I’m in the process of slowly switching over from Hubitat to Home Assistant. From looking through the forums, it seems like learning Node-red is the preferred way of doing automations (rather than using the built-in automations feature). I’ve never used Node-red before, so I’m looking for suggestions on what resources will help me learn it quickly/efficiently. I’ve found a few tutorials online, but I wasn’t sure if there was anything specifically targeted towards using it with Home Assistant, or if there was anything I should know/learn before I dive into Node-red.
I recently did the same thing (except came from WebCore on SmartThings to Home Assistant).
The Node-RED documentation site is good ( Documentation : Node-RED (nodered.org)), but I honestly learned best by disabling what was an automation routine (a piston in WebCore) and tinkered with replicating it in Node-RED until I started to figure it out. I took some really easy ones and build from there. The base set of Node-RED nodes (called the palette) is pretty good for a beginner level, though you will likely find that you will install some additional nodes as your needs dictate.
The way I found most helpful is to take an automation routine and write out in plain English what you are doing. E.G if the study door opens, then turn on the study light. I had some very complicated automations that I had developed over the years, and having to write it out in plain English really helped me to evaluate it again and optimize BEFORE attempting to recreate it in Node-RED.
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I found his videos very helpful
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