node-red-contrib-xkeys_flashrate

This is another in a collection of Node-RED nodes which enable access to X-keys physical devices using the Dynamic Control Data Protocol (DCDP).

Dedicated Node-RED nodes for each X-key event of interest (button, jog, joystick, etc.) communicate, using MQTT, with a lightweight DCDP server, whose sole purpose is to mediate access to any physically attached X-keys devices.

This xkeys_flashrate node configures the LED flashing rate of any xkeys_led and xkeys_backlight nodes.

Installation

This node requires dcdp-server version 0.1.1 to be running. Please follow the instructions at the dcdp-server development repository to install it or, to upgrade an existing installation, see the dcdp-server upgrade instructions.

The node-red-contrib-xkeys_flashrate node itself is best installed from Node-RED's Palette manager. Go to the Palette manager's Install tab and search for node-red-contrib-xkeys_flashrate; then Install it once found. If not found, press the Refresh module list button (two semicircular arrows) and search again.

When installed, a new xk LED rate node will be found in the palette tab in the dedicated Xkeys category.

Usage

The node's configuration editor can be used to set the frequency of LED or backlight flashing for any X-keys device. A setting of 1 produces the fastest flashing while a setting of 255 produces the slowest. In addition, the usual filtering settings to target specific devices by their product_id and/or unit_id are available.

This node is also able to be activated by preceding nodes connected to the input. Such preceding nodes must include, at least, a flash_rate field in its msg.payload. If the msg.payload also includes optional pid_list, product_id, unit_id or duplicate_id fields, these will override the xkeys_flashrate node's configured settings e.g.

    {"flash_rate": RATE, "pid_list": PID_LIST, "unit_id": UID}

An example flow is provided in the examples directory to demonstrate possible usage of the xkeys_flashrate node.

The X-keys LED node can be used to activate flashing of all connected device's red led. The rate of flashing may be set by the xkeys_flashrate node in the upper section, which is configured to set the flash rate to 50 (a somewhat slow rate). However the flashrate may be altered at any time by activating the preceding Inject node (labelled set flash rate) which is set to 10 (noteably faster than 50) in this example flow.

Acknowledgment

Many thanks to P.I. Engineering for financial support and donation of several X-keys devices for development and testing.

License

MIT