52 Replies to “Basic Node-Red Flows for Automating Lighting with Home Assistant”

1. The Open Source Smart Home: Getting Started with Home Assistant & Node-Red – DIY Futurism says:

   December 14, 2017 at 10:30 pm

   […] Basic Node-Red Flows for Automating Lighting with Home Assistant […]

   Reply
   • Marcus says:

     May 23, 2020 at 11:49 am

     Hey Brad,
     Totally awesome post and really great info, so thank you for sharing.
     One point of clarification, if you have the time please… you reference “group.office” in the flow and your write-up but you don’t define it. I am a total noob so I need some help.
     Have you created a group in HA that has your office lights in it?
     Can you let me know please?
     It’s actually quite interesting that I do not see groups being used much in the GUI and I have to go into file editor and manually type them. Am I missing something? Surely there should be somewhere in the GUI like there is for “Scenes” for example that I am just missing.
     Thanks again.

     Reply
2. Useful Sensor: Motion Last Seen ________ – DIY Futurism says:

   December 15, 2017 at 9:09 pm

   […] Basic Node-Red Flows for Automating Lighting with Home Assistant […]

   Reply
3. CH says:

   December 28, 2017 at 8:43 am

   Thanks a lot for the great and detailed post. I try to use also node red for my home assistant automation. But i have problems with the current state node, it is always off.
   Due you have any idea why this is the case ? Would be great if you could have a look:

   [{“id”:”23462cfb.475464″,”type”:”switch”,”z”:”3933a201.bdd7ae”,”name”:”button_click”,”property”:”payload.event.click_type”,”propertyType”:”msg”,”rules”:[{“t”:”eq”,”v”:”single”,”vt”:”str”},{“t”:”eq”,”v”:”hold”,”vt”:”str”}],”checkall”:”true”,”outputs”:2,”x”:534.2475891113281,”y”:364.9352340698242,”wires”:[[“9dd96177.eb1e9″],[]],”outputLabels”:[“single”,”hold”]},{“id”:”cdc0d0df.b3f62″,”type”:”switch”,”z”:”3933a201.bdd7ae”,”name”:”switch_158d000152d6cc”,”property”:”payload.entity_id”,”propertyType”:”msg”,”rules”:[{“t”:”eq”,”v”:”binary_sensor.switch_158d0001a674c3″,”vt”:”str”}],”checkall”:”true”,”outputs”:1,”x”:335.2500762939453,”y”:365.49078369140625,”wires”:[[“23462cfb.475464”]]},{“id”:”7daff023.9cab”,”type”:”server-events”,”z”:”3933a201.bdd7ae”,”name”:””,”server”:”79ffe1ba.7d31e”,”x”:105,”y”:363.3515567779541,”wires”:[[“cdc0d0df.b3f62”]]},{“id”:”9dd96177.eb1e9″,”type”:”api-current-state”,”z”:”3933a201.bdd7ae”,”name”:”Light on ?”,”server”:”79ffe1ba.7d31e”,”halt_if”:”off”,”entity_id”:”switch.wall_switch_left_158d00012bad84″,”x”:685.0962829589844,”y”:314.2708396911621,”wires”:[[“9cf7568b.2681d8”]]},{“id”:”9cf7568b.2681d8″,”type”:”api-call-service”,”z”:”3933a201.bdd7ae”,”name”:”OFF”,”server”:”79ffe1ba.7d31e”,”service_domain”:”homeassistant”,”service”:”turn_off”,”data”:”{\”entity_id\”:\”switch.wall_switch_left_158d00012bad84\”}”,”x”:841.0129890441895,”y”:359.0104064941406,”wires”:[]},{“id”:”79ffe1ba.7d31e”,”type”:”server”,”z”:””,”name”:”Home Assistant”,”url”:”http://localhost:8123″,”pass”:”xxxx”}]

   Greetings,

   Reply
   • brad says:

     December 28, 2017 at 10:40 am

     Hmm I’m not able to import that flow, can you try posting it with something like pastebin?

