How many ways do you need to say "Turn the ■■■■■■■ lights on" hahahaha. 
I think I mentioned in my original post about this but I use at least 3.
- Illuminate (from The Demolition Man)
- Lumos Maxima (from Harry Potter)
- Turn the Lights on
1 Like
I got tired of trying to figure out every permutation that someone might use and putting them into blueprints so I just stuck an extra Alexa speaks at the end with her saying "OK, got it boss". So she interrupts herself, which is pretty funny
Me: Alexa, turn on bathroom lights
Correct bathroom lights turn on
Alexa: A few things share the name bathroom li... OK, got it boss
2 Likes
can you post the code for this example? i’ve been using the join-wait node, which works pretty well.
thanks
Sure
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PS you also need to initially set the flow context to "none" or else it won't work
1 Like
Yeah I'm getting this too, even with a response added. She is just giving me the error but still doing what I asked. 
I played with the Alexa Blueprint last night and was able to eliminate about 15 routines. It also motivated me to implement voice commands to turn on different channels on my Roku w/ my voice since I no longer have to add a new dummy routine for each variation. So far, that works also. I went back and edited my original post describing this example and recommend Alexa Blueprints in case someone is reading from beginning.
1 Like
I think I may need to do some renaming of lights and lamps, and avoid the errors. This is very nice though 
I updated my button tap subflow, now it traps doubletap and held events - you can define how many "taps" a held event is.. Previously I was using this for a pico in quick mode but now can be used for buttons like smartthings button or others maybe. Also taps exceeding the 4 by default will get sent through the 4th output - you would need to check the "msg.count" property.
Updated code now on this post:
Here was the original post:
3 Likes
Looking for advice from anyone using lux readings to automate lights. I'm trying to decide what approach would be reasonable or most effective using the "Calculate" node (or any other node that does average, max, min over a period of time). Do you use average readings or max or min? Over what period (minute or more)?
Currently, my automations work well unless there is moving cloud cover causing the lights to cycle on/off. Appreciate any guidance you can provide.
No right answer on this one - it depends on personal tastes, and how fast your lux sensor updates.
I like the smooth node (node-red-node-smooth) for smoothing signals, but there are a number of other nodes that can do it.
Here are some examples of response on my outdoor lux reading that updates 1x/minute (weatherflow weather station).
The trick is how fast you want the automation to react. I don't like the lights shifting frequently/fast, so I use a fairly high filter. Mean 3 or Mean 5 works well for that, with values at the 1x/min frequency. If you want it faster, or your lux readings come in faster/slower you would have to adjust that.
As you would guess, the dips are clouds that went by.
Raw vs Low pass filters:
Raw vs Means:
1 Like
Yeah - This one is an Aeotec MS6 using @csteele’s driver. I have it set to report on a 2 Lux change (works for me since it’s indoors). Since I’m logging all changes, I think I can go back and look how quickly it’s reporting but I’m going to have to find a day that matches cloudy conditions!
I think I may start with a “max” value and 1 minute and see how that goes. Thoughts?
You won't like my thought on using the MS6 for lux control.
In my OPINION, for GOOD lux control you need something that reports more frequently. For indoor lux I would want something that reports in the order of 5-15s continually so that predictable filtering can be done. Easy to do with a Arduino/esp8266 on mains power, not so easy to do on a battery powered device, or a z sensor on mains power (as they still typically only repeat on change, plus a slow fixed time interval).
That said, go back and look at how it reports on a cloud event. For a sensor that reports infrequently, using a time relay with reset instead of averaging or a filter may be more appropriate.
1 Like
I use these
4 Likes
For my simplistic use as a basic lux detector in NR I created subflow with a set of ranges defined as none/low/medlow/med/medhi/hi and simply key off the lux value. This works well as long as I leave a sufficient enough gap between the ranges. A usb powered MS-6 works great for this..
If I were to get more sophisticated like setting dimming levels or other stuff based on lux however then heck yes - more accurate sensor + much better algorithm like the smoothing node (thanks for the heads up on that btw).
1 Like
Yeah - my MS6 is USB powered, so does report fairly frequently. However, it doesn't look like I have multiple readings in less than a minute.
Could you share the ranges that you have defined? I'm currently using <=20 as "on", >=30 as "off". This works "most" of the time.
Restart Homebridge on HE reboot/power cycle
I was having an issue with Homebridge log showing errors if HE was restarted and Homebridge was not
The errors appear to be harmless but I was looking for a way to automatically restart Homebridge process when HE was restarted. It turns out that the Homebridge UI plug-in has an API that can be accessed from Node-RED.
The following flow automatically restarts Homebridge if HE is restarted.
It uses standard nodes (Change, Delay, Function, HTTP Request) and the node-red-contrib-credentials (node-red-contrib-credentials (node) - Node-RED) for username, password and the IP address/port of the Homebridge server.
