node-red-contrib-eztimer

eztimer

Timer/scheduler for node-red which allows you to enter on/off times as 24hr clock (e.g. 01:10) or suncalc events (e.g. goldenHour). It also allows you to offset times and randomise the time within the offset.

Forked from (retaining much of the code, including this document) schedex which was in turn inspired by Pete Scargill's BigTimer, so hat-tip to both those coders.

Emphasis has been put on creating a simple interface and utilising built-in node-red formatting helpers (such as creating a JSON payload).

Installation

This node requires node 4.x. It's tested against 4.6.1.

$ cd ~/.node-red
$ npm install node-red-contrib-eztimer

Configuration

Schedule

The scheduling days allow you to choose which days of the week to schedule events. Unticking all days will suspend scheduling.

Suspending scheduling

The Suspend Scheduling checkbox allows you to disable time scheduling. If scheduling is suspended, eztimer will only generate output events upon receipt of input on and off events (see below).

This setting is provided for the situation where you temporarily don't want time based activation and don't want to rewire your Node-RED flow.

Times

Select the type of trigger from the dropdown and this will provide either a fruther dropdown (for suncalc events), or a textbox to enter either a 24hr time (HH:mm[:ss]) or, for the off event, a duration (hh:mm:ss).

As of 1.1.1 it is supported to specify timespans in numerous timespan formats:

input	interpretation
"12:14"	12 hours and 14 minutes
"12:14:24"	12 hours, 14 minutes and 24 seconds
"23h 5m"	23 hours and 5 minutes
"5m"	5 minutes
"90s"	1 minute and 30 seconds (90 seconds)
300	5 minutes (300 seconds) - integers are interpreted as seconds

These are valid both at UI/config-time and at runtime using the duration payload.

Offsets

The on and off time can have an offset. This is specified in minutes:

• -ve number brings the time forward. E.g. if the time is dusk and offset is -60, a message will be generated 60 minutes before dusk.
• +ve number delays the time by the specified number of minutes

Randomisation of times

Both on and off times can be randomised by ticking "Use random time within offset period". For example, if you specify dusk with an offset of -60 minutes, every day a message will be generated at a random time in a 60 minute window before dusk.

Suppression of repeating events

In some circumstances it may be required to re-start the timer without re-sending the on event - this setting achieves this. It's available for both on and off events, but disabled in trigger mode.

Inputs

You can wire inject nodes to the input of this node and send the following in msg.payload.

msg.payload	Description
trigger	Causes eztimer to emit the configured trigger event.
on	Triggers manual on mode and causes eztimer to emit the configured on event. Manual mode is reset when the next on or off time is reached
off	Triggers manual off mode and causes eztimer to emit the configured off event. Manual mode is reset when the next on or off time is reached
info	Eztimer emits an object containing the on and off (or trigger) times in UTC format. It also contains the state which is either on or off (for on/off type).
cancel	Cancels the current run (if any) of the timer (without emitting an off event).

Programmatic Control

This node supports programmatic time control as well as configuration via the NodeRED UI.

It is very important to note that properties set programmatically in this manner are transient. They will not persist over a NodeRED restart or redeploy!

Note that both the property-based and string-based specifications are overrides that violate the usual behavior. See here for further discussion https://github.com/node-red/node-red/issues/399.

You can set the following:

Property	Type
msg.payload.suspended	Boolean: true will suspend scheduling, false will resume scheduling
msg.payload.ontime	String value representing time of day (HH:mm[:ss])
msg.payload.triggertime	Alias of ontime
msg.payload.ontopic	String value emitted as the topic for the on event
msg.payload.onvalue	Update output value for on event (must be same as configured type)
msg.payload.triggervalue	Alias of onvalue
msg.payload.onoffset	Number value as specified above for Offset configuration
msg.payload.onrandomoffset	Boolean value as specified above in Randomisation of Times
msg.payload.offtime	String value representing time of day (HH:mm[:ss])
msg.payload.duration	String value representing a timespan (see Times)
msg.payload.offtopic	String value emitted as the topic for the off event
msg.payload.offvalue	Update output value for off event (must be same as configured type)
msg.payload.offoffset	Number value as specified above for Offset configuration
msg.payload.offrandomoffset	Boolean value as specified above in Randomisation of Times
msg.payload.mon	Boolean: true enables the schedule on a Monday, false disables it.
msg.payload.tue	Boolean: true enables the schedule on a Tuesday, false disables it.
msg.payload.wed	Boolean: true enables the schedule on a Wednesday, false disables it.
msg.payload.thu	Boolean: true enables the schedule on a Thursday, false disables it.
msg.payload.fri	Boolean: true enables the schedule on a Friday, false disables it.
msg.payload.sat	Boolean: true enables the schedule on a Saturday, false disables it.
msg.payload.sun	Boolean: true enables the schedule on a Sunday, false disables it.

