Theengs Decoder

Appearance

Using with Node-RED ​

The node-red-contrib-theengs-decoder package adds a theengs decode node to the Node-RED palette. Wire it after any node that produces BLE advertisement messages — for example an MQTT input from a Theengs Gateway, or a BLE-scanner node — and it will replace the raw advertisement on msg.payload with the decoded device information.

The decoder runs as WebAssembly, so installation does not require a C++ toolchain on the host running Node-RED.

Installing ​

From inside Node-RED, open the palette manager (☰ → Manage palette → Install) and search for node-red-contrib-theengs-decoder. Click Install.

Or from the command line in your Node-RED user directory (typically ~/.node-red):

sh
npm install node-red-contrib-theengs-decoder

Then restart Node-RED.

Wiring it up ​

The node accepts msg.payload as either an object or a JSON string with at least one of:

  • servicedata — hex string of the BLE service data
  • manufacturerdata — hex string of the BLE manufacturer data
  • id — device identifier (MAC), optional, used by some decoders
  • name — advertised local name, optional, used by some decoders

A typical flow looks like:

[ MQTT in (BTtoMQTT/+) ] → [ theengs decode ] → [ debug ]

When a decoder matches, msg.payload becomes an object with brand, model, model_id, and any device-specific readings (tempc, hum, batt, …).

Configuration ​

  • Name — optional label shown in the editor.
  • Pass through on no match — when checked (default), advertisements that no decoder recognizes are forwarded unchanged so the rest of your flow can still see them. When unchecked, unmatched messages are dropped.

Example flow ​

The package ships an importable example flow at examples/decode-flow.json. In Node-RED: ☰ → Import → paste the JSON → Import. Deploy, click the inject node, and the debug pane should show the decoded miflora reading.

Building a development version ​

The Node-RED node depends on the theengs-decoder base package. To work on both from a checkout, build the base package locally first:

sh
git clone --recursive https://github.com/theengs/decoder.git
cd decoder/nodejs/theengs-decoder
npm install
npm run build

cd ../node-red-contrib-theengs-decoder
npm install
npm install --no-save ../theengs-decoder

Then point Node-RED at the local checkout:

sh
cd ~/.node-red
npm install /path/to/decoder/nodejs/node-red-contrib-theengs-decoder