[SOLVED] Mqtt.publish help (HA <--> MQTT <--> Smartthings Automation)

moronim · July 18, 2018, 11:00pm

Hi There -

Looking for some configuration help for the following automation:

I have a Vizio Smartcast TV and a Z-Wave Switch. I would like to create an automation that when the TV turns on, I would like to turn on the Z-Wave switch as well. Alternatively, when the TV turns off, I would like to turn off the Z-Wave switch as well.

Here’s where it gets tricky for me… I’ll describe the scenario below and share snippets of my configuration.

I have a Vizio SmartCast TV configured on HA (verified that I can turn the TV on/off via the HA web interface)
I have HA-Smartthings successfully integrated via MQTT Broker & Bridge
Within HA, I have a “Smartthings” Z-Wave switch sucessfully configured (verified that I can turn the switch on/off via the HA web interface)

Here is my configuration for these items (snippets):

media_player family_room_tv:
- platform: vizio
host: 192.168.1.132
access_token: <hidden from post>
supress_warning: true

  mqtt:
  broker: localhost
  protocol: 3.1
  keepalive: 60
  client_id: hass-1
  username: <hidden from post>
  password: <hidden from post>

switch bias_lights:
  platform: mqtt
  name: "Bias Lights"
  state_topic: "smartthings/Bias Lights/switch"
  command_topic: "smartthings/Bias Lights/switch"
  payload_on: "on"
  payload_off: "off"
  retain: true

Now onto the automation part which is driving me batty… Can someone take a look at this and let me know what is wrong with this automation?

  - alias: Bias Lights Off
    trigger:
      platform: state
      entity_id: media_player.family_room_tv
      to: 'off'
    action:
      - service: mqtt.publish
        data:
          topic: "smartthings/Bias Lights/switch"
          payload: "off"

Thanks in advance!

techwithjake · July 18, 2018, 11:22pm

If you have it in the switches.yaml file and can control via the HA interface (as you said above you can), then you’ll want to just use the “switch.turn_off” service instead of trying to send an MQTT Payload. Let HA handle that part.

- alias: Turn Soundbar Off with TV
  trigger:
  - entity_id: media_player.vizio_smartcast
    from: 'on'
    platform: state
    to: 'off'
  condition: []
  action:
  - data:
      entity_id: switch.soundbar_power
    service: switch.turn_off

This should get you going.

moronim · July 19, 2018, 12:17am

Thanks for the tip. I tried what you suggested, and it still is not working…

I’m using mosquitto_sub to subscribe to the MQTT broker to determine whether anything is being sent across the MQTT interface. It turns out I’m not seeing any message firing if I turn on or off the TV.

However, when I manually try to turn on/off the switch via smartthings or HA, I can see the message firing.

Client mosqsub|3106-ubuntu-ser received PUBLISH (d0, q0, r0, m0, 'smartthings/Bias Lights/switch', ... (3 bytes))
off

Is there a way I can verify that the state is changing correctly (even though I can turn on/off the TV thru HA)? I wonder if the trigger is not firing?

Here are my automations now:

  - alias: Turn Bias Lights Off with TV
    trigger:
    - entity_id: media_player.family_room_tv
      from: 'on'
      platform: state
      to: 'off'
    condition: []
    action:
    - data:
        entity_id: switch.bias_lights
      service: switch.turn_off

  - alias: Turn Bias Lights On with TV
    trigger:
    - entity_id: media_player.family_room_tv
      from: 'off'
      platform: state
      to: 'on'
    condition: []
    action:
    - data:
        entity_id: switch.bias_lights
      service: switch.turn_on

moronim · July 19, 2018, 1:27am

Some additional information which may help…

I wanted to validate whether the automation trigger was being fired, so I adjusted the automation to set a persistent message.

It turns out after I turn off the TV, there is no message being on the web UI. This leads me to believe that I have something wrong with how the trigger is set up to fire based off of a state change of the TV.

  - alias: Turn Bias Lights Off with TV
    trigger:
    - entity_id: media_player.family_room_tv
      from: 'on'
      platform: state
      to: 'off'
    condition: []
    action:
      service: persistent_notification.create
      data:
        message: "TV Turned Off"

Again, any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks…

techwithjake · July 20, 2018, 6:11pm

Sounds like the Automation itself isn’t running. You can attempt to manually run it from the services page. https://your.ha.instance:8123/dev-service and then select “automation.trigger” along with your Automation.

moronim · July 21, 2018, 2:48pm

Thanks… I manually ran the “Turn Bias Lights Off with TV” automation trigger thru the services page, and the action fired (in this case the creation of a persistent notification), so something is definitely not right with the trigger.

