OmniLinkBridge to integrate Home Assistant, SmartThings, Node-RED

[grantlewis]

EDIT: I went ahead and did the search and replace operation to update the Home Assistant entity names. No idea how this popped up today!

= = =

Having a little insomnia tonight, and I woke up to many spontaneous entity name changes, all of them OmniPro flags that I use in Home Assistant as switches:

switch.familymotion is now showing in Home Assistant as switch.omnilink_familymotion
switch.kitchmotion is now showing in Home Assistant as switch.omnilink_kitchmotion
switch.extdoralrtor is now showing in Home Assistant as switch.omnilink_extdoralrtor
... etc. ..., "omnilink_" being added as a prefix to each flag name.

I restarted OmniLinkBridge, Home Assistant, and MQTT, no change.

I investigated the omnilinkbridge.ini file and, sure enough, there I see:

# Prefix for MQTT state / command topics
mqtt_prefix = omnilink

But I haven't touched that file in... years?

I haven't made any changes to my config that I think would cause this behavior, so wondering if someone might have advice as to what might have caused this problem.

There are about 30 name changes in all. It wouldn't be a horrible thing to do a global search and replace, but I'd just as soon avoid that. Is the recommended course of action just to # out that line, reboot everything, and see how it goes?

 

[ano]

So I have used Home Bridge with the Omni plugin many years, but I am moving more to Hubitat so it means switching over to Home Assistant. Learning MQTT and have a broker running. So my question, I'm configuring the OmniLink Bridge in Home Assistant. I have

MQTT_discovery_prefix = homeassistant (So this is the top name)

but what is:
MQTT_discovery_name_prefix ???

instructions say: prefix for Home Assistant entity names
but I don't know what that means. How is the discovery_prefix and the discovery_name_prefix different??

 

[pete_c]

Mine is blank and never has been configured.

 

[rhombixt]

Is there a way to see the RAW data that gets pulled into HA via MQTT? I have a number of devices that were discovered on the omni but some of the labels are odd - I have sensors that have a not ready, secure, and on/off state. Some items went in as a motion sensor when they are not so the labels are incorrect. Motions have a clear and a Secure/Not ready state.

 

[tigers]

You can check what's going on behind the scenes in 2 ways:

1. directly by looking at the log (iva shell CLI: docker logs omnilink-bridge - or the corresponding command if you're not using docker, it's all documented in the Omnilikbridge github page);
2. on MQTT level by using something like MQTT Explorer, where you can take a look at which MQTT commands are being sent and received in a more simple way. You also get a better view on the MQTT structure of the omnlink items

For your problem you may also take a look inside HA in the MQTT page and with a long press get more detailed insights of every recognized items. If you need more help feel free to bother me.

 

[rhombixt]

I did exactly that - Installed the explorer and now I can see things. I have managed to get an RTI driver that speaks MQTT and they talk. I can pull variables into the system BUT here is my questions - I have no idea how to publish commands. There is no syntax listed anywhere for the bridge to publish. Can anyone help me out?

 

[tigers]

You don't need to send commands, the bridge will do it for you as soon as HA changes the MQTT state: all the units from the HAI controller are MQTT devices inside HA and it already knows how to change them when you apply the actions.
With MQTT explorer you should be able to see the "friendly name" of the OmniPro units (the one you gave in PC ACCESS), that should be visible in HA. If the "unit" has no name in PC ACCESS it won't be seen in HA.
If a unit has an incorrect type you can modify it either in HA itself by entering in its properties and selecting "show as..." (not sure about the translation, I'm using the italian version of HA) OR by modifying the device_class in customize.yaml like this:
binary_sensor.omnilink_f_bagno_pt:
friendly_name: Bagno piano terra
device_class: window

 

[rhombixt]

I have it figured out .. I am not using HA - I am testing this to work with RTI's XP processor and touch panels. They have a MQTT broker client that translates between the two. What the native HAI driver can't do, this MQTT fills in the gaps

 

[tigers]

Sorry, but in your first message you stated "pulled into HA" and I assumed that was Home Assistant. If you're using directly MQTT you must build messages according to the docs.

 

[rhombixt]

I used HA to verify everything is talking - the default dashboard populated with everything that was named . From there I began to explore how to bring this into RTI. I got the hang of the commands using a client driver written by another tech. I can only subscribe to 300 and it bogs the processor down so I am going to keep it to thermostats and temp / humidity sensors