Trigger every 6 hours but starting at 02:00?

General
1

Hi there,

I want to get messages every 6 hours and so I have a flow with an inject node at boot time connected to a a trigger node that is set every 6 hours. That works fine, but depends on the moment when I boot.

Is there an easy way to start triggering not at boot but lets say at 02:00 morning, so I get next value at 08:00, 14:00 etc. ?

2

Have a look at node-red-contrib-cron-plus. I am pretty sure that node can do that.

3

with Cron plus its real easy.
Expanding on Colin's suggestion .. you can use the following configuration

image

4

Great, looks really good. Thanks!

5

Or using a change node, Jsonata and a delay.
You set the trigger hour in the inject node ( 1 for 1 am, 2 for 2am, etc) But simpler using cronplus as it is all done for you

[{"id":"600b537a.9dcba4","type":"inject","z":"8d22ae29.7df6d","name":"","props":[{"p":"starthour","v":"19","vt":"num"},{"p":"local","v":"Europe/London","vt":"str"}],"repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"topic":"","x":90,"y":1000,"wires":[["80994d6c.5601d"]]},{"id":"80994d6c.5601d","type":"change","z":"8d22ae29.7df6d","name":"","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"delay","pt":"msg","to":"($local := local;\t$starttime := starthour * 3600000;\t$timegap := $toMillis(\"1970-01-01T\" & $moment().tz($local).format('HH:mm:ss') & \"Z\");\t $timegap <= $starttime ? ($starttime - $timegap) : (86400000 + $starttime - $timegap);\t   \t   \t      )\t\t","tot":"jsonata"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":250,"y":1000,"wires":[["ca18810d.3ed83","b76ea11.89af86"]]},{"id":"b76ea11.89af86","type":"delay","z":"8d22ae29.7df6d","name":"","pauseType":"delayv","timeout":"5","timeoutUnits":"milliseconds","rate":"1","nbRateUnits":"1","rateUnits":"second","randomFirst":"1","randomLast":"5","randomUnits":"seconds","drop":false,"x":440,"y":1000,"wires":[["ba123fb5.f3788","ca18810d.3ed83"]]},{"id":"ba123fb5.f3788","type":"trigger","z":"8d22ae29.7df6d","name":"","op1":"1","op2":"1","op1type":"str","op2type":"str","duration":"6","extend":false,"units":"hr","reset":"","bytopic":"all","topic":"topic","outputs":1,"x":600,"y":1000,"wires":[[]]}]
6

Thats one way :stuck_out_tongue:

Or 0 0 2/4 * * * *

image

7

@Steve-Mcl

You must have ment 0 0 2/6 * * * *

8

Doh haha. That'll teach me.

Cron is so flexible & at the same time takes no prisoners :joy:

9

Just kidding,
You are THE expert, full respect!