I currently start my home automation new from scratch. The "old" system was based on openHAB 1.8 and mosquitto MQTT server and a lot of openHAB code. I waited a wile until openHAB 2.x settled. Recently I discovered that with Version 2.4 openHAB committed to MQTT by integrating a MQTT server inside as a binding. In a blogpost from December it is explained that even if generic MQTT devices are supported the MQTT implementation is based on the Homie spec beside Homeassistant. With some rules and a little mod of the MQTT-import plugin to receive true and false payloads It is possible to get sensors and actors running ESPeasy autodiscovered and running with no line of code or conf files.
https://www.openhab.org/blog/2018-12-16 ... cture.html
https://homieiot.github.io/
To make the "magic" happen a few definitions have to be sent to the mqtt broker describing the "thing" and the channels.
- the definitions should be sent with the retained flag set
- first a few description of the "thing" here ESP8266 running ESPEasy
- some definitions for each sensor/actor
- a definition of every value provided by each sensor
- The receive definition is different from the CMD structure (only writing to the same topic with /set appended)
- Send the description messages
- for every device send appropriate definitions of things (device) and channels (value)
- handle received messages
- handle erasing and changing devices. This is necessary because if the retained flag is set not used devices will stay and will be detected as not working. Could be solved if it will be possible to erase all old definition if the ESPeasy firmware comes up again and refresh the above information
So my questions are
- is something like this already in the works and I will waste my time?
- are there any traps I should consider - beside reading the wiki?
- anybody with the same demand for making ESPeasy homie and/or homeassistant compatible?
- or is there a existing way I not found or thought of?
Let me know what you think and thank you for all the work - your system is by far the most versatile and flexible of all I tested so far.
Chris