Announcement

**Michael McSharry** · February 12, 2021, 02:30 PM

The MQTT message that you have associated with HS device 371 is

Code:

subscription topic home/wink/3/status 
subscription payload  {"level":255}

To control the level you will use the following. Note the pub template can be specified on the Edit tab (click the 371 button from Association tab)

Code:

publication topic home/wink/3/set
publication template {"level":$$VALUE:}

With something having a range of values between 0 and 255 you can use a number text box or a slider as the Control/Status UI. This is also on the Edit tab. If you use the slider, then you will also need to use the Expression (also on Edit tab) because mcsMQTT slider is a percentage value between 0 and 100. If you use number then no additional changes are needed as the payload will go into HS device with range of 0 to 255.

Code:

expression $$PAYLOAD:/2.55
publication template {"level":<<$$VALUE:*2.55>>}

**dhod** · February 12, 2021, 10:06 PM

Nice!

Almost there. A couple notes:

1. I had to use "Level" for the object attribute not "level" and then it would work with a number UI widget but slider would have the problem of not going above 100 (medium brightness. makes sense as 100 would be sent as the int for 100 % setting the brightness to 100 / 255, about 40% brightness)

2. trying the code you posted to scale the 0-100% into a 0-255 value almost works but it gave me issues going up and down the scale. setting it to 40 might revert it to 10 and set brightness to 10. It was weird and then I realized the math to convert on the publish will probably be passing a float with a decimal right?

Can I cast it to an int in the 'Publish Payload Template' box somehow? will it accept functions to cast to an int? which language is it using in this box? Javascript or c# or something?

The aprontest binary inside the Wink hub that controls all the devices specifies in the database that stores the values of each devices attributes that the value is a UINT8 so its probably getting confused when I'm sending it a float via json. When I use a number field and send it any proper int in the text entry from 0 to 255 it works fine and if I send it a 256 it overflows the 8 bit integer and stores a 0 which probably means whatever a float of 45.298376 ends up casting to in storage for a UINT8 after overflows is what is saved.

the incoming expression ''$$PAYLOAD:/2.55" works fine for converting a range of 0-255 into a 0-100 for the percentage and displaying on the UI.

it's just publishing a change that needs to be an integer.

**dhod** · February 12, 2021, 10:11 PM

another clue it has to be an int. i just used the number 2 instead of 2.55 to scale the slider from 0-200 and guarantee a int as its just doubling and halfing values sending and receiving and it works i just dont get full real brightness.

So if i can cast to int on the publish it should work perfect

**Michael McSharry** · February 12, 2021, 10:27 PM

There is a table in the mcsMQTT.pdf document that shows all available expression functions. To remove the fractional part use ROUND(x,0) where x is the prior expression that has the float value.

Expressions are implemented as an interpreter because it is done at run time rather than compile time. The interpreter was written in vb.net.

**dhod** · February 13, 2021, 05:08 PM

Got it!

took some fiddling with the order of the brackets and the function.

first i tried

Code:

{"Level":Round(<<$$VALUE:*2.55>>,0)}

and it didnt work so i tried the function inside the << >> and it works

This works (for other viewers):

Code:

{"Level":<<Round($$VALUE:*2.55,0)>>}

Is it possible to have an OFF and ON button as well as the slider to make it easy to quickly turn the light fully on or fully off and a simmer slider as a choice for dimming?

**Michael McSharry** · February 13, 2021, 06:20 PM

Take a look at Section 4.1.30 of the mcsMQTT manual to see if it does what you want. If it does not then we will figure out what needs to be done to accomplish your objective.

The << and >> are used to designate an inline expression so all expression elements needs to be contained within these "escape" markers.

**dhod** · February 14, 2021, 05:22 PM

I read through that section and I see the parallel to a dimmer with 0 off, 100 on, and 0 -> 100 the dimmer range.

I got lost a bit with the VSP part but I realized all i have to do is in the device settings under status is setup 2 more buttons with values of 0 for off and 100 for on each.

There is already a slider for 0-100 range so it will not let me create a single value of 0 for the off button but i can create a single value of 100 for the on button
so i changed the slider range from 1 to 100 and created a 0 for off and 100 for on and then set the row and col accordingly to arrange them

When I clicked on or off the first couple times it didnt seem to register but them I refreshed the devices page and clicked on then off and it then started updating the slider to match the state. I can now click anywhere on teh slider to dim or tap off or on to go full on or off.

A minor bug is that sliding the slider all the way to the left is actually a value of 1 or 2.55% light level, not actually off. theres also no light icon in the tile for on or off and I'm not sure if this will work with google home voice commands either yet.

But so far this is really great to have been able to completely reuse the Wink hub as a local lan control lutron/zwave/zigbee/kidde radio transmitter. I already have zwave and zigbee on my HS server but having lutron now and kidde is nice. In theory I could add more lutron lights although it would be tricky to add them into the wink hub database to control them, it is possible once rooted with wink-rs-mqtt installed.

Going to finish this project up, get the hub reassembled back in its box, and go back to working on the sonoff plugs again.

**Michael McSharry** · February 14, 2021, 06:35 PM

I believe it is important that mcsMQTT is aware of the VSP definition with the On and Off topic being a Toggle type and the dimmer being a Slider type. If it is working as it is now for you then great. If not then revisit the Edit tab definition of the topic that drives the On and Off states of the device.

**dhod** · February 14, 2021, 10:38 PM

the VSP feature itself isnt really clear to me. is it some kind of mapping of what values coming in on the topic equal what values for the device. like if a device needs 0 for off and 1 for on but the topic sends a string "on" or "off" the VSP would convert it to 0 and 1 for the HS device status/graphics part?

**Michael McSharry** · February 14, 2021, 10:45 PM

Yes it is a text to number mapping so you can trigger events based upon the number while still showing status that is the text. mcsMQTT Control/Status UI of List, Button and Toggle use the VSP mappings when bridging MQTT to HS.

**dhod** · February 15, 2021, 01:27 PM

Ah I see. That explains why I can only edit the VSP when the device UI type is set to button, etc. So far it's working well for me.

I now have all 3 Lutron lights setup as devices, they work on homeseer mobile perfectly, they update when i use the physical buttons on the wall for the switches, and Google Home works with the devices and loads them in. Voice commands also work.

Coincidentally I found a Homeseer/MQTT bug where if 2 lights are named different but have the same name for the feature and you add them to google home only 1 device will show up and the other is missing. Renaming the feature, and then asking google home to 'sync my devices' added the second light and I could then rename it, and put it in the proper room.

**dhod** · February 15, 2021, 03:02 PM

I've now rewritten the original post as a guide to completing this project and the steps it entails for people who stumble upon here in the future.

**Pete** · March 15, 2021, 06:30 AM

Noticed these are selling on Ebay:

Wink PRLAY-WHO1 - wall-mounted/controller Ebay Item # 193746420969

Wrote to seller and he said these are WInk Relay V2. Will these work?

Well purchased it anyways and will give it a try.

Announcement

Hacking the Wink hub V1 to work with Homeseer via MSCMQTT

Hacking the Wink hub V1 to work with Homeseer via MSCMQTT

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