Node-Red Newbie

Third party integrations Node-RED
1

I’ve decided to try to learn about Node-Red.

I found some tutorials as well as these examples of putting it to good use:

I have the Node-Red add-on installed. I was able to install the Schedex Node.

What I don’t understand is how to link the nodes to each other (grey line with little square boxes on each side), and how to use the provided code to configure the nodes.

For example, the Schedex node identified as “Sunset (-40min)” has this code associated with it:


{
    "id": "8ceb3f91.1eb3",
    "type": "schedex",
    "z": "c97206b0.e99878",
    "name": "Sunset (-40min) - 11PM",
    "passthroughunhandled": false,
    "suspended": false,
    "lat": "37.338167",
    "lon": "-121.885388",
    "ontime": "sunset",
    "ontopic": "",
    "onpayload": "{\"service\":\"turn_on\",\"brightness_pct\":\"10\"}",
    "onoffset": "-40",
    "onrandomoffset": 0,
    "offtime": "23:00",
    "offtopic": "",
    "offpayload": "{\"service\":\"turn_off\"}",
    "offoffset": 0,
    "offrandomoffset": 0,
    "mon": true,
    "tue": true,
    "wed": true,
    "thu": true,
    "fri": true,
    "sat": true,
    "sun": true,
    "x": 187,
    "y": 311,
    "wires": [
        ["bd73ab02.91e688"]
    ]
}

I see various fields in the configuration/settings of the node. But, how, for example, would I know to use an offpayload of:

\"service\":\"turn_off\"

Is there a list I can select or is it manual coding?

I know these are very basic questions, and might not even make sense as questions.

Any help would sure be appreciated.

Thank you

2

To link two nodes together, place your mouse on the output of the first node, then drag and let go on the input of the second node.

To remove an existing link, click on the link (which causes it to turn orange) then press the Delete key.

3

Thank you!

I was using the “switch” node after the schedex node and the switch node does not have an input. Scratched my head for a while until I realized ‘hey, other nodes have a little box on the left side’