Ghost switch triggers

I’m using pins D1 and D2. I don’t think it reboots when reconnecting.

Gate openened again this morning as router came on but didn’t hear any other relay clicks but I was sleeping at the time so can’t be sure.

When I do a reboot on Hassio I get clicking relays too, is that quite normal?
Also when I power up my NodeMCU’s the relays do a little clicking dance, is that normal?
I always thought that is the state being set but the code is supposed to set them to low so I’ve always been a bit puzzled by this…

#include <PubSubClient.h>
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <ArduinoOTA.h>

void callback(char* topic, byte* payload, unsigned int length);

//EDIT THESE LINES TO MATCH YOUR SETUP
#define MQTT_SERVER "192.168.1.6"  //you MQTT IP Address
const char* ssid = "HomeWiFi";
const char* password = "password";
IPAddress ip(192, 168, 1, 102);

//EJ: Data PIN Assignment on WEMOS D1 R2 https://www.wemos.cc/product/d1.html
// if you are using Arduino UNO, you will need to change the "D1 ~ D4" with the corresponding UNO DATA pin number 

const int switchPin1 = D1;
const int switchPin2 = D2;
const int switchPin3 = D3;
const int switchPin4 = D4;

//EJ: These are the MQTT Topic that will be used to manage the state of Relays 1 ~ 4
//EJ: Refer to my YAML component entry
//EJ: feel free to replicate the line if you have more relay switch to control, but dont forget to increment the number suffix so as increase switch logics in loop()

char const* switchTopic1 = "/gate/pedestrian1/";
char const* switchTopic2 = "/gate/car2/";
char const* switchTopic3 = "/gate/dummyswitch3/";
char const* switchTopic4 = "/gate/dummyswitch4/";


WiFiClient wifiClient;
PubSubClient client(MQTT_SERVER, 1883, callback, wifiClient);

void setup()
{
  //initialize the switch as an output and set to LOW (off)
  pinMode(switchPin1, OUTPUT); // Relay Switch 1
  digitalWrite(switchPin1, LOW);

  pinMode(switchPin2, OUTPUT); // Relay Switch 2
  digitalWrite(switchPin2, LOW);

  pinMode(switchPin3, OUTPUT); // Relay Switch 3
  digitalWrite(switchPin3, LOW);

  pinMode(switchPin4, OUTPUT); // Relay Switch 4
  digitalWrite(switchPin4, LOW);

  ArduinoOTA.setHostname("Gate NodeMCU"); // A name given to your ESP8266 module when discovering it as a port in ARDUINO IDE
  ArduinoOTA.begin(); // OTA initialization

  //start the serial line for debugging
  Serial.begin(115200);
  delay(100);

  //start wifi subsystem
  WiFi.begin(ssid, password);
  //attempt to connect to the WIFI network and then connect to the MQTT server
  reconnect();

  //wait a bit before starting the main loop
      delay(12000);
}


void loop()
{

  //reconnect if connection is lost
  if (!client.connected() && WiFi.status() == 3) {reconnect();}

  //maintain MQTT connection
  client.loop();

  //MUST delay to allow ESP8266 WIFI functions to run
  delay(10); 
  ArduinoOTA.handle();
}

void callback(char* topic, byte* payload, unsigned int length) {

  //convert topic to string to make it easier to work with
  String topicStr = topic; 
  //EJ: Note:  the "topic" value gets overwritten everytime it receives confirmation (callback) message from MQTT

  //Print out some debugging info
  Serial.println("Callback update.");
  Serial.print("Topic: ");
  Serial.println(topicStr);

   if (topicStr == "/gate/pedestrian1/") 
    {

     //turn the switch on if the payload is '1' and publish to the MQTT server a confirmation message
     if(payload[0] == '1'){
       digitalWrite(switchPin1, HIGH);
       client.publish("/gate/pedestrianConfirm1/", "1");
       delay(600);
       digitalWrite(switchPin1, LOW);
       client.publish("/gate/pedestrianConfirm1/", "0");
       }

      //turn the switch off if the payload is '0' and publish to the MQTT server a confirmation message
     else if (payload[0] == '0'){
       digitalWrite(switchPin1, LOW);
       client.publish("/gate/pedestrianConfirm1/", "0");
       }
     }

////

     // EJ: copy and paste this whole else-if block, should you need to control more switches
     else if (topicStr == "/gate/car2/") 
     {
     //turn the switch on if the payload is '1' and publish to the MQTT server a confirmation message
     if(payload[0] == '1'){
       digitalWrite(switchPin2, HIGH);
       client.publish("/gate/carConfirm2/", "1");
       delay(600);
       digitalWrite(switchPin2, LOW);
       client.publish("/gate/carConfirm2/", "0");
       
       }

      //turn the switch off if the payload is '0' and publish to the MQTT server a confirmation message
     else if (payload[0] == '0'){
       digitalWrite(switchPin2, LOW);
       client.publish("/gate/carConfirm2/", "0");
       }
     }
     
