Hi. Apologies for such a basic question but I am brand new to using Tasmota smart plug and MQTT. I use homeassistant to see when the usage of a plug goes below a certain usage (_energy_power?) for a period of time, turn it off as it’s not being used anymore and I don’t want it left on standby.
I’ve realised homeassistant stats aren’t updating regularly with what the plug reads so basing it off a period of time isn’t accurate as it’s just reading on when it last updated in homeassistant.
I gather to have this update more regularly I need to change a TelePeriod, which is defaulting to 300 seconds I believe. As I’m brand new to this and do not know much, how do I do that, please? And I guess that is what I need to do?
I may need clear steps of what to click on and edit.
Many thanks in advance
For any “newbie” out there wanting their Tasmota installed device like my Local Bytes Smart Plug to update its states to home assistant more regularly than the default period of 300 seconds (5 Minutes), it really is as simple as connecting to the plug itself directly via the web browser, going into the ‘console’ and typing “teleperiod 10” for example. The number can’t go lower than 10 seconds so it will update every 10 seconds when that is set.
Any reason not to have them always set to low?
I only have 4 plugs but I guess if you have a lot of devices they may have a network conflict, would they?
Or would it just be it uses more power the lower the number is set, as it now has to report more frequently?
Maybe someone can answer that one?
You database will get very big very fast, but that’s all.
I see in the logs the following. Does that just keep filling up or does it purge itself at any point?:
Saving in-memory database to /data//mosquitto.db
It’s just a standard install in Home Assistants addons. Should I be concerned about it filling up?
Are you using MariaDB or the default sqlite? Are you on an SD card?
Basically it will purge after the number of days you set, but if you are interested in figures every 10s etc. surely you are putting that into influx to store for longer?
Either way - if you are on SD be very careful filling the DB as ultimately you will hit issues with SD lifespan.
Just re-read - I am not sure about the MQTT DB, but the HA DB will also fill up unless you exclude the sensors from the recorder.
I’m just using the default everything from the HA addin page. It is installed on my NAS box in a VM. It’s not a docker image as that seemed restricted so it’s a full HA install on a VM. The log seems to be writing the DB every 30 mins or so, and I believe that just overwrites it each time.
So I should think it’s ok just leaving it, is that right?
The recorder etc is all default too so I believe 10 days will be kept. It is all sounding like it should ok for me to update the stats every 10 seconds as the default settings sound like it manages it all and I shouldn’t be worried about it filling up.