mcsMQTT Plugin

[Pete]

Been tinkering with another application that runs in Linux called MQTT.fx. It provides a nice MQTT interface.



The Homeseer 3 mcsMQTT interface works great for this stuff and is really quick.

[Pete]

You can validate that it is working looking at the mcsMQTT tab called statistics.

[DaveB]

I'm getting some action and history over in HS on the plugin side now. Let's see if I can configure that side correctly now. Thanks

[Michael McSharry]

Only need and want mosquitto in one place. Since mosquitto_pub and mosquitto broker are on the same computer I do not think "-h 10.89.1.172" is needed. It should default to localhost. If the "-h" is included then it should be the IP of RPi/mosquitto broker.

When mcsMQTT is setup on the General Tab it will need the IP of RPi/mosquitto broker.

[Pete]

Do I need to also install Mosquitto over in the Homeseer Troller system, for the plugin to pickup on this?

no.

The Homeseer 3 plugin running in Windows or Linux doesn't need anything else installed on the same machine.

It is optional to install the Mosquitto broker on same said machine or any other machine. All you need to configure with the mcsMQTT plugin is the IP of the Mosquitto broker. If it is on the same computer then just utilize the loopback address: 127.0.0.1 for a broker IP.

You can install the mosquitto broker on just about anything and it might be easier for you just to install it on the Zee2.

Personally here have it installed on an RPi that was also a nodered, owfs, SDR Satellite NOAA mapper and ZNet like device.

Moved it over to other devices which worked fine. Lightest device was an OpenWRT micro router which I am now using as a WAP just for SonOff firmware updated devices.

I have read that historically there were issues running Mosquitto Broker on RPi Stretch..probably now fixed though.

Here run it fine on Ubuntu 18.10 64 bit, RPi2 Stretch and Jessie and OpenWRT current release.

Here moved my HS3 lite (Zee2) OS over to a Pine 64 2Gb computer a couple of years back and it runs better for me in Ubuntu 18.10 on Pine 64 computer than the RPi. That is me though.

[DaveB]

Have a new install, hoping to utilize the mcsMQTT plugin, running HS3 on the Troller Zee S2, and I built a Raspberry Pi 3 which is running the Mosquitto broker (and eventually his $10 USB stick). Mosquitto works internally to that broker system, can publish commands and subscribe session in same system receives it.

Now trying to test publishing from the Broker Raspberry Pi system,
over to the Homeseer Troller (with mcsMQTT plugin) with:

pi@MQ_Broker:~ $ mosquitto_pub -h 10.89.1.172 -m "ON" -t test/topic
Error: Connection refused

Do I need to also install Mosquitto over in the Homeseer Troller system, for the plugin to pickup on this? Or is the plugin the code that is listening for the publication?

[proson]

Tnx, that solved my issue

[Michael McSharry]

See if the file at http://mcsSprinklers.com/HSPI_MCSMQTT34164.zip takes care of the issue. Before this it should have been handling the HS to MQTT publish, but was using ASCII for the MQTT to HS subscribe.

[proson]

Any chance non-english letters would be supported in payloads? For example norwegian letters æ ø å becomes ?? in HomeSeer.

[cytec]

@Michael McSharry
Thank you! I will test this tonight and report back.

Cheers

[Michael McSharry]

Added feature in 3.4.13.0. Submitted to Updater and available at http://mcsSprinklers.com/mcsMQTT_3_4_13_0.zip. Opened discussion thread at https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/li...ing-hs-devices

[cytec]

Michael McSharry control via Topic would be just as good, Node-Red is very adaptable.

Just looking for a way to have two way communication (control and status) of all devices in HomeSeer.

Eg:

/homeseer/105/control with payload on or off

Wanting to use HomeSeer so I can avoid OpenZWave.

cheers

[Michael McSharry]

As you noted wildcards for associations are currently not available. Let me dwell on how this could be achieved. The wildcard topic here should not be too difficult. What I do not yet understand is the implications of moving what normally exists in the topic into the payload. Kind of like what X10 does where one does not know the destination until the payload has already been parsed. In node-red you should be able to encode the device as part of the topic (e.g. homeseer/105/control). You could use JSON for payload, but simpler if the value is simplicit so only "on" or "off" would be in the payload. Same result, but less overall system overhead. For publishing I think this methodology already exists in mcsMQTT template. All that should be needed is to recognize substitution parameters in topic (.e.g. homeseer/$$REF:/control). Thoughts?

[cytec]

I'm trying to achieve the following, any advice would be appreciated:

All HomeSeer devices automatically publish status changes to MQTT topic: /homeseer/device/status

Content JSON: { "ref" : $$REF, "value" : $$value }

All HomeSeer devices can be controlled via topic subscription: /homeseer/device/control

Content JSON sent to HomeSeer via MQTT eg: { "ref" : "105", "value" : "on" }

From what I have seen mcsMQTT seems very complicated to achieve this having to setup each device individually, I just want this rule to apply to the whole of HomeSeer (very simple), is this possible?

My goal is to use HomeSeer only for Z-Wave devices and access them in Node-Red via MQTT.

Thanks

[Pete]

Thank you Michael. It is working fine at the G version at this time so will leave it there.