MQTT in HA sees new connection, but doesn't setup entities

[captjwh (Jason)]

i’ve recently setup Blue Iris to connect to the Mosquitto mqtt broker in HA… and that is sucessful…

1608184649: New connection from 192.168.99.99 on port 1883.

…but no entities or devices ever show up…

I looked in mqtt explorer and i’m seeing motion trigger alerts

192.168.99.112
▼BlueIris
app = running
▼Screen_Porch
Status = { “type”: “MOTION_A”, “trigger”: “OFF” }
status = signal=1 profile=1 lock=0 schedule=Default

I’ve restarted the system.

Do i need to add all these entities and devices manually in the configuration.yml? I thought mqtt would take care of pulling in new mqtt devices…like it did for my sonoff’s. Am i missing something in BlueIris?

HA Version 2020.12.7

ideas?

[Burningstone]

MQTT only adds devices automatically if the device sends a payload containing the info needed for auto-doscovery. From what I read in the forums Blue Iris doesn’t send MQTT auto-discovery messages, so you need to configure them manually in YAML.

See here for more info on MQTT discovery.

[captjwh (Jason)]

Thanks for the quick reply. When i configured alerts and resets in BI i put a payload in every message.

Is it missing something?

[Burningstone]

No, this should be fine as you said youbreceive the correct messages when you look in MQTT Explorer.
The discovery message is just one message that is sent with a retain flag and contains the information that HA needs to create a device. You can’t change any settings in Blue Iris to providr these messages. You either configure the devices manually in YAML or you create MQTT discovery messages yourself as described in the link I posted.

[captjwh (Jason)]

Ah. I will read up on the discovery messages and if i can have BI do that.

[Burningstone]

I don’t think Blue Iris can do this, you will need to publish the messages yourself.

[captjwh (Jason)]

ok, i’m giving up on BI being able to send discovery messages.

so…dumb guy question. Why can’t i just setup node red to listen for the mqtt messages from BlueIris and then take action on those messages (like turn on driveway light if i get an msg that says there is driveway motion)? Is there a good reason to spend x hours trying to figure out how to put the cameras in the configuration.yml file?

[Burningstone]

@captjwh

Is there a good reason to spend x hours trying to figure out how to put the cameras in the configuration.yml file?

Or you can just use the search function and then stumble across this topic that explains everything in detail

Blue Iris v5 with INSTAR MQTT Cameras

The version 5 of Blue Iris now sports an MQTT interface through which you can use a couple of Admin Commands to take control over the software with Home Assistant. Connect Blue Iris to your Broker I am using an MQTT Broker/Camera - but you can use any MQTT Broker on your network to connect Blue Iris to. To activate the MQTT Service enter the BlueIris Software Settings. Go to the Digital IO and IoT tab and click Configure to set up the MQTT service (Blue Iris configuration on the left and INSTA…

[captjwh (Jason)]

Hey, if you are going to be condescending about it, I would rather you not reply at all. I’m new to this, obviously don’t know how to do what you are saying, but I am spending a lot of time looking through a lot of posts. I’m glad you are so good at it. No need to reply, i dont want you to waste your time on an idiot.

[Burningstone]

@captjwh

I’m new to this, obviously don’t know how to do what you are saying,

So you are not able to use the search button?

I’m sorry if this offended you, but the guide I linked explains in detail what you have to do. I can not imagine that it’s easier to do this in Node Red as a newbie…