The flow is triggered by the link-in from the Hub systemStart location event on another flow. The flow execution is delayed for 2 minutes to ensure that HE has finished rebooting. It then logs into Homebridge and calls the restart API (similar to the user selecting the "restart" button in the Homebridge UI)
Below is the flow if anyone wants it.
NOTE: The log errors seem to be only with the MakerAPI Homebridge plug-in
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Hope this helps someone!
1 Like
Wanted to post this here as well in case anyone is interested - this is a very simple example of a Finite State Machine aggregating a "motion sensor" and a "contact sensor" and putting the results in a switch node for fun and easy processing:
1 Like
Putting this here in in case anyone's been experiencing issues with casting TTS to Chromecast groups. I battled with this for months. Basically, the IP/Port for Cast Groups can change from time to time and are therefore super annoying all the time. This flow browses _googlecast._tcp nodes and uses the output to generate the most up to date IP/port for the chosen cast group before sending the TTS request.
Note: I implemented this on an Ubuntu box. You will need to install the avahi-utils package prior to running. For a Windows node-red installation, I'm sure it can be done, but this certainly won't work out of the box without modifications.
[{"id":"ce1430ad.2794e","type":"cast-to-client","z":"7b31a85e.379d78","name":"Google Home - Non-specific","url":"","contentType":"","message":"","language":"en","ip":"","port":"","volume":"","x":1420,"y":420,"wires":[[]],"icon":"node-red-contrib-cast/google-home1.svg"},{"id":"c15ad04f.c266c","type":"looptimer2","z":"7b31a85e.379d78","duration":"2","units":"Second","maxloops":"100","maxtimeout":"1","maxtimeoutunits":"Hour","name":"","x":260,"y":420,"wires":[["d6fbebd5.7edfa8"],[]]},{"id":"84e21e46.de69a","type":"change","z":"7b31a85e.379d78","name":"Prepare Message","rules":[{"t":"move","p":"strArray[7]","pt":"msg","to":"ip","tot":"msg"},{"t":"move","p":"strArray[7]","pt":"msg","to":"port","tot":"msg"},{"t":"delete","p":"payload","pt":"msg"},{"t":"delete","p":"rc","pt":"msg"},{"t":"delete","p":"parts","pt":"msg"},{"t":"delete","p":"strArray","pt":"msg"},{"t":"delete","p":"castTarget","pt":"msg"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":1170,"y":420,"wires":[["8d038b77.ebe8e8","ce1430ad.2794e"]]},{"id":"bac40b3f.e56ac8","type":"inject","z":"7b31a85e.379d78","name":"","props":[{"p":"message","v":"This is a test cast.","vt":"str"},{"p":"topic","vt":"str"},{"p":"castTarget","v":"Study Display","vt":"str"}],"repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"topic":"Test Message","payloadType":"str","x":180,"y":480,"wires":[["c15ad04f.c266c"]]},{"id":"dac0804a.613e6","type":"split","z":"7b31a85e.379d78","name":"","splt":"\\n","spltType":"str","arraySplt":1,"arraySpltType":"len","stream":false,"addname":"","x":610,"y":420,"wires":[["b69ff338.2498b"]]},{"id":"b69ff338.2498b","type":"change","z":"7b31a85e.379d78","name":"","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"strArray","pt":"msg","to":"$split(payload, ';')\t","tot":"jsonata"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":780,"y":420,"wires":[["8f82c7c8.2b82a8"]]},{"id":"8f82c7c8.2b82a8","type":"switch","z":"7b31a85e.379d78","name":"Cast Targets","property":"strArray[9]","propertyType":"msg","rules":[{"t":"cont","v":"'fn='&castTarget","vt":"jsonata"}],"checkall":"true","repair":false,"outputs":1,"x":970,"y":420,"wires":[["dc03a87a.71e0f8","8d038b77.ebe8e8","84e21e46.de69a"]]},{"id":"8d038b77.ebe8e8","type":"debug","z":"7b31a85e.379d78","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"true","targetType":"full","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":1130,"y":460,"wires":[]},{"id":"d6fbebd5.7edfa8","type":"exec","z":"7b31a85e.379d78","command":"avahi-browse","addpay":false,"append":"_googlecast._tcp -rtp","useSpawn":"false","timer":"","oldrc":false,"name":"","x":450,"y":420,"wires":[["dac0804a.613e6"],[],[]]}]
Also note: The process is wrapped in a 2 second loop because sometimes the cast group doesn't show up in the avahi-browse command the first time. It'll just keep retrying until it finds the castTarget you are looking for.
1 Like
That is cool - never considered using NR to search the network for services like that. Usually I provide reserved DHCP's to everything but a residential client of mine has an ISP that does not allow this feature so something like this might be very useful.
Have you tried the node-red-node-discovery node? Seems a little dated but maybe okay.