     Reply
4. ch says:

   December 29, 2017 at 4:19 pm

   Hey Brad,

   Thanks a lot for help me out.

   https://pastebin.com/qHQLw0Vj

   Reply
   • brad says:

     January 6, 2018 at 12:38 pm

     I see, so your switch does not change states, it generates an event? I do not have any hardware that behaves this way so am unable to test it, but your flow seems like you are on the right track with the “events all” node and then filtering based on that. I would use the debug nodes to narrow down what is happening here. Also see the commenter below, who seems to be dealing with the same issue you are – you might want to look into HA’s MQTT Event stream feature, might be a simpler way of accomplishing this.

     Reply
5. Derek McFarland says:

   January 4, 2018 at 9:03 pm

   Hello, thanks for putting this out there. I have the dashboard and Hue add ons installed and working and now want to control some hassio components that are not Hue. I am having difficulties with the node-red-contrib-home-assistant v0.2.0 component that are likely simple. In the simple binary example, I get nothing from either output 1 or 2 of the function switch looking for true or false when triggered from a dashboard switch. The dashboard switch only gives a true or false boolean payload which should be routed through the function switch to services that either turn_on or turn_off a light or fan domain. My goal is to make a dashboard to display on a wink relay that controls on/off, brightness and color looping of a bedside hue lamp and also a Hampton Bay fan controller lamp on/off and brightness as well as fan on/off and speed. I have the hue lamp portion working.

   Reply
   • brad says:

     January 6, 2018 at 12:52 pm

     Thanks for the comment, the dashboard node looks very cool, that is definitely my next project!

     I would hook a debug node up to your input (the dashboard switch) and see what exactly it is sending as a message. I bet this is some kind of formatting issue, and once you see it in the debug node it will probably be obvious.

     One thing to watch for – make sure the evaluation in the string matches the message type the switch is sending. This varies based on the input node you are using. In your case is the dashboard switch actually sending a boolean (if so, evaluate with ‘is true’ or ‘is false’ in the switch) or is it sending it as a string (if so, use == “True” in the switch).

     In my example above, my input is a string (the words “on” or “off”) so I am matching the words, not a boolean state.

     Reply
6. Arno Nel says:

   January 5, 2018 at 7:08 am

   I am testing a Xiaomi button.
   According to this: https://home-assistant.io/components/binary_sensor.xiaomi_aqara/
   Some of the buttons (eg: WXKG02LM) will always have an off state

   Question: Which Node Red node do I use? “Events:state changed” doesnt work because no state has changed when I click a button.

   Reply
   • brad says:

     January 6, 2018 at 12:30 pm

     Interesting I see, so the button is generating an event instead of a state change. It looks like you need to use the ‘events all’ node, and then filter out (switch node) the event your button is creating. I haven’t done that but that should work.

     An alternative solution you might find useful is to the HA MQTT Eventstream: https://home-assistant.io/components/mqtt_eventstream/

     edit: Looks like commenter above has same issue, please post back if you resolve it.

     Reply
     • Dave J says:

       August 30, 2018 at 2:41 pm

       I can confirm that feeding the “events all” node into a switch, to select only the events from the xiaomi device, works perfectly. You can then add another switch to differentiate between a single, double and long (hold) press, so different click types can trigger different actions.

       Reply
7. ch says:

   January 8, 2018 at 7:49 am

   Hey brad,

   thanks a lot. But the problem isn’t that the switch send an event,
   as you mentioned it is quite easy to react to it and to filter the right events.

   The problem is that for some reason the “current state” node always,
   provides off for the flow i posted.

   Do you know if the “current state” node is requesting it data from homeassistant or if it simple parses the input ? If it just parses the input it would explain everything.

   Thanks

   Reply
   • brad says:

     January 8, 2018 at 11:07 am

     “Current state” requests the data from Home Assistant, and it should replace the message with that state. The input just begins the request. That is strange behavior, I am not sure what your issue is, it appears fine when I import it into my Node-Red.

     Does “current state” give the appropriate response in other flows, or getting the state of other entities? I wonder if there is some other issue going on here. You may want to try uninstalling/reinstalling the Home Assistant nodes, I have seen a few comments suggesting this might clear up unexpected behavior.

