How to Update HA entity from Node Red Message

Third party integrations Node-RED
1

I am working on taking a solar forcast from Home Assistant and using it to calculate the AC battery charge level. So far so good, I have the forecast run a calculation to output the msg:payload (number between 0 and 100), but struggling to send this value back to the HA entity number.lux_ac_battery_charge_level.
I am using the action node the debug node shows the value I want but I get the error HomeAssistantError: expected float for dictionary value @ data[‘value’]

image

Can anyone help, am I using the best node? What am I doing wrong…

2

I can’t quite read your screenshot, but you appear to be setting the Action node Data field to

{"value": "msg.payload"}

Since ‘msg.payload’ is in quotes, it will just be the string - “msg.payload”, ie not a number.

You are probably trying to use Mustache templates, so

{"value": {{payload}}}

would be more appropriate, however I would encourage you to use JSONata to form the object here, since Mustache templates are prone to issues when used inside objects.

Set the Data field option dropdown to J: (expression) and use

{"value": payload}

Either works for me.

Edit: It took a bit of digging, but the alternate template tags work too, as long as you check that box and use (with JSON {} option)

{"value": <%payload%>}

3

Geoff,
Brilliant, Thank you that did the trick.
Many thanks
Mike

4

Or you can install Custom integration and create entities directly in node