mcsMQTT virtual devices monitoring

[goldriver]

I looked at documentation and Can't find a way to monitor devices that does not have a "bettery" like device linked to.

In fact the devices I am trying to monitor are of 2 types; ESP8266 and zigbee devices linked via zigbe2mqtt plugin to mcsMQTT that creates a virtual battery device in HS that i configured to copy a numerical value of a specific payload topic to the device value, That value can be anywhere from 0 - 100 and can report often or not depending on the specific hardware.

Is there a way to monitor those type of devices ?

[SteveMSJ]

I looked at documentation and Can't find a way to monitor devices that does not have a "bettery" like device linked to.

In fact the devices I am trying to monitor are of 2 types; ESP8266 and zigbee devices linked via zigbe2mqtt plugin to mcsMQTT that creates a virtual battery device in HS that i configured to copy a numerical value of a specific payload topic to the device value, That value can be anywhere from 0 - 100 and can report often or not depending on the specific hardware.

Is there a way to monitor those type of devices ?

The current version of SDJ-Health is specifically aimed at battery powered devices. However, I am working on incorporating general monitoring of all devices and I will be releasing a beta of this shortly.

However, if I understand correctly you are saying the devices you want to monitor have a virtual battery device. If that is the case you should be able to monitor the device in SDJ-Health as long as the virtual battery device is grouped as a child to the parent of the device group. If it is you just need to add the word 'battery' to the Device Type (string), on the advanced tab of the battery virtual device. It should then be available in the list of Devices Requiring Activity Monitoring on the SDJ-Health config page. If you select it then a monitoring device will be created to monitor the activity of all the children.

For example, I added an old X10 motion/night/day sensor to my battery monitoring even though it doesn't report any battery information. I created dummy battery virtual device and grouped it with the motion device and night/day device in HS3. This is then monitored by SDJ-Health and even if the motion sensor might not be triggered for days the night/day sensor changes twice a day so SDJ-Health reports if the device fails. Obviously battery levels and discharge rates are not relevant in this scenario, so alerting is turned off for those, but battery life (age) is useful in addition to the alive or dead alerting.

If you give more specific details of the device and how it is represented in HS3 I'll try and help further.

Steve

[Michael McSharry]

If it is you just need to add the word 'battery' to the Device Type (string),

I do not believe the user has the ability to edit this property unless the user created the device. If a plugin created it then only the plugin can change it.

HS3 also does not require Parent/Child relationships. For example, a user may want to group all their battery status's together into a single "Battery" parent device. The parent/child relationship can be logical and does not need to be physical. In HS4 there does need to be physical relationship and the battery would be called a feature of the physical device.

[goldriver]

Definitly, as Michael mentionned in the previous post, the Device type cannot be modified without dissociating the parent child devices if the device is a plugin created device.

I guess the best way, would be to have to possibility to point SDJ-Health directly to the device Reference Id that way, any device either parent or child could be monitored.

[SteveMSJ]

Definitly, as Michael mentionned in the previous post, the Device type cannot be modified without dissociating the parent child devices if the device is a plugin created device.

I guess the best way, would be to have to possibility to point SDJ-Health directly to the device Reference Id that way, any device either parent or child could be monitored.

I'm not referring to the 'Device Type', it is the 'The Device Type (string)' which can be modified by the user, it is a text box on the advanced tab of the device, see below.



I'm not saying you should do this, I'm just saying you can do it, in answer to your question. Plug-ins generally use the Device Types and not the Device Type (String) for the very reason that it can be changed by the user.
If you do this and select it to be monitored you can then change it back to whatever it was before. In SDJ-Health it is only a means for selecting the device and once selected it doesn't use it again. It's convenient because most plug-ins set this to something with the word battery in it.

Steve

[SteveMSJ]

I do not believe the user has the ability to edit this property unless the user created the device. If a plugin created it then only the plugin can change it.

I am referring to the Device Type (string), see post above, which is editable in the HS3 UI.

HS3 also does not require Parent/Child relationships. For example, a user may want to group all their battery status's together into a single "Battery" parent device. The parent/child relationship can be logical and does not need to be physical. In HS4 there does need to be physical relationship and the battery would be called a feature of the physical device.

I don't disagree and I'm not suggesting anybody changes the format of their plug-in I was just responding to a question without any real detail. If the op provides more information about the representation of the device and what he is trying to do I might be able to help.

Steve

[goldriver]

I'm not referring to the 'Device Type', it is the 'The Device Type (string)' which can be modified by the user, it is a text box on the advanced tab of the device, see below.



I'm not saying you should do this, I'm just saying you can do it, in answer to your question. Plug-ins generally use the Device Types and not the Device Type (String) for the very reason that it can be changed by the user.
If you do this and select it to be monitored you can then change it back to whatever it was before. In SDJ-Health it is only a means for selecting the device and once selected it doesn't use it again. It's convenient because most plug-ins set this to something with the word battery in it.

Steve

If it is only used at selection time than definitely I can use it that way and change back the string once selected, thanks


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