Announcing MQTT/Android bridging app: Zanzito. Beta testers wanted!

anon35356645 · April 23, 2017, 9:53am

May I know your application for the app

MrMep · April 23, 2017, 9:54am

Zanzito sends photos automatically only when the corresponding option is selected in the preferences. Otherwise you need to give a manual command from the menu in the app or from the button in the notification.
Maybe you gave a manual command Inadvertently?

anon35356645 · April 23, 2017, 9:56am

No I selected the option for sending the photos automatically, no wonder.

Cool feature

IoTmessenger · April 23, 2017, 10:03am

Claudio,

I did describe my use case to MrMep in the early stages of the closed beta, some functionality has already been implemented in the meantime:

My use case would be something like this:

I currently have sensors for my doorbell and mailbox, which communicate to Home Assistant (from now I will use HASS) via MQTT.
For both I have setup MQTT sensors in HASS and when HASS receives a defined message on a defined topic, it now sends a notification to Telegram

- for my doorbell I would like to have it play a doorbell sound on my phone and have a notification shown on screen with a picture taken from a camera at my door (IP Webcam).

- for my mailbox I want a different sound message played when that notification arrives on my phone.

- next step would (of course) be using that functionality for alarm notifications.
:-)

Telegram has the option to send the photo and show it on my phone (even when the screen is off!). Although it does provide the option to choose your own notification sound, that sound will be used for all messages/notifications.
It can not differentiate between them.

I also use(d) gmail for different notification sounds with the use of the label functionality. You can add custom sounds to different labels. This is not always pushed instantly and sometimes have lag which is not very useful for the doorbell function.

/edit
The only part that is not working for me yet (my cam does not work with ffmpeg), is the notification with a picture from HASS to Zanzito.
As you can read above, MrMep is working on that part.

anon35356645 · April 23, 2017, 10:17am

Which doorbell type?

Is your mailbox metal (mine is)? Which sensors you use? How far is the doorbell and mailbox from the sensor receiver?

MrMep · April 23, 2017, 10:28am

I would like to underline the fact that Zanzito is the first (and only, at the moment) app/service in the Home assistant ecosystem that uses MQTT to exchange photos.
This required some core modification to HA which tested the patience of the great HA developers team, who luckily supported my proposed changes. So now we can receive photos.

Sending photos I suspect will require another (minor) core change, so I’m afraid that will take some time.

MrMep · April 23, 2017, 10:38am

A new version is available on the Google Play store (0.9.5.5b): it should address the photo resolution problem, let me know if it works for you!

IoTmessenger · April 23, 2017, 10:39am

Doorbell:

standard (wired) push button connected to an ESP8266 module

Aluminium mailbox lid:

used a hall effect sensor on the side of the mailbox connected to the same ESP8266 module
glued some neodymium magnets to the lid which trigger the hall effect sensor when the lid opens

The ESP8266 module is at the door and connected via WiFi in my home (about 10m distance).
The Arduino code on it get triggers from the sensors and sends messages to a MQTT topic.
I use a RaspberryPi with Mosquitto as MQTT broker which HASS also communicates with.
Made MQTT sensors in HASS which are used in some automations.

I will not get deeply into this, this is not the topic for this.

IoTmessenger · April 23, 2017, 10:40am

Updating as we speak!

/edit
Confirmed working as should for me now! Also the watermark does not bother me anymore, as it is really small as you wrote before.

Thanks again for the fast fix!

/edit2
Although the resolution seems ok now, it is not auto focusing for me?

MrMep · April 23, 2017, 11:02am

Glad the resolution works. The autofocus fail should depend on the high resolution and the fact that Zanzito takes pictures in background. It’s hard to fix this due to the very different camera hardwares available in different brands/models…
Would you test this for me privately? None of the hardware at my disposal has this problem.
Write me a PM, I could send you an apk with a different configuration.

IoTmessenger · April 23, 2017, 11:16am

That must be the annoying part of developing for Android, I guess.

Sent a PM.
Thanks.

anon35356645 · April 24, 2017, 5:07pm

I have letsencypt https. How to set Zanzito for usage outside my network?
("you must import your CA certificate in android first ", how?

masterkenobi · April 25, 2017, 4:18am

I want to try this out but failed. I installed this in my old android tablet running on Android version 4.1.2

When I click on preference, it just crashed. Please help

MrMep · April 25, 2017, 5:57am

Hi Claudio, please read the paragraph “SSL/TLS Connection” in Zanzito’s User manual, if you haven’t already.
Roughly, to connect Zanzito from the outside with TLS, the steps are:

Configure your MQTT server for SSL/TLS connection (there’s a link to a tutorial for mosquitto in the manual);
Configure a port forwarding on your router;
Copy you CA certificate to your Android device (as email attachment, or through USB), launch it (with a file browsing app) and accept it into the system (Android prompts you to do so);
Change the preferences in Zanzito with your public IP and SSL/TLS port (usually 8883).
That’s it.
Optionally you can configure your Home host with your local IP address so that you connect through your local network when you’re home.

MrMep · April 25, 2017, 6:33am

Hi, I’m sorry it crashed! Android 4.1.2 is supported and tested…
Google sent me a crash report, I guess it’s yours: unfortunately I can’t see where the problem occurred exactly, but I have an idea. Could I send you an apk to test in PM?

masterkenobi · April 25, 2017, 6:38am

yes. please. thanks. btw, i have purchased the full version. it works wonderfully on my other phones.

MrMep · April 25, 2017, 9:11am

Thanks for testing that!
It seems there’s a problem with default notification sound in certain devices. The fix will be in the next release.

masterkenobi · April 25, 2017, 10:13am

You are welcome.

After playing around with it, I faced one major problem. However, it is not related to your app but more on how MQTT notification work in HA.

In order to send notification via MQTT (so that it can captured by Zanzito), I have to change all my automation to this example…

    - service: mqtt.publish
      data:
        topic: 'zanzito/livingroom/notification'
        payload: 'Hello World!'

the problem with this is all my alerts doesn’t work anymore because the MQTT notification is not in the notifiers.

I am hoping someone can develop a custom component for MQTT notifications so that it is consistent with every notification platforms in HA such as this way…

notify:
  - platform: mqtt
    name: livingroom
    topic: 'zanzito/livingroom/notification'

MrMep · April 25, 2017, 10:16am

I’m aware of this problem. I’m currently working on an MQTT notifier component for HA. If you wish to beta test it, please send me a PM!
thanks
gl

masterkenobi · April 25, 2017, 10:18am

I will be happy to test it out for you. Please PM me.