How do I create a Device with Entities, not just a list of entities?

Third party integrations Node-RED
1

One thing I’ve always wondered.
How do I create a ‘Device’ so all these Entities are seen as a Device with the Entities (as ESPHome etc do for me).
I have an incoming JSON string collected from an MQTT server and I split it up, first by device (just mine), then to create the Entities.
Am I missing something, is it possible to create the device ?

Currently

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Typical string collected from MQTT server (this is the bottom of the two devices.)

{"dev":"CHASR-1B2C3D4E-1","PM25":"1.7","PM10":"7.3","temp":"9.7","pressure":"1017.0","humidity":"68.0","timestamp":"2022-02-23T10:53:30+00:00"}

Many thanks.

1 Like
2

Taking a quick look at HA’s documentation and I don’t see a way for a user to create a device. If it doesn’t exist in HA, short of creating your own integration, it won’t be possible from nodered.

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3

thanks, probably why I couldn’t find anything then.

Might need to look at another method and forget node-red. Shame it was easy to use and create the entities, just a faff to handle when they’re not seen as a device in HA as just individual entities.

4

If the idea is to condense this, when you create the entity in nodered, you may add as many attibutes as you need. This could all be in a single entity.

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5

thought I would come back to this, I tried combining as above and it’s just saying some error in the API doing it. I give up, doesn’t seem easy.
Entity API error expected bool for dictionary … (etc)

back to just splitting them all apart long hand.

thanks for trying though, appreciated.

6

It would seem that you have chosen binary sensor for type. Meaning the primary state would need to be true/false on/off etc. For a number or a string you would use a sensor type.

[{"id":"fc2b40329dc7b990","type":"inject","z":"f80b6c338afd5483","name":"","props":[{"p":"payload"}],"repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"topic":"","payload":"{\"dev\":\"CHASR-1B2C3D4E-1\",\"PM25\":\"1.7\",\"PM10\":\"7.3\",\"temp\":\"9.7\",\"pressure\":\"1017.0\",\"humidity\":\"68.0\",\"timestamp\":\"2022-02-23T10:53:30+00:00\"}","payloadType":"json","x":850,"y":200,"wires":[["9dfe1d80a93aac89"]]},{"id":"9dfe1d80a93aac89","type":"ha-entity","z":"f80b6c338afd5483","name":"test","server":"","version":2,"debugenabled":false,"outputs":1,"entityType":"sensor","config":[{"property":"name","value":"testnr"},{"property":"device_class","value":""},{"property":"icon","value":""},{"property":"unit_of_measurement","value":""},{"property":"state_class","value":""},{"property":"last_reset","value":""}],"state":"payload.dev","stateType":"msg","attributes":[{"property":"PM25","value":"payload.PM25","valueType":"msg"},{"property":"PM10","value":"payload.PM10","valueType":"msg"},{"property":"Temp","value":"payload.temp","valueType":"msg"},{"property":"Pressure","value":"payload.pressure","valueType":"msg"},{"property":"Humidity","value":"payload.humidity","valueType":"msg"}],"resend":true,"outputLocation":"payload","outputLocationType":"none","inputOverride":"allow","outputOnStateChange":false,"outputPayload":"","outputPayloadType":"str","x":990,"y":200,"wires":[["9555aeef94994375"]]},{"id":"9555aeef94994375","type":"debug","z":"f80b6c338afd5483","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"true","targetType":"full","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":1230,"y":160,"wires":[]}]

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1 Like
7

I did use sensor as it’s obviously not binary, that’s what the error is from.
I’ll update NodeRed again as a new .1 is out so I’ll have another go.
I can see your flow in nodered now, will have a nosey.
Again many thanks. :slight_smile:

9

I have updated the node-red-contrib-home-assistant-websocket yesterday within node red and what a surprise: it does support now generating devices natively!! Great thank you so much.