     Reply
8. Derek McFarland says:

   January 8, 2018 at 5:14 pm

   Hello, ch comments that it is ‘easy to react to it and to filter the right events’ but i’m not experiencing that. I’ve been trying to send a current fan speed to a dashboard dropdown so that the dropdown is current and am having difficulty (pulling my hair out, actually) doing so. I only see the changed state from the events_all node and the message is:1/8/2018, 6:10:34 PMnode: a5c95c.e59b86a8
   state_changed : msg.payload : Object
   object
   event_type: “state_changed”
   entity_id: “fan.hannahs_fan”
   event: object
   entity_id: “fan.hannahs_fan”
   old_state: object
   entity_id: “fan.hannahs_fan”
   state: “on”
   attributes: object
   speed: “lowest”
   speed_list: array[5]
   manufacturer_device_model: “home_decorators_home_decorators_fan”
   device_manufacturer: “home_decorators”
   model_name: “Ceiling Fan”
   friendly_name: “Hannahs Fan”
   supported_features: 5
   last_changed: “2018-01-09T00:59:48.647143+00:00”
   last_updated: “2018-01-09T00:59:48.647143+00:00”
   new_state: object
   entity_id: “fan.hannahs_fan”
   state: “on”
   attributes: object
   speed: “low”
   speed_list: array[5]
   manufacturer_device_model: “home_decorators_home_decorators_fan”
   device_manufacturer: “home_decorators”
   model_name: “Ceiling Fan”
   friendly_name: “Hannahs Fan”
   supported_features: 5
   last_changed: “2018-01-09T00:59:48.647143+00:00”
   last_updated: “2018-01-09T01:10:34.260948+00:00”
   I’m interested in sensing the new state speed string of auto, lowest, low, medium or high to pass to the dashboard dropdown. Any help filtering to this would be greatly appreciated.

   Reply
9. Derek McFarland says:

   January 8, 2018 at 6:47 pm

   I got it working with a lot of nodes. https://hastebin.com/fahafekowo.json

   Reply
   • brad says:

     January 9, 2018 at 12:07 pm

     Glad you got it working, not sure if you are aware but that JSON includes your HASS password – be careful!!

     Nice flow – makes sense to me. One tip, I think maybe you could simplify it slightly. Instead of your first switch branching out to all those change nodes to set the msg.payload, I think you could use just one change node. Instead of “Set” msg.payload, try “Move” msg.payload.event.new_state.attributes.speed TO msg.payload. That should work. Could also do this with a function node too.

     Reply
     • Derek says:

       January 9, 2018 at 12:14 pm

       Thanks Brad. I thought exporting stripped passwords? Guess I should have checked.

       Reply
10. ch says:

    January 9, 2018 at 2:45 pm

    Hey guys,

    i figured out what the problem was. My problems comes from the implementation
    of the “current state” node. If in the payload of the “current state” a entity_id is defined, this entity_id is used instead of the one you configure in “current state” node. For me this makes no really sense and seams for me to be a bug.
    I changed the behavior so always the entity_id of the “current state” node is used.

    It works like a charm now.

    Thanks a lot.

    Reply
11. Going Further with Home Automations in Node-Red - DIY Futurism says:

    January 18, 2018 at 3:24 pm

    […] my last post about using Node-Red to make automations with Home Assistant, I showed some very simple flows for […]

    Reply
12. Skep says:

    January 21, 2018 at 8:40 am

    Hey Brad, very nice work and thank you for all of the documentation of it.

    What would be your recommendation to leap into this world for someone like myself who is very technical (Unix/Linux/network engineer/some scripting, but a lot of script hacking) – can handle all of the technical aspects of getting things installed and systems up, but no experience with home automation or any of these systems and applications?

    I tried Hass.io after much recommendation and I just don’t understand how it’s done.

    I have Node-Red installed, but none of the flows are working.

    I’m sure I’m doing it all wrong – but I can’t find enough help out there to help me understand exactly how much manual coding is required vs drag-and-drop there is.

    I was under the impression that Node-Red made it seemed, but clearly I’ve misunderstood!

    Should I run Home Assistant and Node-Red and learn this way and decide on Hass.io later?

    I ask because I notice access to the core OS is unavailable in Hass.io and some guides and videos, etc appear to be getting right to the os level. Necessary?

