So, I’ve been looking for DIY multi sensors (temp, motion, light, humidity, etc.) and while I like the BRUH sensor I don’t want to run MQTT to make it work. Currently I’m using zwave and ethernet devices exclusively. I looked through the sensors list and I don’t see anything that meets these requirements.
I did notice you can do a TCP sensor and a custom payload. Using this could someone build a custom wifi sensor that allows query via TCP thus not requiring MQTT at all?
Or, is their a device I’m not thinking of that already works like this?
Take a look at aREST sensors. There is an Arduino aREST library that does what you are looking for. However, I went down that road initially and ended up switching to MQTT in the end.
Thanks I’ll check that out. What didn’t you like about the REST sensors that made you switch to MQTT? I like the idea of just adding a sensor component and having it work and I’d like to think that’s possible. Maybe it’s wishful thinking.
I think the issue I ran into was having multiple sensors on one board and the request would time out. Also, with aREST Home Assistant is polling so the updates aren’t as quick ~1 second verses up to 60 seconds with polling. Plus, with MQTT you have the benefit of all the working being done already, or at least for most sensors someone on here has most likely made an Arduino sketch using MQTT already for your exact needs.
That makes sense. I guess I was hoping to find a component as easy as the Yeelights, where you just add them to wifi, add a config yaml entry and it just works. I need to decide if it’s worth saving $15 per sensor and having another service to support or just getting a zwave one and saving myself the configuration headaches. Thanks for the info!
Follow the link to the ESPhome site. There is a massive list of sensors and their Configs. You will be up and running in no time. They are all the standard Arduino based items that can be bought for a few dollars
Ok, this is really cool. Thanks. I’m guessing I’ll still run into the issue w1ll1am23 mentioned though, that polling will be slower than using MQTT right? Is that the only downside?
Why? It should be as fast as your wifi will allow. These are a direct API linked item in HA. I use one for my irrigation controller and it’s basically instant
besides esphomeyaml you could look at mysensors.org
its also in ha integrated and you can create a network of sensors that only use 1 wifi port.
they have tons of examples how to build them including all code.
I just did 3 BRUH multisensors using nodemcu’s and Esphomeyaml. The code is a lot simpler than using arduino . Here is what I used on one of the sensors: