HowTo: Node Red - Control GPIO of an ESPEasy device

EspEasy and Node Red each offer a number of options for automation.

You get even more options if you combine both systems. In the article ESPEasy - Execute commands and actions via HTTP , MQTT and UDP I have already described in general how to send certain commands to an ESPEasy device from Node Red.

This example describes how you can use this, for example to activate or deactivate a specific GPIO of the ESPEasy device.

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Safety instructions

I know the following hints are always a bit annoying and seem unnecessary. But unfortunately, many people who knew it "better" from carelessness lost their eyes, fingers or other things or hurt themselves. In comparison, a loss of data is almost not worth mentioning, but even these can be really annoying. Therefore, please take five minutes to read the safety instructions. Even the coolest project is worth no injury or other annoyance. https://www.nerdiy.de/en/sicherheitshinweise/

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Requirements

Helpful articles:
How to prepare a RaspberryPi and then install NodeRed on it is described in the following articles.

• RaspberryPi - Setup for nerdiys!
• RaspberryPi - The first configuration!
• RaspberryPi - Control the RaspberryPi via SSH
• NodeRed - Installing NodeRed on the RaspberryPi
• NodeRed - Install new nodes
• NodeRed - import and export node code

Required tools:
-none-

Materials needed:

In the following list you will find all the parts you need to implement this article.

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Import Node Red code

In this section you will find the Node Red code you need. How you can import this into your NodeRed environment is described in the article NodeRed - Import and export Node code.

In order to be able to use the node code linked below with your ESPEasy device, you have to make a few changes. These are described in the next section.

You can find the Node Red code in the Nerdiy Git repository under the following link:

• https://github.com/Nerdiyde/NodeRedSnippets/blob/master/snippets/espeasy/control_gpios_of_esp_easy_device.json

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Configure ESPEasy device

So that you can send commands to your ESPEasy device via MQTT, it must of course be configured appropriately. To do this, you must first set the "Unit Name" of your ESPEasy device appropriately.

Open the web configuration view, switch to the "Config" tab and configure the name of your ESPEasy device. You should make a note of the name you set, because you will need it later.

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Configure MQTT servers

The next step is to configure the MQTT server on your ESPEasy device.

Open the web menu of your ESPEasy device and open the "Controllers" tab. There you should set the MQTT server as shown below. In addition to the "Controller Hostname", the "Controller Subscribe" topic is also important.

You can find more information about this in the article ESPEasy - Configure MQTT server and subscribe to topics.

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GPIO on and off

You can use this part of the Node Red code if you just want to turn the GPIO on and off.

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Toggle GPIO state

You can use this part of the Node Red code if you want to switch the GPIO with one command.

View of the Node Red Flow in the configuration interface.

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Switch longer pulse (1 to 999 seconds) to GPIO

You can use this part of the Node Red code if you want to output a pulse with a pulse duration of 1 to 999 seconds on the GPIO.

View of the Node Red Flow in the configuration interface.

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Switch longer pulse (10 to 15000 milliseconds) to GPIO

You can use this part of the Node Red code if you want to output a pulse with a pulse duration of 10 to 15000 milliseconds on the GPIO.

View of the Node Red Flow in the configuration interface.

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Switch short pulse (1 to 1000 milliseconds) to GPIO

You can use this part of the Node Red code if you want to output a pulse with a pulse duration of 1 to 1000 milliseconds on the GPIO.

View of the Node Red Flow in the configuration interface.

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View of status changes in the weblog

You can also check the status change or the successful execution of the command with the weblog of your ESPEasy device. To do this, open the web view of your ESPEasy device under "Tools" and "Log".

In the opened view you can then see all executed commands. In this case the GPIO commands.

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More articles about NodeRed and ESPEasy

In the following categories you will find further links on the subject of NodeRed and ESPEasy.

• https://nerdiy.de/category/esp-easy/
• https://nerdiy.de/category/node-red/

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Have fun with the project

I hope everything worked as described. If not or you have any other questions or suggestions, please let me know in the comments. Also, ideas for new projects are always welcome. 🙂

P.S. Many of these projects - especially the hardware projects - cost a lot of time and money. Of course I do this because I enjoy it, but if you appreciate that I share this information with you, I would be happy about a small donation to the coffee box. 🙂