Change Log

1.1.3

• Modified info output be more informative and logical. Fixed issue where info wouldn't work for trigger timer type. credit @marc-gist.

1.1.2

• Fixed bug introduced in 1.1.0 where some inputs arguments ceased to function correctly. credit @marc-gist.

1.1.1

• Fixed timestamp value type (previously emitted a blank value) so it outputs milliseconds since epoch - the same as the built-in input node. credit @marc-gist.

1.1.0

A few changes in this one - have had it running in test for a month or two and believe it to be stable - as always, log any bugs at github issues and I'll tend to them as soon as possible.

• Added ability to change duration without resetting timer (enabling duration change while timer is on)
• Made duration more 'friendly' - 00:00, 00:00:00, 34m, 23s, 34m 4s, and even a plain integer (interpreted as seconds) are all valid for duration now.
• Added ability to Suppress Repeated Events. Meaning once an on event has been sent, repeatedly sending on inputs won't resend the on event (but it will restart the timer)
• Added cancel as input command (to cancel any existing timer run without emitting off event).
• Added tag config parameter. This value is emitted with all events to allow easy identification of specific eztimer node the message was emitted from. Defaults to eztimer.
• Fixed issue where, when 1) using a duration event type with 2) some days disabled and 3) the timer is run manually on a disabled day, the off event would schedule on the next available day (causing an abnormally long runtime).

1.0.14

• Added nadir to ordered sun event array

1.0.13

• Corrected invalid time received SunCalc based on events that don't happen at a particular lat/long by moving to the next closest valid event. ie, if night was chosen, but doesn't exist, nauticalDusk would be used. A warning is emitted each time an event is scheduled for a sun event different to that selected in the config. - credit @B0F1B0.

1.0.12

• Error gracefully when sun events don't happen at particular lat/long (due to polar nights/days) - credit @B0F1B0.

1.0.11

• Fixed programmatic alteration of day-of-week flag - credit @stu-carter.

1.0.10

• Fixed bug where a manual on event (with a duration-based off event) wasn't scheduling it's off event.
• Enabled the use of seconds for time-based events (was documented but always reverted to 0).
• Added [missing] input parameter payload.duration to allow prgrammatic adjustment of the duration.
• Adjusted default value for duration to 00:01:00 (1 minute) - was 0, which broke the node.
• Fixed re-schedule after manual off event.
• Fixed state reporting in info output payload.
• Added node name to info output. If no name is set, eztimer is returned.

Thanks to @stu-carter for detailed reports enabling the above fixes (related issue).

1.0.9

• Fixed manual variable being used before declaration - credit @marc-gist.
• Added UI tip for times and duration to make the HH:mm:ss requirement clearer - credit @stu-carter.

1.0.8

• Fixed next event status text for trigger.

1.0.7

• Corrected commands to set output value for on/off events - onvalue and offvalue are more correct, as it's not necessarily the payload you're updating.
• Added triggervalue as an alias to onvalue.
• Values must match the configured value type.
• Removed the string command examples as they don't function correctly - the payload must be a JSON object to update a property value.

1.0.6

• Enabled startup events for trigger, configured off by default. Caution required due to this being on by default for exisitng nodes.
• Fixed boolean data type to correctly output boolean rather than a string representation - credit @marc-gist.

1.0.5

• Fix ontime and offtime inputs, added triggertime as an alias of ontime.