Is it possible to mark a sensor as unavailable?

kouny · August 10, 2022, 9:31am

I am trying to solve an issue for the integration

Specifically, the issue where fake data (arbitrary temperature value) is generated when the power inverter is offline:

github.com/ksheumaker/homeassistant-apsystems_ecur

Temperature "-100 °C"

opened 09:11PM - 20 Jul 22 UTC

In https://github.com/ksheumaker/homeassistant-apsystems_ecur/blob/69b808cb299…7c68a3c395c9fb580c6f16f9e27be/custom_components/apsystems_ecur/APSystemsSocket.py#L322 the temperature is calculated as offset by 100, since the ECU sends data with 0 = -100 °C up to 255 = 155 °C. As result, when no data is available because the panel is offline, the HA and Grafana graphs are nonsense: ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2866139/180082084-0c52052b-349a-43ca-a5bc-3d5b029de0dc.png) The component should filter out values of "-100 °C", so that HA and Grafana will omit the measurement point, which is what is right, since... the panel is offline! why a fake value? I'm not sure how to replace a number by "unavailable" or how to avoid adding that measurement point altogether. Maybe replacing: `inv["temperature"] = self.aps_int(data, location) - 100` by: ``` if self.aps_int(data, location) > 0: inv["temperature"] = self.aps_int(data, location) - 100 ``` but I don't know python, I just looked up "python if then else".

The source code is here:

github.com

ksheumaker/homeassistant-apsystems_ecur/blob/69b808cb2997c68a3c395c9fb580c6f16f9e27be/custom_components/apsystems_ecur/APSystemsSocket.py#L322

    
      
          
          
inv["online"] = self.aps_bool(data, location)
          location += 1
          
          
inv["unknown"] = self.aps_str(data, location, 2)
          location += 2
          
          
inv["frequency"] = self.aps_int(data, location) / 10
          location += 2
          
          
inv["temperature"] = self.aps_int(data, location) - 100
          location += 2
          
          
inv["signal"] = signal.get(inverter_uid, 0)
          
          
# the first 3 digits determine the type of inverter
          inverter_type = inverter_uid[0:3]
          if inverter_type in self.yc600_ids:
              (channel_data, location) = self.process_yc600(data, location)
              inv.update(channel_data)

When an inverter is offline I would like to have Home assistant simply show a gap in the graphs, not “maintain” the previous value.
It should be replaced with an “empty” or “unavailable” or similar data point.

I have experience with ESPhome and it offers an option to mark sensor data as “expired”, maybe that could help:

But I found nothing similar in HA for integrations.

Can anyone suggest a solution?

tom_l · August 10, 2022, 9:35am

the state 'unavailable' will show as a gap in the graph.

kouny · August 10, 2022, 9:58am

I tried to replace the temperature value in the source code linked above with the string “unavailable” but it didn’t work. How should I mark the sensor as “unavailable”? Just by omitting sending its value?

msp1974 · August 11, 2022, 11:48pm

Or set its value to None

HAEdwin · August 14, 2022, 1:35pm

Might have been solved here: https://github.com/ksheumaker/homeassistant-apsystems_ecur/issues/86#issuecomment-1213542652