What is Node Red? –Node red is a Open Source flow based tool and IOT platform and Dashboard developed by IBM and written in Node.js.

Node-red lets you easily build applications by joining together black box functions (nodes) using a web interface, and it requires very little, if any, programming knowledge.

Because of its flexibility and ease of use node-red is ideally suited for building IOT and Home control dashboards and automations as well as many other applications.

Node-red can be installed locally on Windows and Linux and also because of its small size also on the raspberry Pi.

It is also available as a cloud server from IBM and others like FRED

Node-Red Overview

Here is a the official introductory video from the node-red team which give you a good overview of what node-red is.

Getting Started

Before you can use node-red locally you will need to install it and start it running.

This tutorial Installing and Starting Node-Red explains how to do that.

The next step is to become familiar with the admin interface and learn how to create and manage flows.

Node-red works by passing messages between nodes and this is critical to understand before you start wiring nodes together and is explained in Understanding The Node-Red Message Object

Node-Red Install and Setup Quiz

This quiz is for beginners to node-red and test basic knowledge

node-red setup

Time limit: 0

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Question 1 of 10

1. Question

Node-Red Runs is a XXXXX Application ?

node.js

Python

C++

C

Correct

Incorrect

Question 2 of 10

2. Question

The default port for administering node-red is?

8080

1880

1883

80

Correct

Incorrect

Question 3 of 10

3. Question

The default settings file is called?

settings.js

settings.json

settings.cfg

node_red_settings.txt

Correct

Incorrect

Question 4 of 10

4. Question

You start node-red from the command line but it fails to start with the Error Message

Error:Port in Use

What is the most likely cause?

The firewall is blocking access

Another application is using this port

An instance of Node-red is already running

Correct

Incorrect

Question 5 of 10

5. Question

Which of the following statements are true?

You can start node red on another port than 1880?

To start node red using port 1881 use node-red -p 1881

You can only have one instance of node red running on machine

To have two instances of node red running on a single machine they need to use different ports

Correct

Incorrect

Question 6 of 10

6. Question

What does the following command do?

node-red -s mysettings.js -p 1889

It starts node-red using the default settings file on port 1889

It starts node-red using the mysettings.js file on port 1889

It starts node-red using the mysettings.js file on port 1880

The command doesn't work

Correct

Incorrect

Question 7 of 10

7. Question

You are using Node-red on a machine called raspberrypi. What is the name of the flow file created by default.

flows_servername.json.

flows_raspberrypi.json

flows_raspberrypi.js

default_flow.json

Correct

Incorrect

Question 8 of 10

8. Question

Besides the flow file node node also creates additional files in the .node-red folder. On a server called raspberrypi you would expect to see th following files:

flows_raspberrypi.json

flows_raspberrypi.json.backup

flows_raspberrypi_cred.json.

True

False

Correct

Incorrect

Question 9 of 10

9. Question

To create passwords for the admin interface you need to install the command line admin tools?

True or False?

True

False

Correct

Incorrect

Question 10 of 10

10. Question

The dashboard nodes are part of the core nodes and installed by default?

True or False?

True

False

Correct

Incorrect

Node-Red Administration

Like all applications there is a certain amount of administration and configuration that needs to be done. These tutorials cover the main administration aspects.

Tutorials

Node-Red Nodes and Programming

Tutorials

Node-Red Dashboards

You can create node-red dashboards for IOT and Home automation and for a myriad of other applications.

However the nodes that allow you to do this aren’t part of the core nodes and need to be installed.

Tutorials

Node-Red IOT and Home Automation

Industrial IOT and home automation applications will generally use one or more of the following protocols.

MQTT
HTTP

Nodes for these protocols are part of the core nodes.You can find out how to use these nodes in the following tutorials:

Tutorials

However Industrial IOT projects also use modbus and there are modbus nodes available that you will need to be installed.

Tutorials

Node-Red Data Storage

Tutorials

Storing IOT data in a SQLite Database

Videos

Useful Tools

Summary Of Terms

Note: These are the terms and meanings used in tutorials and videos.

Workspace – Contains all of your flows

Flow – A collection of nodes and wires

Flow Canvas – The Flow Edit screen

Node – A packaged JavaScript function with data.

Wire – A connection between nodes.

Resources

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