Node-Red / Indigo Usage

Posted on
Sat Feb 26, 2022 7:58 am
Busta999 offline
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Location: Wales UK

Node-Red / Indigo Usage

To the guys who a miles ahead of me in using Node Red and Indigo.

I have got Indigo up and running and have Node-Red (in Docker) talking to Indigo.

Ie I can turn on and off a zwave plug in Indigo.

I also add an SRT321 Battery operated zwave thermostat which appears in Node Red as having a Brightness option.

I am absolutely very new to this, especially Node Red.

My intention/hope is to use Indigo for managing zwave devices and Hubitat for general Zigbee and other odds and sods, and use the Hue Hubs for lighting, Sonos etc etc

Build in core basic automation in each system - so Indigo will run Heating/Hot Water and Energy management, Hue Hubs automated lighting and Hubitat

Then put Node Red over the top of them all to manage all the logic and run dashboards etc.

Anyone see any issues here? Would it be better to use MQTT in Indigo and connect that to Node-Red?

This way I can keep all high level logic in Node red abstracted form the underlying App/Hubs that manage autonomous home automation

Posted on
Tue Mar 01, 2022 10:49 am
whmoorejr offline
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Location: Houston, TX

Re: Node-Red / Indigo Usage

I think it's going to boil down to personal preference.
I personally find indigo to be more flexible and better equipped at being the central hub of my automation.

I gravitated to Node-Red primarily for more reliable Alexa control. With the new native Alexa plugin, I don't use that feature anymore. The parts of node-red / alexa that indigo can't do, like music control and dynamic music selection, works on node-red, but it wasn't reliable when I used it.

As for logic, I do love the drag/drop node-red style for building a flow. I do, however, find indigo to be superior with more complex logic. Eg: If person A is home but not person B and it is between this time and button x is pressed then do 15 different things.

Another + for node-red is the ability to copy/paste a flow and to share a flow online with others.

As for node-red dashboard vs. indigo control pages.... I like the ease of building an indigo page, but a node red interface is a lot more customizable with iframes with more dynamic controls like volume bars, lists, etc. Personally though, I've steered away from crazy control pages and just have a main one that displays in my office. All my other control pages are now simple small pages that do one function.... like a "front door" control page that loads a fresh image from the front door camera and has a door lock/unlock button. <-- easy, loads fast.

For output, I'm moving more towards voice announcements (indigo -> alexa) & (indigo -> airfoil -> airplay) and personalized notifications (indigo -> pushover).

For input, I try to make complex logic in indigo to anticipate stuff (if front door opens and it's dark outside and patio light is off -> turn on patio light for 15 minutes) <-- so I don't need a control page switch with my patio light because it will come on when I need it to and if I need it on longer than 15 minutes, I just turn the physical switch on before opening the door which bypasses the trigger.

The bulk of the remaining automation is super simple automation that I use either Siri (home kit -> indigo) or Alexa (alexa -> indigo) and just control with voice.

Bill
My Plugin: My People

Posted on
Wed Mar 02, 2022 2:01 pm
Busta999 offline
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Location: Wales UK

Re: Node-Red / Indigo Usage

Thank you good info.

I really like segregating function and using autonomous tools, hue hub for upstairs (using hue switches/motion sensors), another for upstairs.

Indigo is really good at controlling zwave, solid, reliable, and it runs on my M1 Mac Mini that runs all the household services, so is an excellent candidate for managing all the heating/hot water zones.

I have a lot of zigbee devices sitting on Hubitat hubs, so looking at Autolog’s MQTT connection from Hubitat to Indigo.

The most reliable temp sensor I have seen in the last few years is the Hue Motion sensors, I have about 20 of those so will plan on using those to monitor temp for the heating, although really liking the Aqara Temp/humidity sensors.

As I build the next version, v5, of my heating system I want to add room humidity management (as it impacts temperature perception) into the mix and build in some heating trajectory compensation to even out Hysteresis.

So when we move to our new house in the next month or two I can start building it.

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