HowTo: NodeRed - Automatic frost warning via pushbullet, pushover or email - Nerdiy.de - Nerdy DIY HowTo's about electronic, 3D-printing and more.

For a while I've owned one of those car covers that you put over the car to prevent ice from forming on the windows in cold temperatures. This cover is a very easy way to save yourself from having to scrape your car windows in the morning.

The only disadvantage with these covers: You have to pull the cover over the car beforehand.

Unfortunately, I had to realize that I have a special talent for attaching the cover to the car whenever I don't need it (too warm) and forgetting to attach it to the car just when I need it (cold enough).

That's why I made this little NodeRed Flow, which informs me about cold temperatures in any case - regardless of whether I forgot it or not.

That means if the average temperature in the evening at 8 p.m. or 6 a.m. in the morning is below four degrees, I get a message via push bullet in the evening. So I still have enough time to attach the cover in the evening or (if I forgot to do it the night before) I can plan some extra time for scraping the windows.

Of course, this flow can also be used in combination with pushover or a simple email notification.

I have described everything you need to integrate this flow into your NodeRed instance in the following article.

Safety instructions

I know the following tips are always somehow annoying and seem unnecessary. But unfortunately, many people who knew "better" have already lost eyes, fingers or other things or injured themselves due to carelessness. In comparison, a data loss is almost not worth mentioning, but even these can be really annoying. Therefore, please take five minutes to read the safety instructions. Because even the coolest project is not worth an injury or other trouble.
https://www.nerdiy.de/sicherheitshinweise/

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Requirements

Helpful articles:
So that you can install new nodes, NodeRed should of course already be installed.
How to prepare a RaspberryPi and then install NodeRed on it is described in the following articles.

Required tools:

Number	Link
1x	*Screwdriver set* Buy at Amazon
1x	*SD card reader* Buy at Amazon

Material needed:

Number	Link
1x	*Raspberry Pi* Buy at Amazon
1x	*Raspberry Pi power supply* Buy at Amazon
1x	*Raspberry Pi case* Buy at Amazon
1x	*Micro SD card 64GB* Buy at Amazon

Log into the NodeRed configuration interface

Before you can edit your NodeRed configuration, you must - if activated - first log into the NodeRed configuration interface.

View of the login dialog. Here you have to enter the login data that you specified during the configuration of the login. You can find information about this in the article **NodeRed - set up user login**.

Install required nodes

In order for NodeRed to be able to call up the current and future weather data, you must have installed the Node for opernweathermap.com. You can find the necessary information in this article

Node Red – Get current weather data from OpenWeatherMap

You should also have already installed and configured the dashboard node. You can find information about this in the following article.

NodeRed - Create a user interface with dashboard nodes

Import NodeCode to control the frost warning

At the end of this section there is a link to the Node Red code that you need to import into your Node Red instance.

The forest warning then works in principle. Nevertheless, you still have to enter some information. On the one hand you must - if you have not already done so - enter the API key for your Openweathermap.com account in the Openweathermap node. Information about this (especially how to get a free API key) can be found in the article Node Red – Get current weather data from OpenWeatherMap .

You also have to select and configure (at least) one of the notification options. For example, how the pushbullet node is configured in the article Node Red – Send Pushbullet messages on events described.

Information on sending emails from Node Red can be found in the article Node Red - Send email on events.

You can simply delete the nodes that are not required if you wish. 🙂

View of the flow in the Node Red configuration view. In order for the code to work, you must of course enter your personal Openweathermap.com API key in the Openwathermap node.

View of the controls in the dashboard view. The warning temperature and the time at which the warning is sent can be set here.

In the area marked in red are the nodes that send your frost warning.

Here you have to select and configure at least one of the notification options. For example, how the pushbullet node is configured in the article

Node Red – Send Pushbullet messages on events

described. You can simply delete the nodes that are not required if you wish. 🙂

How you can import the NodeCode linked below into your NodeRed environment is in the article NodeRed - Import and export node code described.

As always, you can find the NodeCode in the Nerdiy Git repository under the following link:

https://github.com/Nerdiyde/NodeRedSnippets/blob/master/snippets/nodered_automatic_frostwarning_push_message.json

Have fun with the project

I hope everything worked as described for you. If not or you have questions or suggestions please let me know in the comments. I will then add this to the article if necessary.
Ideas for new projects are also always welcome 🙂 .

P.S. Many of these projects - especially the hardware projects - cost a lot of time and money. Of course I do it because I enjoy it, but if you think it's cool that I share the info about it with you, I'd appreciate a small donation to the coffee fund 🙂 .