Owntracks Step Counter DeuX

Configuration
1

Ok this revives and old one.

from the distant past

I am in sort of the same situation. . My publish command is on an automation going every 2 minutes.

action: mqtt.publish
data:
  evaluate_payload: true
  qos: "2"
  retain: false
  topic: owntracks/jason/iphone/jh/steps
  payload: "'{\"_type\" : \"cmd\", \"action\": \"reportSteps\"}'"

my MQTT Sensor defined in configuration.yaml is


mqtt:
  sensor:
    - state_topic: "owntracks/jason/iphone/jh/steps"
      name: "Steps Jason"
#      unit_of_measure: "m"
      value_template: '{{ value_json.steps }}'
    - state_topic: "owntracks/jason/iphone/jh/steps"
      name: "Distance Jason"
      unit_of_measurement: "m"
      value_template: '{{ value_json.distance | round(1) }}'

with MQTT Explorer I can see the MQTT Publish is working, and the following message is being received by the broker

025-9-8 0:44:0.289 topic: owntracks/jason/iphone/jh/cmd
QoS 2
'{"_type" : "cmd", "action": "reportSteps"}'

the sensor’s value does not change. I assumed that the message just has place holder or I am not processing it right to update the sensor

So far over my head. but I am giving it a try

2

Ok. I have been working at this with out the desired success

I tweaked the definition of the sensor to as follows

mqtt:
  sensor:
    - state_topic: "owntracks/jason/iphone/steps"
      name: "Steps Jason"
#      unit_of_measure: "m"
      value_template: '{{ value_json.steps }}'
    - state_topic: "owntracks/jason/iphone/steps"
      name: "Distance Jason"
      unit_of_measurement: "m"
      value_template: '{{ value_json.distance | round(1) }}'

I dont know if this is pertinent but my device tracker configuration is

device_tracker:
  - platform: owntracks
    max_gps_accuracy: 100
    waypoints: true
    mqtt_topic: "owntracks/#"
    events_only: false
    waypoint_whitelist:
      jason
      jh
      captcurrent
      joh

the automation publishing this info is

action: mqtt.publish
data:
  evaluate_payload: true
  qos: "2"
  retain: false
  topic: owntracks/jason/iphone/steps
  payload: "'{\"_type\" : \"cmd\", \"action\": \"reportSteps\"}'"

Using MQTT Explorer I can see thay the publication is work every 2 minutes.

Using a test client I see this is message being sent

2025-9-9 17:45:36.348 topic: owntracks/jason/iphone/steps
QoS 2
'{"_type" : "cmd", "action": "reportSteps"}'

The sensor does not change value. .

I made sure the phone was awake

It would appear that the message is empty or can’t be read so nothing to update the sensor. I guess

3

Gave Up beyond me