Hey, Want to Make Node-RED Way Easier?
I send short, helpful tips, flows,videos and no-fluff guides that’ll save you time (and headaches).
Hop on the list—it’s free and nerd-friendly.
Best Regards
Steve
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 service from IBM and others like flowforge.
Node-Red Introduction and Overview
Here is a the official introductory video from the node-red team which gives you a good overview of what node-red is.
Node-Red Tutorials – Quick Links
- Getting started
- Node-Red Admin
- Node-Red programming
- Node-Red Dashboards
- Node-Red Data storage
- Node-Red IOT and Home Automation
- Videos
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 editor interface.
- Introduction to the Editor
- How to create and manage flows
- Deploying Flows
- How to Export and Import Nodes and Flows
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 Settings.js File – Node-Red Admin
- Local Installs and Managing Node-Red Projects
- Securing Node-Red with SSL and User name Authentication
Node-Red Nodes and Programming
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
Tutorials
- Using the Node-Red Function Node- Beginners Guide
- Storing Data in Node-Red Variables
- Initialising Node-Red Flows
- Using The Node-Red Library
- Working with JSON Data And JavaScript Objects in Node-Red
- Using the Node Red Status Node
- Understanding and Using Buffers In Node-Red
- Using the Node-Red Template Node
- Message Object Cloning
- Using Environmental Variables
- Node-Red Configuration Nodes Overview
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.
There are two sets of Dashboard nodes (dashboard 1 and dashboard 2).
Most of the tutorials you see on the Internet and also this site use dashboard 1.
However dashboard 1 will be discontinued at some point so I would recommend that you start using dashboard 2.
Tutorials
- Create a node-red Dashboard
- Using The Node-Red Dashboard Template Dashboard Node
- Using the Node-Red Chart Node
- Using the Control UI Node
- Modbus Node-Red Dashboards and MQTT Modbus Bridge
- An Introduction to Dashboard 2
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
- Node-Red HTTP Request Node for Beginners
- Node-Red Web Server -HTTP-IN and HTTP Response Nodes
- Configuring the MQTT Publish and Subscribe Nodes in Node-Red
- MQTT Dynamic Connections
- How to Install and Run The Mosca MQTT Broker on Node-Red
- Using the Exec node to run external commands
- Using the chart Node for graphs
- Working with Time
However Industrial IOT projects also use modbus and there are modbus nodes available that you will need to be installed.
Tutorials
- How to Use Node-Red with Modbus
- Writing Modbus Data with node-red
- Modbus Node-Red Dashboards and MQTT Modbus Bridge
- My Modbus Working Notes
Notifications
Many flows will utilize notification via email, SMS etc for errors and status messages.
Tutorials
Node-Red Data Storage
Tutorials
- Storing IOT data in a SQLite Database
- Storing and Retrieving JSON Data In SQLite
- Using Node-Red with Influxdb
Videos
Useful Tools
Useful Links
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.
Latest Tutorials
Latest tutorials are on the blog page