Zwave on Node-red

General
1

Hi
Is it possible to run a Aeotec zwave dongle on Ubutu using node-red without Home Assistant.

Many thanks in advance

Andrew

2

Hi @fogmajor

Yes!

Disclaimer: I'm the author.

The Serial port must not be in use by any other software, and if you are using Node RED VIA HA - ensure the serial port is mapped correctly, or not use HA at all :wink:

3

I use Z-Wave JS · GitHub because I prefer to have separate z-wave and mqtt configuration control. I run an instance in Docker and use the NR MQTT nodes to communicate with it via the Mosquitto broker.

1 Like
4

Yup!

Zwavejs2mqtt (now Zwave JS UI) and my node above use the same backend Zwave Driver - we're actually all apart of the same dev team :nerd_face:

3 Likes
5

I don't suppose you could easily (enough) make your nodes work with the standalone package instead of your built-in implementation, could you? I really liked the z2m nodes for the zigbee2mqtt package when I was using it and lamented that I had to use standard MQTT nodes for z-wave.

6

Hi @LosinIt

standalone package instead

ZWave JS is the underlying driver/JS Library that has various implementations using it:

  • zwave-js-server (HA)
  • zwave JS UI (formerly zwavejs2mqtt - MQTT)
  • node-red-contrib-zwave-js (Node RED)
  • ioBroker.zwave2 (IO Broker)
  • ZWaveJS .NET (.NET Framework)

node-red-contrib-zwave-js
Fires up the driver directly in side Node RED (for network maintenance, it has a native Node RED UI)

Unless I don't understand the question (quite possible :sweat_smile: ) the Node
IS using the standalone package (like zwavejs2mqtt is also using it)

if you mean, you like this set of nodes to use (or offload it's responsibility to MQTT). - I'm afraid that's not the goal of this node.

It's to offer up the Zwave JS library directly inside Node RED with no middleware between it and ZWave JS - Node RED itself is running it.

Or if your referring to accessing the driver instance directly:
V9 (A Woking Progress) exposes the driver functions directly in function nodes

Screenshot 2023-03-19 at 19.08.50

7

Yes, that's what I mean. I can't give you solid reasoning but I prefer the separation to embedded. It just "feels" better to me.

But that's fine, I've had it all working great for months and there's no need to change it.

8

No need to explain.

I have the same approach to HomeKit, even though I am a contributor to node-red-contrib-homekit-bridged and close friends with the team behind it, I use an external system for my HomeKit Needs.

Its whatever works for you.
ZWave directly in Node RED works for me, but HomeKit doesn't.

As mentioned earlier, the ZWave JS ecosystem is made up of a few of us.

AI Calzone

  • The core JS library developer
  • The IO Broker plugin developer

Daniel Lando

  • The MQTT Server developer

Brian Howard

  • Our config file master

And My self

  • The Device DB website developer
  • The Node RED plugin developer
  • The .NET Library developer
2 Likes
9

Many thanks for your kind and informative response.

Regards
Andrew

10

Many thanks for your kind help.

Regards
Andrew

11

Thank you so much

12

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