    Any thoughts are appreciated!

    Reply
    • brad says:

      January 22, 2018 at 2:34 pm

      Hassio is running on ResinOS, which is sort of like Docker-as-operating-system if you are familiar with Docker.

      So on Hassio, you are running Home Assistant and the related apps (ie Node-Red) in individual containers. If you SSH to the Hassio host you’re connecting to a ResinOS shell, not a Linux one.

      You can certainly just install Home Assistant and whatever else you’d like on any variant of Linux if you prefer to administer it that way.

      Personally, I think if you’re installing on a Raspberry Pi or similar then Hassio is the way to go. I’ve done it both ways (and I’m also perfectly comfortable with the technical Linux part), but Hassio is just way easier to manage and it also seems more stable (especially zwave). I don’t have a need for any software beyond what i can run as “Addons” in containers so it works for me. I think if you are just getting into home automation, this will get you up and runing a lot faster, and if you find it limiting you can always move your config files to whichever OS you prefer.

      Another alternative is to combine these approaches – run whatever OS you like as the host, then run Home Assistant in an actual Docker container. Sort of best of both worlds.

      Reply
13. Eirik H says:

    January 24, 2018 at 11:20 pm

    First of all thank you for sharing this, it’s been very helpful!

    To anyone else coming here, for setup #2 above I inserted a STOP message (use a change node where you change the msg.payload to “STOP”) between the motion detector switch “on” and the timer:

    https://i.imgur.com/fZ6evW6.png

    One scenario that didn’t work properly with my motion sensors at least (xiaomi) was that if they continuously detect motion, HA won’t be updated.

    If I entered a room with the original flow, the motion detector is turned on, and the x minute timer is started. If I then stayed put in the room it would just turn off the lights after x minutes since there wouldn’t be any new state_changed event that would reset the timer again.

    With the STOP message in place, any motion detected would just always stop the timer. When motion is no loner detected, it will trigger the timer, and turn off the lights if no further events comes from the motion detector.

    Reply
14. Ruen says:

    February 28, 2018 at 4:57 am

    Would it be possible to use msg.switch=”turn_off”; and then msg.switch instead of turn_off in the service field? i cannot make it work, but that would be more smooth for my use 😛

    Reply
    • brad says:

      March 1, 2018 at 4:50 pm

      At the minimum, you need to define the service call in the service call node. Everything else can be overriden by placing a data object in msg.payload (see here for more details http://diyfuturism.com/advanced-node-red-hass). Not sure what you’re trying to accomplish but you could use a switch node to route to different service calls, and have the entity_id or other settings dynamically generated.

      Reply
15. The Cheapest WiFi Smart Switch: Flashing the Sonoff Basic - DIY Futurism says:

    March 18, 2018 at 10:25 pm

    […] flow to turn off my office when I leave, so that will also turn the mug warmer off. See my post on basic lighting automations with Node-Red if you’re interested in that […]

    Reply
16. Dave says:

    May 11, 2018 at 7:34 am

    Hi Brad, really enjoyed your posts. Thanks for taking the time to write them.

    I’m running Hass.io with node red installed through the notoriousBDG repository, all working fine. I want to install this node (one you’ve used in this post) https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-contrib-time-range-switch, which isn’t available through the palette and am struggling to figure out how to do it any other way. I have SSH and samba access to Hass.io.

    Any pointers please?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • brad says:

      May 12, 2018 at 1:32 pm

      I think the search on the pallete manager is not very good, try searching for just “range” or “time” and see if you can find it in the list.

      If you look in the share/node-red folder there’s a folder with the nodes in it, you can also manually install it by copying the files there.

      Reply
17. Simmons says:

    May 23, 2018 at 1:15 am

    Thanks for these great tutorials, they are a great help!

    I have a slight issue though. I want my kitchen light to turn on if motion is detected but also based on sunrise / sunset, then turn off after 1 min of no motion.

    I have achieved the light on this with this code:

    https://pastebin.com/vMfVZtdm

    However the light turns off after 1 min even if I am still in the room.

    Please can you help?