Here is my full configuration.yaml can you let me know whether you see anything suspect?

homeassistant:
  # Name of the location where Home Assistant is running
  name: Home
  # Location required to calculate the time the sun rises and sets
  latitude: <hidden>
  longitude: <hidden>
  # Impacts weather/sunrise data (altitude above sea level in meters)
  elevation: 229
  # metric for Metric, imperial for Imperial
  unit_system: imperial
  # Pick yours from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones
  time_zone: America/Chicago
  # Customization file
  customize: !include customize.yaml

# Show links to resources in log and frontend
introduction:

# Enables the frontend
frontend:

# Enables configuration UI
config:

http:
  # Secrets are defined in the file secrets.yaml
  # api_password: !secret http_password
  # Uncomment this if you are using SSL/TLS, running in Docker container, etc.
  # base_url: example.duckdns.org:8123

# Checks for available updates
# Note: This component will send some information about your system to
# the developers to assist with development of Home Assistant.
# For more information, please see:
# https://home-assistant.io/blog/2016/10/25/explaining-the-updater/
updater:
  # Optional, allows Home Assistant developers to focus on popular components.
  # include_used_components: true

# Discover some devices automatically
# discovery:

# Allows you to issue voice commands from the frontend in enabled browsers
conversation:

# Enables support for tracking state changes over time
history:

# View all events in a logbook
logbook:

# Enables a map showing the location of tracked devices
map:

# Track the sun
sun:

# Weather prediction
sensor:
  - platform: yr

# Text to speech
tts:
  - platform: google

# Cloud
cloud:

remote harmony_hub:
  - platform: harmony
    name: Harmony Hub
    host: 192.168.1.101
    activity: Watch TV

media_player family_room_channels:
  - platform: channels
    name: Family Room Channels
    host: 192.168.1.133

media_player family_room_tv:
  - platform: vizio
    host: 192.168.1.132
    access_token: <Hidden>
    supress_warning: true

mqtt:
  broker: localhost
  protocol: 3.1
  keepalive: 60
  client_id: hass-1
  username: <hidden>
  password: <hidden>

switch bias_lights:
  platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "smartthings/Bias Lights/switch"
  command_topic: "smartthings/Bias Lights/switch"
  payload_on: "on"
  payload_off: "off"
  retain: true

group: !include groups.yaml
#  automation: !include automations.yaml
script: !include scripts.yaml

automation:
  - alias: Stop Channels
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: remote.harmony_hub
        to: 'off'
    action:
      - service: media_player.media_stop
        data:
          entity_id: media_player.family_room_channels

  - alias: Turn Bias Lights Off with TV
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: switch.bias_lights
        to: 'off'
    action:
      - service: persistent_notification.create
        data:
          message: "TV Turned Off"

  - alias: Turn Bias Lights On with TV
    trigger:
    - entity_id: media_player.family_room_tv
      from: 'off'
      platform: state
      to: 'on'
    action:
      - service: switch.turn_on
        entity_id: switch.bias_lights

techwithjake · July 21, 2018, 3:24pm

Right off the bat

media_player family_room_tv

Looks wrong. There should be a “.” inbetween the media_player and family_room_tv.

The second part, at least how I have it setup, I don’t use that format for getting devices in.
I pull the devices in and then either change the Entity IDs in the entity_registry.yaml file.

Are you able to control the “Family Room TV” from HA? Is it updating when you turn it off and on from the remote?

moronim · July 21, 2018, 9:03pm

When you say there should be a “.” in between. do you mean listing it as “media_player.family_room_tv” ?

To answer your second question. Yes, I am able to control the Family Room TV from HA, and am able to turn it on/off from the HA web interface. Additionally, the TV does report on/off in the HA web interface when I turn it on/off from via the remote.

This is what has been boggling me. It seems as if the automation trigger does not pick up the Vizio TV state change.

Any other debugging suggestions?

I’m really stumped by this…

moronim · July 23, 2018, 12:34am

Solved it…

I had the Vizio TV Device set up incorrectly.

I had this in my configuration.yaml

media_player family_room_tv:
  - platform: vizio
    host: 192.168.1.132
    access_token: <Hidden>
    supress_warning: true

When I should have included the “name” directive as well:

media_player family_room_tv:
  - platform: vizio
    name: "Family Room TV"  <-- This was the missing piece
    host: 192.168.1.132
    access_token: <Hidden>
    supress_warning: true

How I found out this was the problem was because when I looked in the logs, I saw the the device was named: media_player.vizio_smartcast, and it wasn’t only until after I added in the “name” directive that the device was actually called media_player.family_room_tv

I wasn’t aware of the dependency between the name: directive and unique identifier of the device.

Nonetheless, I FINALLY was able to get this working.

Marking thread as SOLVED!