So, how do I get around this? If it's running off GMT, I just need to know that.
Thanks

2

I think the node use moment() to get the current time, which is the local time
Please correct me if i'm wrong :see_no_evil_monkey:

Please read:

* `moment(...)` is local mode. Ambiguous input (without offset) is assumed to be local time. Unambiguous input (with offset) is adjusted to local time.

node-red-contrib-time-range-switch/index.js at 34ea40a2b62d6f7ad145ec408a8b6b79dca75e68 · biddster/node-red-contrib-time-range-switch · GitHub

If the end time has already passed, it shifts the entire window to the next day.

i changed my local timezone with sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata, but it doesen't affect the ouput of the node , so i can't reproduce it. :thinking:

For more control what happen, i asked chatgpt to wirte me a simple function... et voilà :wink:

function isNowBetween(startTimeStr, endTimeStr) {
    const now = new Date();
    const nowMinutes = now.getHours() * 60 + now.getMinutes();

    const [startHours, startMinutes] = startTimeStr.split(':').map(Number);
    const [endHours, endMinutes] = endTimeStr.split(':').map(Number);

    const startTotalMinutes = startHours * 60 + startMinutes;
    const endTotalMinutes = endHours * 60 + endMinutes;

    if (startTotalMinutes <= endTotalMinutes) {
        // Normal range (e.g., 08:00–17:00)
        return nowMinutes >= startTotalMinutes && nowMinutes < endTotalMinutes;
    } else {
        // Overnight range (e.g., 22:00–06:00)
        return nowMinutes >= startTotalMinutes || nowMinutes < endTotalMinutes;
    }
}

msg.payload = isNowBetween("05:00", "19:00")
node.send(msg)

msg.payload = isNowBetween("19:00", "05:00")
node.send(msg)

return null;

maybe this serve the purpose?