Node-Red

Hi

You mentioned in here: Node Red Support for Servo PWM Pi Zero a couple of years ago that you were looking into Node-Red nodes for all your boards. I'm looking to use the IO Pi with Node-Red.

There is this: node-red-contrib-mcp23017 but it's not been updated in years and it doesn't install properly.

Thanks

Hi

I am afraid that we had to put the development of a Node-Red library on hold as other projects got in the way.

At the moment we do not plan on developing Node Red libraries for our boards for the foreseeable future but if that changes, I will let you know.

OK thanks for the quick reply - even though it's bad news!

Hi...sometimes I use the function node without outputs. It is all fine to write a 0 as valid number of outputs in the properties dialog. But using arrow selector seems to be limited to 1 on the low side. Perhaps 0 should be the lower limit?



printed circuit board

Is this still the case? Any one else got any advice or examples of reading the Extender Pi in Node Red?

Quote from andrew
Hi I am afraid that we had to put development of a Node Red library on hold as other projects got in the way. At the moment we do not plan on developing Node Red libraries for our boards for the foreseeable future but if that changes, I will let you know.

Hello Graham

We are still not planning to create a node-red library at the moment as maintaining our existing software libraries and building boards is taking up most of our time.

There is a third-party library for the MCP23017 I/O controller which we use on the Expander Pi. I have not tested it with our board but it should work.

Hi!



Last year I've made these packages according to the python code in the https://www.abelectronics.co.uk/ io-pi-plus examples.

We're running our vending machine on it at our office.

I'd like to give/share/collaborate them with you @andrew



https://github.com/rikvermeer/mcp23017

https://github.com/rikvermeer/node-red-contrib-mcp23017

https://github.com/rikvermeer/node-red-contrib-io-pi-plus



Kind regards,

Rik Vermeer

Hello Rik

Thank you for sharing your node-red libraries with the forum.

Hi Andrew,



You're welcome :)

There is currently also some traction going on in the project so hopefully we can get to a full MCP23017 implementation and node-red support for the io-pi-plus.

Since I'm busy with other projects too I hope that collaboration on these projects will move things along.





Kind regards,

Rik

Hi Rik

I only have a very limited experience with Node-Red so I probably wouldn't be much help with your project.

Hopefully, some of our forum members who have more experience with developing in Node-Red will be able to collaborate with you.

Hi,

With big help from @Andrew I was able to run python version of IOPi libraries on NanoPi Duo2. Now I'm trying to run the Node-RED MCP23017 support. As I'm not on RPi (my system is Armbian Focal) I have to modify the aviable nodes to make it working on my hardware/software. The hard thing is - that I'm not very good in Node/JS for now ;-) but I want to have my toys working. So before I learn enough to do that I make dirty solution on the Node-RED flow using ExecNode to run IOPi_CLI from https://github.com/abelectronicsuk/ABElectronics_CLI (C vesion).

So I can set and read pins. Ofcourse this is not very "kosher" way of programming, but it works fine. My project don't need fast reactions so I'm OK with such solution. Of course there are no support interruptions, input has to be regularly scanned etc.

Maybe my solution will be helpful for someone.

How do you think what is main risk of such approach?

Merry Christmas and Happy Healthy New Year

Slawek

Hi Slawek

There shouldn't be any problems that I can think of from using the CLI program to control the IO Pi through Node-RED.

The CLI program does support setting and reading the interrupt status so you should be able to integrate that into your Node-RED program. You will still need to regularly read the interrupt status unless you link the interrupt pins to a GPIO pin on the Raspberry Pi header using a voltage divider and find a way of reading an interrupt trigger from the GPIO pin.

We have a tutorial which shows how this is done in Python, I expect there is a way of doing something similar in Node-RED.

Hi Andrew,

thanks for the advise for sure I will remeber that. In my current project will be hard to implement as I have no spare GPIO pins on NanoPi Duo2 :-)

All are consumed by two hats from you (1Wire and MCP23017) and SPI controlled Waweshare e-paper.

The project is remote (via internet) heating controller for my yacht allowing me to measure temperature inside cabins, outside, on hotair ducts (just for fun and analyses), regardless of web interface it has the e-paper display. And I can remotely switch on/off heating and fans on my boat. Imagine going to marina on cold autumn day and the boat is waiting warm and cosy.

So now every components are working as expected - it's time for custom PCB . Whole device will be very tiny - half size of cigarettes box - in 3D printed case.

And sorry for spamming, but I'm so excited so I cant resist ....

Thank you for sharing your project. It is always nice to see how our boards are being used.