Hi Everyone, I just wanted to explain my experience with rule machine, which to be fair is not a good one, The Hubitat hub is great, but i found Rule Engine to be frustrating and slow to the point it would take 15 - 30 secs for lights etc to turn on or off, So i purchased a Raspberry Pi4 and install Raspbian desktop which had Node Red ready to use, i installed the node for hubitat and started creating flows which was a breeze, now everything runs fast, i cant even count a second before my light etc switch on, and are so reliable. I know this is more expense but it was worth it for me, so all i have done is replace Rule Engine with Node Red everything else remains the same, and it works great.
There are quite a few of us who use Node-RED, including myself. However, there was something seriously awry with your rules if it was taking 15-30 seconds for lights to turn on.
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Yes, you are probably right, but Rule Engine is so frustrating, to work out where the bottle neck is and change, to be honest i have a lot more going on in Node Red, and there's no slow down at all, and i can change things in seconds, I only used Rule Engine for about a week after buying and had enough by then, I'm not saying I'm an expert, but i don't want to have to jump through hoops to write silly little rules, for them to run so slow on a local network, defeats the objective.
Rule Machine is pretty excellent - until you need to troubleshoot a rule, clone a rule, or modify a rule. Those last issues are just the nature of the beast given the UI limitations.
I find node-red more intuitive - I like flow based layouts. Node-red logic also executes faster in the environment I run it in.
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RM is heavy due to all the use-cases it must support. Thankfully the push seems to be toward using more focused / less resource intensive apps like motion lighting / simple automations etc. This should help a lot with some of the more confusing aspects I think.
NR sequences just seem more intuitive to me too (I also really liked WebCoRE). I like that I have access to and can control the runtime environment as needed.. adding memory, tweaking config files etc. Also with NR functioning as a master controller I can write rules across a bunch of different systems and am not tied to any one of them in particular. Also thanks to NR being opensource not worried about bankruptcies / takeovers etc.
I prefer to keep HE as clean as possible and consider it a critical part of my system. The local processing aspect is just the greatest.
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I use both. There are some flows that are not coming easy to me. I tend to overthink things, so most of my rules run in node red. Some in Rule machine. I agree that you're taking the processing from the hub and moving it elsewhere, so it is going to help. I've even noticed improvement and I run very few 3rd party apps on my hub and haven't experienced any real slow downs. But, I do notice the difference in execution. Now if I could only wrap my head around the entire node red logic, I'd be much happier.
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I like to watch the flows move through the sequences. (I'm very visual)
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Don't be afraid to look at some of your community apps to see if Node Red can replace those also. For example, I use Node Red to control Roku w/ HTTP requests in Node Red although there is an option of a community app. Also, your HSM Rules can probably be replicated in Node Red.
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I used WebCoRE when i had a smarthings hub, but its web based, and when you lose your internet connection, and nothing works, and then your wifes in your ear, you realise locally based system is the way to go, that's why i turned to hubitat, and to be honest haven't looked back, other than Rule Engine, which i really wanted to work, but you get to a point where enough is enough. I do use IFTTT though for the odd thing, like my Google home hubs(5), but i can do without that working, and all my light etc will still work.
WebCoRE runs locally on HE though, IFTTT is still Internet reliant but very useful for all the integrations it offers which are typically cloud dependent anyway so makes sense.
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Yes IFTTT is web reliant, but my system is not reliant on IFTTT, and i found it easier to link IFTTT to my Google account than Node Red, my system is total locally reliant and i haven't had my wife moaning for a while, so happy. I did find some drivers in Hubitat quite limited compared to Smarthings though, specially with aeotec, I have installed user created drivers, but still not up to par with Smarthings.
After more than 2 years with RM, now I set up one of my 4 hubs with webCoRE. The piston now is run locally in HE hub.
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Originally I was going to go that route as well especially with all the great work being done but Node-RED kind of got in the way.. 
I really liked WebCore when I was ST only. I don't see me going back to it now that I have discovered Node Red. I do wish I would have kept my pistons though.
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I just going back to webCoRE last weekend. Now when the motion sensor active, after 400 ms, light turn on. If I want faster , then I need Raspberry Pi4 and Node Red ?
I don't know I have not used WebCoRE with HE in a long time. I recommend trying Node-RED for other reasons though. It is not dependent on the Hubitat and can incorporate other systems as needed. Very flexible and powerful.
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Yes WebCoRE is good, I did try it on HE and i just found Node Red more flexible, and i wondered, installing WebCoRE could put more stress on Hubitats processor, where Node Red run on a Raspberry pi and doesn't use Hubitats processor. I feel i need to keep device programming separate, because i couldn't figure out the slow down in Hubitat, so just put it down to the processor.
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