Invitation to become an early adopter: Node-RED + Raspberry Pi Pico W eBook 

I have been working on a new eBook for the last four months. This eBook is on Node-RED and the Raspberry Pi Pico W and offers a comprehensive practical guide on creating various projects.

This eBook will also be offered in print by Elektor.

I have completed the bulk of this book and am confident enough to announce it to you. More than that, I invite you to express your interest in being an early adopter of this book. As an early adopter, you will enjoy these perks:

1. Early access to the book, potentially months before non-early adopters.
2. Full and lifetime access to the eBook’s community space. You can use this space to communicate with me and other early adopters on the contents and project of the book. You can also suggest new topics and ask for help with your Node-RED and Raspberry Pi projects (as long as they are relevant to the book’s content!). You will retain access to the Community space of the book after it is published.
3. Purchase the book at the lowest price it will ever be (the exact price will be determined later). As an early adopter, you can purchase this book at Solo tier-level pricing and get Community-tier access.
4. Help me find and fix any bugs in the book, and be acknowledged for your contribution. If you contribute by finding serious bugs or suggesting improvements, I will add your name to the list of acknowledgements in the book (with your permission, of course).

At this time, I have completed writing the bulk of the book. I am now continuing with editing and re-testing experiments and procedures. Below is the table of contents (subject to small changes during editing). Please ignore the incorrect chapter numbers!

If you want to become an early adopter, please submit this form. There is nothing to pay, and you will not commit to purchasing this book when it is published. Adding your email address to the early adopters’ list allows me to email you with information about my progress with the book, including how to purchase the draft at a steep discount when the first draft is ready.

Table of Contents (Draft, not final)

1. Part 1: Node-RED novice to hero
   • What is Node-RED? 6Node-RED in IoT and event-driven systems 7
   • Node-RED Projects and Case Studies 10
   • Communication in Node-RED: Protocols and Methods 11
   • Node-RED installation options 13
     • chapter.X.Setup Node-RED using Docker 16
     • chapter.X. Hosting a Docker Container: Hardware Options and
       Considerations 18
     • chapter.X. Create the Ubuntu 22.04 VM 20
     • chapter.X. Install Docker on the server 22
     • chapter.X. Install Node-RED using Docker 24
     • chapter.X. Testing your new Node-RED server 26
     • chapter.X. Setup the Node-RED Docker container to auto-start
       with Docker Compose 28
     • chapter.X. Setup Node-RED for persistence 30
     • chapter.X. Maintaining your instance of Node-RED 31
     • chapter.X. Security 35
   • Node-RED basics 43
     • chapter.X. Understanding the Node-RED editor 44
     • chapter.X. Nodes 52
     • chapter.X. Creating and deploying flows 56
     • chapter.X.Best Practices for Working with Flows 60
     • chapter.X. The “debug” node 61
     • chapter.X. The “function” node 65
     • chapter.X. The “inject” node 67
     • chapter.X. The “complete” node 73
     • chapter.X. The “delay” node 77
     • chapter.X. The “trigger” node 81
     • chapter.X. Node-RED settings and configuration 85
     • chapter.X. Node-RED documentation and resources 88
   • Node-RED dashboard 90
     • chapter.X. Text input and output 93
     • chapter.X. The button 103
     • chapter.X. The gauge and slider 1082
     • chapter.X. The switch 113
     • chapter.X. The dropdown 118
     • chapter.X. The form 122
     • chapter.X. The UI template 12
   • Node-RED and MQTT 134
     • chapter.X. Installing MQTT Mosquitto on Ubuntu Server 22.04 137
     • chapter.X. Test the MQTT service on the command line 138
     • chapter.X.Using authenticated sub and pub 141
     • chapter.X. Test MQTT in Node-RED 14
     • chapter.X. MQTT with Raspberry Pi Pico 149
     • chapter.X. MQTT pub example 152
     • chapter.X. MQTT sub example 160
2. Part 2: Node-RED & RPi Pico Experiments 169
   • chapter.X. About these experiments 170
   • chapter.X. Frequenty used patterns 171
     • chapter.X. WIFI 171
     • chapter.X. MQTT sub and pub 173
     • chapter.X. Node-RED 178
   • chapter.X. Warm up 183
     • chapter.X. Gauge and potentiometer 183
     • chapter.X. Button 191
     • chapter.X. Sample button with interrupts 196
     • chapter.X. LED control 199
     • chapter.X. LED control without polling 205
     • chapter.X. Combined 206
   • chapter.X. Inputs and outputs 214
     • chapter.X. Slide switch 214
     • chapter.X. Joystick 220
     • chapter.X. Relay 231
     • chapter.X. RFID 240
     • chapter.X. IR receiver and transmitter 251
     • chapter.X. MPR121 touch module 266
   • chapter. Displays 267
     • chapter.X. I2C LCD 267
     • chapter.X. Control 8 LEDs with the 74HC595N 281
     • chapter.X. WS2812 Strip RGB LED strip 295
   • chapter. Motors 307
     • chapter.X. Servo motor 3073
     • chapter.X. DC motor 319
   • chapter. Sensors 334
     • chapter.X. Temperature with DHT11 334
     • chapter.X. HC-SR04 ultrasosnic sensor 341
     • chapter.X. Motion sensor 348
     • chapter.X. Water level sensor 355
     • chapter.X. Thermistor 363
     • chapter.X. Analog light sensor 368
3. Part 3: Raspberry Pi Pico, a primer 372
   • Introduction to the Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico W 373
   • Getting Started with Raspberry Pi Pico and Thonny 377
   • chapter. MicroPython and Raspberry Pi Pico 388
   • Micropython, a primer 392
     • chapter.X. An introduction to MicroPython 392
     • chapter.X. MicroPython Language Constructs 395
     • chapter.X. MicroPython frequently used commands 402
     • chapter.X. MicroPython Modules 410
     • chapter.X. MicroPython Project Examples 414
     • chapter.X. Troubleshooting and Best Practices 417
     • chapter.X. Glossary of MicroPython Terms 424
     • chapter.X. References and Further Reading 425
     • chapter.X. Programming Raspberry Pi Pico with MicroPython 427
     • chapter.X. Serial communications with the Raspberry Pi Pico 430
     • chapter.X. SPI and I2C serial communications 433
     • chapter.X. Wifi and Bluetooth with the Raspberry Pi Pico 436
     • chapter.X. Interfacing with Sensors and Actuators 448
4. Part 4: More Node Red topics 451
   • Other useful nodes and features 452
     • chapter.X. The “catch” node 452
     • chapter.X. The “linkout” and “linkin” nodes 455
     • chapter.X. The “switch” node 460
     • chapter.X. The “range” node 463
     • chapter.X. The “RBE” (Report by Exception) node 467
     • chapter.X. The JSON node 471
     • chapter.X. Node groups 476
     • chapter.X. High-level review of other useful nodes by function 478
     • chapter.X. Credentials feature 479
     • chapter.X. Environment variables 4834
   • Control Structures and Loops 488
     • chapter.X. Conditional nodes 488
     • chapter.X. Iteration nodes 490
     • chapter.X. Conditional and iteration nodes example flow 492
   • Integrating External Services and APIs 496
     • chapter.X. Connecting to an SQL database 496
     • chapter.X. Using RESTful APIs and web services 499
     • chapter.X. Get weather information from OpenWeatherMap.org
       507
     • chapter.X. Datalogging to a Google Sheet 512
     • chapter.X. Reading data from a Google Sheet 519