Publish all HomeSeer Devices

[Krumpy]

Michael, the plugin is crazy powerful with an insane number of pages of documentation.

I would like to publish all HomeSeer devices to MQTT using some hierarchy. Maybe I missed something in the documentation, but is this possible without having to associate every devices manually within the user interface? I am thinking that this is possible, but for the live of me can't remember/figure out how.

Something like publish:
topic=Universe/HS/$$Floor:/$$Room:/$$Name:
payload=$$STATUS:

Thanks!!

[Michael McSharry]

Are you asking for meta data to be published such as with homeassistant discovery protocol or are you asking for status to be published as it changes for every HS device?

The former exists but only includes already associated non-plugin devices. The later exists going in the other direction where every received topics creates a HS device.

It is easy enough to add automatic publishing. The issue that I can see arising is that the payload template may not always want the status which tends to be textual and may want $$VALUE: in some cases. Once variation is introduced then it becomes a UI chore which typically needs to be on a device-by-device basis and then have moved away from the global specification.

[Krumpy]

True.

For now I am building a universe of information on the MQTT broker for other systems and devices to fetch data from. Yes, the other control system will be Home Assistant, and others as well. The reason for a MQTT "universe" is that I will include a few houses houses, a boat, a few cars, etc in this data collection. Each location may have a different control "system". So, I am really trying to abstract the data from the control system. It is maybe just a fancy way of saying that I am trying to stay away from the specifics of each control system.

Haven't dabbled in HS as much lately, but everything has a $$Value: , right? So, if we could publish globally all values that would begin the process. I just looked at everything I checked has a status as well. I guess I'll defer to you on that subject as you have certainly better experience on this.


But if you have advice to how to exchange data between HomeSeer and Home Assistant, then I am certainly also willing to listen.

Thx.

[Krumpy]

Perhaps, rather than going through and associating all devices, one could have a text based configuration file which could be populated by the user. I guess there would need to be a way of including devices and excluding devices. Unless include is for all that are specified.

Conceptual CONFIG FILE:
Prefix: Universe/FloridaHouse
Device: Floor/Room/Name
Main/Kitchen/Counter Lights_status=$$Status:
Main/Kitchen/Counter Lights_value=$$Value:
Upstairs/Master/Ceiling Lights_status=$$Status:
Upstairs/Master/Ceiling Lights_value=$$Status:


We could populate the file and the payload information in terms of replacement variables.

I dunno.. It's an idea. We can collaborate further if you're open to this concept.

[Michael McSharry]

What I did was add a General Tab checkbox to perform this function. The user fills in the default topic and payload templates. Each time the non-plugin device changes mcsMQTT will publish. In the example below I have it publishing JSON with value and status keys using topic of location and name.



For my test a defined a virtual device that has on and off buttons.



When I use the Off button it published the following

Topic Unknown/Unknown/Control
Payload {"value":0,"status":"Off"}

I did this with the HS3 plugin. Tomorrow I will port to the HS4. Please confirm this will satisfy your need. Of course the topic and payload templates can be anything available such as Universe/HS/$$Floor:/$$Room:/$$Name: and $$STATUS: if that is what you want.

[Krumpy]

Cool - let me test this with HS3. Haven't migrated yet to HS4.

Filename?

THX!!!

[Krumpy]

Just to confirm terminology. What do you mean exactly with "non plugin"? It sounds like there are some limitations. Which make sense, but it would be good to known exactly what you mean with that.

[Michael McSharry]

Plugin devices are the devices created by mcsMQTT because a MQTT topic was received and the topic has been associated with HS.

My thinking is that if a widget is sending status via MQTT then there is no need for HS to send the same information again just because it was routed through HS.

I can publish all device changes if that works better for you.

The HS3 plugin is at http://mcsSprinklers.com/mcsMQTT_5_15_7_0.zip. Note this thread is a HS4 plugin thread.

[Michael McSharry]

With the next update I will make the new feature a radio with ability of the user to select all devices or only non-plugin devices.

[Krumpy]

Yes - the option for all devices would be preferred in this case. When you get the chance.

[Michael McSharry]

It is at the same url as the prior one

[Krumpy]

The HS3 plugin is at http://mcsSprinklers.com/mcsMQTT_5_15_7_0.zip. Note this thread is a HS4 plugin thread.

Downloaded file. Confirmed in installed plugins that I have the right version installed. Hate to bother but don't see the Publish HS Device Changes check box. You're right that this is a HS4 thread and, well, it is what it is.

What the heck, why is it not there? Sorry!

Outbound (Publish) Management
Default Topic Template
Default Payload Template
Default QOS	At Most At Least Exactly
Default Message Retain	Do Not Retain at Broker Retain at Broker
Publish Periodic Status	Every Minutes
URI Encode Topic	Send unencoded Encode with URI encoding such as %20 for space Replace special characters with underscore
Topic Prefix	Add STAT/ prefix to Topic on Device change Add INFO/ prefix to Topic during periodic reporting
HS Device Discovery	Enumerate HS Devices during startup Enumerate HS Devices only with Button
HS Device Enumeration	Enumerate Non-Plugin Devices
Publish HomeAssistant Discovery	Publish HomeAssistant Discovery

[Michael McSharry]

Did you follow the updater override process to install the updater zip package that I referenced? I paraphrased it from the SDK at the bottom of the first post at Direct Storage from HS Devices to InfluxDB - HomeSeer Message Board

[Krumpy]

You were correct. Seems to work. Thanks!! Would be great if you could add the same (if not already done) with HS4. Thank you!

[Michael McSharry]

I keep both versions in sync. I got email that this version for both HS3 and HS4 were released in the Updater.