Using Node Red with The Thing System

[vielmetti]

As suggested by #237 , some notes here on how Node Red and The Thing System might happily cooperate.

Both systems run node.js so there's the obvious opportunity to share interesting npm modules.

What I envision (somehow) is gluing the two together like this. I have an idea for an application that lights up a light bulb when the bus is near, and turns it off when the bus is gone. I have the logic already programmed in Node Red to download the bus route info, parse it, and emit an MQTT message. It could be equally easy to customize that message so that The Thing System understands it as a command, e.g. "turn the light by the front door on" and have The Thing System's detailed understanding of some weird but clever home automation protocol take care of the work.

Similarly, in the other direction, I envision a weird but clever thermostat collecting a temperature, and then logging it to Node Red (via MQTT) which in turn has logic of its own for dumping to some database for further analysis.

Now, I will admit up front that I don't yet own any weird but clever home automation devices, and I'd love a recommendation for a cheap and fun device suitable for experiments.

[CloCkWeRX]

I've got a similar thing in mind for Huginn - huginn/huginn#368

Right now ninjablocks offers a pretty cheap kit ($200?) giving you temp, humidity, door sensors, motion sensors; and things like limitlessLED area cheap wireless lightglobe ($80 for 2 + bridge). Ninjablocks' master branch is being refactored to speak MQTT by default, though it's not yet stable.

I would prefer to be able to use an external rules engine than the inbuilt one [of ninjablocks or tts], like Huginn or Node Red, so there's a separation of concerns - Ninjablocks speaks 433mhz to various sensors, TheThingSystem crawls and discovers a bunch of other devices via whatever means necessary, an MQTT broker becomes the backend, and whatever agent framework orchestrates it all.

[mrose17]

@aallan - adding you to the participant list!

[mrose17]

folks - any motion/interest on this?

[slimjim2234]

Absolutely, node-red would be a huge enhancement to "TTS" project

Might I also suggest looking into the ESP8266 for cheap IoT device integration?

[mrose17]

@vielmetti & @CloCkWeRX - either of you have an interest or do you know someone with an interest?