    Reply
18. Simmons says:

    May 24, 2018 at 3:01 am

    Thanks for the great guide Brad.

    I have Nodered installed on Hassio and have a similar flow to your desk motion working. However I have added in a sunrise / sunset action in also.

    This is all working however I cannot seem to get the timer to restart when more motion is detected and so it always turns off even if I am still in the room.

    This is the code: https://pastebin.com/E7v9P2Hc

    Please can you advise what I am doing wrong?

    Reply
    • brad says:

      May 28, 2018 at 3:46 pm

      You may want to try to use the built in “delay” node instead, it is has been updated to include the same timer functionality that was not available when I initially did this.

      Reply
19. Bjorn says:

    June 1, 2018 at 4:10 am

    Hi Brad,

    Thanks for your great post about home assistant and node red integration. I’ve already migrated almost all my automations to flows in node-red.

    There is one thing I don’t know how to fix it. I have a couple of fibaro dimmer 2 modules. When I hold button 2, openzwave sends an zwave_scene_activated with id 22 once, which should activate dimming other lights or volume up from my sonos. When you release the button openzwave sends zwave_scene_activated with id 23, which means to stop dimming of volume up.

    Do you know how I can solve this?

    Thanks a lot

    Reply
20. Danny Moses says:

    October 18, 2018 at 10:07 pm

    Hi Brad,
    Do you have any examples of automating lights with “Light Scheduler”?

    I came across a post that said you recommended using it (https://community.home-assistant.io/t/node-red-sunset-sunrise-light-automations/53663/3?).

    I am looking for something to control my outside lights based off of time and day of the week. Outside lights ON at sunset, OFF at a set time on WEEKDAYS and a different time for WEEKENDS.

    Thanks

    Reply
    • brad says:

      November 10, 2018 at 1:40 pm

      I use this one, you would use that as your input and then filter it by weekday or weekend.

      https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-contrib-sunevents

      Reply
21. Marc says:

    October 21, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    Hello Brad,

    do you have any experience with dynamically changing lights depending on the sun? I want to create a dusk till dawn light that starts at a given % brightness level (an input slider should provide the value) and increasingly has to increase the brightness until it gets 100% bright. From there on, it must remain on untill dawn (then it is switched off).
    Implementing the dusk till down part is very easy thanks to the big timer. However, I have not got around to implementing the dimming part.
    The part I’m currently stuck at is dynamically storing and formating what the slider generates (before dask). In principle, what I’ve put together does capture the value once, but isn’t aware of any further changes made to the slider.
    The use case of all this is: corridor lights for my kids during night time

    Reply
22. ThaNerd says:

    December 29, 2018 at 9:57 am

    Any idea how to control the brightness of a zwave dimmer connected to hassio via node-red? Tried everything but can’t get it to dim via Alexa, only turn on or off.

    My nodes and what the debug sees:
    https://m.imgur.com/gallery/KRCOHi3

    Reply
23. Hans Van der Drift says:

    January 5, 2019 at 6:49 pm

    Brad

    Have you worked out a way to do a manual override by flicking the wall switch?

    I have attempted quite a few. Some work. Others, well not so well. There must be an elegant solution out there somewhere.

    This is my latest attempt with the help of Kermit.

    https://hastebin.com/wexivopolo.json

    Reply
24. Stephane says:

    May 26, 2019 at 7:37 pm

    Hello Brad, thanks for your really nice article! I’m thinking about installing Node-Red and Home Assitant on my Raspberry Pi3 to get ready for Home Automation. What would be your prefered installation procedure? Do you have a link that I could follow? I know there is a node-red plugin for Home Assitant should I use it instead of installing node-red?

    Thanks for your time!

    Reply
    • brad says:

      May 26, 2019 at 8:58 pm

      I use HassIO with the Node Red addon – it’s very simple, works great.

      Reply
25. Stéphane says:

    May 27, 2019 at 6:04 am

    Thanks Brad! Last question, are you using node-red dashboard plugin for your user interface or some home assistant UI plugin?

    Reply
    • brad says:

      June 10, 2019 at 4:15 pm

      I am not, Home Assistant recently switched to their new Lovelace UI and it is pretty great.

