So, I was using the recommended method for upgrading node-red on my raspberry pi:
https://nodered.org/docs/hardware/raspberrypi
but it failed to install nodejs for armv6. looking at the log I see this:
/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npmlog/log.js:57
log.progressEnabled = log.gauge.isEnabled()
^
TypeError: log.gauge.isEnabled is not a function
at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npmlog/log.js:57:33)
at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:689:30)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:700:10)
at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:599:32)
at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:538:12)
at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:530:3)
at Module.require (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:637:17)
at require (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:22:18)
at /usr/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js:22:13
at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js:153:3)