////
     
     else if (topicStr == "/gate/dummyswitch3/") 
     {
     //turn the switch on if the payload is '1' and publish to the MQTT server a confirmation message
     if(payload[0] == '1'){
       digitalWrite(switchPin3, HIGH);
       client.publish("/gate/dummyswitchConfirm3/", "1");
       delay(600);
       digitalWrite(switchPin3, LOW);
       client.publish("/gate/dummyswitchConfirm3/", "0");
       }

      //turn the switch off if the payload is '0' and publish to the MQTT server a confirmation message
     else if (payload[0] == '0'){
       digitalWrite(switchPin3, LOW);
       client.publish("/gate/dummyswitchConfirm3/", "0");
       }
     }
     
////   
     
     else if (topicStr == "/gate/dummyswitch4/") 
     {
     //turn the switch on if the payload is '1' and publish to the MQTT server a confirmation message
     if(payload[0] == '1'){
       digitalWrite(switchPin4, HIGH);
       client.publish("/gate/dummyswitchConfirm4/", "1");
       }

      //turn the switch off if the payload is '0' and publish to the MQTT server a confirmation message
     else if (payload[0] == '0'){
       digitalWrite(switchPin4, LOW);
       client.publish("/gate/dummyswitchConfirm4/", "0");
       }
     }
}


void reconnect() {

  //attempt to connect to the wifi if connection is lost
  if(WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED){
    //debug printing
    Serial.print("Connecting to ");
    Serial.println(ssid);

    //loop while we wait for connection
    while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
      delay(500);
      Serial.print(".");
    }

    //print out some more debug once connected
    Serial.println("");
    Serial.println("WiFi connected");  
    Serial.println("IP address: ");
    Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());
  }

  //make sure we are connected to WIFI before attemping to reconnect to MQTT
  if(WiFi.status() == WL_CONNECTED){
  // Loop until we're reconnected to the MQTT server
    while (!client.connected()) {
      Serial.print("Attempting MQTT connection...");

      // Generate client name based on MAC address and last 8 bits of microsecond counter
      String clientName;
      clientName += "esp8266-";
      uint8_t mac[6];
      WiFi.macAddress(mac);
      clientName += macToStr(mac);

      //if connected, subscribe to the topic(s) we want to be notified about
      //EJ: Delete "mqtt_username", and "mqtt_password" here if you are not using any 
      if (client.connect((char*) clientName.c_str(),"username", "password")) {  //EJ: Update accordingly with your MQTT account 
        Serial.print("\tMQTT Connected");
        client.subscribe(switchTopic1);
        client.subscribe(switchTopic2);
        client.subscribe(switchTopic3);
        client.subscribe(switchTopic4);
        //EJ: Do not forget to replicate the above line if you will have more than the above number of relay switches
      }

      //otherwise print failed for debugging
      else{Serial.println("\tFailed."); abort();}
    }
  }
}

//generate unique name from MAC addr
String macToStr(const uint8_t* mac){

  String result;

  for (int i = 0; i < 6; ++i) {
    result += String(mac[i], 16);

    if (i < 5){
      result += ':';
    }
  }

  return result;
}

I would say that rebooting the ESP was causing the pins to go high low, triggering the gate.

But then u said it was fine over night, then once the WiFi turned on the gate opened.

Is there any way you can monitor the esp with the serial output ?
Then manually turn the WiFi of for a minute or two, then turn it back on and see what happens ?

Really clutching at straws now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31IyfM1gygo

This might help, watch the whole video, it’s about retain flags in MQTT. super cereal.

You might not be running Tasmota but he still goes into details about MQTT and the retain flags.

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Thanks for the heads up, I’ll check it out and probably learn a thing or two.
I haven’t had a chance to give this much time lately but will be on it again in a few weeks. Luckily the gate is kind of behaving, only opens once a day now when router comes back on but I have got other esp’s going off and on randomly from time to time still.
I plan to set up a mirror esp, subscribed to the same mqtt pub/sub while connected to a serial monitor. Maybe that will give me some more info.

Another experiment is to change the code as I use the same base code for all my esp’s.
Do you know of any other published mqtt/hass project arduino code with two or more relay triggers and which is easily edited to add more?

This is brilliant! :star_struck:Although I’m not running tasmoto I do have the retained state set to true so I think you are barking up the right tree here. I will play around with the retained states and maybe even try uploading tasmoto if I have to.

With the gate I really only want a pulse to be sent and not a remain on/off. Currently I have it set so that when I trigger the gate it changes the state to high for 600milliseconds and then back to low again so I hope this is relatively easy to set up on tasmoto…

Thanks cooljim84, this may finally solve my headache. Will of course post updates and solutions once I’ve had a chance to tinkker this through

As soon as i watched it i thought “Wait that sounds like this post i was helping with”

I can’t claim to understand what exactly is happening differently now but it’s been a few days now and several router reboots later to test it and we have had no ghost triggers since the change was made.

I removed the “remained state” on my yaml files and changed the pub/sub details in the IDE upload on the microcontroller just in case there where any history “states” lurking on the mqtt server with the old details. Voila! No more ghost triggers!

I had given up all hope on ever solving this little problem of mine and just learnt to live with it but amazingly the HASS community saved the day once again…
Thanks cooljimy84 you will forever have a special place in my heart! :grinning:

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