      Reply
26. Alexandre says:

    July 2, 2019 at 5:33 am

    Hi Brad,

    Could you explain how you managed the last_motion state. Is there a variable HA, or something else ?
    Best regards,
    Alexandre

    Reply
    • brad says:

      November 26, 2019 at 11:26 am

      I had an automation that kept track of which motion sensor had been triggered last in variable.last_motion. This only works because I live alone 🙂

      I have since switched to using a Bayesian sensor to determine occupancy, but the details of it are very specific to my setup. Check out my other post on Bayesian sensors to get an idea of how that works.

      Reply
27. A match made in heaven: Node-RED and Home Assistant says:

    July 5, 2019 at 8:41 am

    […] https://diyfuturism.com/index.php/2017/12/14/basic-node-red-flows-for-automating-lighting-with-home-… […]

    Reply
28. Basic Node-Red Flows for Automating Lighting with Home ... • Aaron Parecki says:

    September 2, 2019 at 11:33 am

    […] Basic Node-Red Flows for Automating Lighting with Home Assistant – DIY Futurism (diyfuturism.com) Portland, Oregon #node-red #homeassistant #tutorial Mon, Sep 2, 2019 11:33am -07:00 Have you written a response to this? Let me know the URL: […]

    Reply
29. Craig says:

    October 27, 2019 at 7:01 pm

    Hi Brad,

    Thanks for the great article!

    I like to know what node you use for the ‘Already On?’ node? I have searched but can’t find anything like it!

    Thanks

    Reply
    • brad says:

      November 26, 2019 at 11:22 am

      It’s the “current state” node for HA, the flow stops if the state is on.

      Reply
30. davieGeepers says:

    November 3, 2019 at 12:20 am

    Hi, Brad.

    I was wondering if you could explain the code in “still in bathroom?” in the LIGHTING THREE: MOTION, TIME RANGE, & OCCUPANCY section? I get an error whenever I try to use it.

    eg: {{ states.variable.last_motion.state != ‘Bathroom Motion’ }}

    Also, I’m trying to accomplish something I thought would be simple but I’m missing something fundamental. I have a bathroom door with a binary open/close switch, when opened it turns a switch on. There is a motion sensor in the bathroom that detects motion (turns on) and seem to turn off in 2 minutes on its own. Then tells the switch to turn off.

    I want to retest to see if there is additional motion after 5 minutes and if so, restart the timer to detect if there is motion again after 5 minutes. Once there is no more motion AND the door is closed then turn the switch off.

    I used your Section 3 stuff as a template but I don’t seem to understand how the make the motion sensor work right, or loop, or continue to reset each time motion continues to be detected.

    Thank you in advance.

    Paste Bin:
    https://pastebin.com/eNvkGsaa

    Reply
31. martin says:

    November 12, 2019 at 5:49 am

    Hi brad!

    One question, how can i do to check if my lights are on in a loopable way?. I use sonoff and i on and off the lights with a get method on the url. So the node will reply with a payload with {power:on} o {power:off}. The thing is that i want to check that reply and let me choose the option if i want to the lights stays on or off. Thanks a lot!!!!

    Reply
    • brad says:

      November 26, 2019 at 11:21 am

      This is the reason I use Home Assistant – to track states.

      Reply
32. Steve Gooch says:

    March 24, 2021 at 7:55 am

    I am using HomeSeer 4 with Node Red 1.29 and node-red-contrib-homeseer 1.05 and node-red-contrib-alexa-remote2 3.10.4.

    I have a garage door opener with 4 statuses (opening, open, closing, closed) (4,3,2,1 respectively).
    I need to have an audio amp that is not normally on, turn on so that an announcement can be made by Alexa ANYTIME that that status changes from any status to any other status. (the announcement part works, just need to turn on the amp and maybe a timer to turn it off later)

    How do I setup the part of the flow that just looks for ANY status change and then turns on the amp (homeseer zwave plug device)?

    Reply
33. Introduktion: Sådan bruger du Node-RED til dine automatiseringer | Smart Home Guide says:

    October 10, 2022 at 3:50 am

    […] DIY Futurism – Basic Node-Red Flows for Automating Lighting with Home Assistant […]

    Reply