Could someone help me figure out how to setup a sensor/automation that gets a message like below from mqtt, and then returns the temp in F (76.1 in the example)to a specific sensor based on the field channel? So for the mqtt below, I’d want a sensor that reflects the temp when channel=6 and can likely ignore the sensor ID value since that changes when I change sensor batteries but the channel number 6 won’t change.
My old system using 433mhz sensors that didn’t have channel numbers was all ID based which sucked since I had to remap the sensors anytime I changed the batteries.
Set its value_template to extract the value of the temperature_F key from the received payload but only if the channel key’s value is 6 (otherwise make it report its current value).
sensor:
- platform: mqtt
name: Outdoor Temperature
state_topic: whatever/433mhz/gadget
unit_of_measurement: '°F'
device_class: temperature
value_template: "{{ value_json.temperature_F if value_json.channel == 6 else states('sensor.outdoor_temperature') }}"
I have an automation as such, since my rPi running rtl_433 just dumps a bunch of sensors all to a single topic. I tried adding the example code that’s commented out to record more steps for troubleshooting but the automation won’t start if I uncomment those lines, but the config checker didn’t return any errors.
Which I’m hoping republishes the data as a unique topic per sensor(well channel).
Based on my longstanding automation that did this is below, but it created a new topic by the “Id” in the sensor which changes when you change the batteries, and not all my sensors have the channel dip switches I later discovered.
I don’t know if you had a chance to read this but it might give you some ideas if you ever use 433MHz binary sensors (the article is applicable for any MQTT-based 433 MHz receiver, not just the Sonoff RF Bridge).
If you use this to demultiplex the topic’s payload:
If the sensor’s configuration looks exactly the way you posted it, then it has an indentation error. Compare with the example I posted above.
Also, check the appearance of the payload published to home/sensor6. Ideally, check it with an MQTT client like MQTT Explorer. Just noticed you already looked at it.
The sensor’s template can be shortened, like in the recent example I posted, because now it no longer needs to check the channel.
Aha, I had forgotten that I whitelisted sensors in the recorder setup, so it wasn’t displaying on the history graph card I use… worked like a charm now.
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In this case, it’s translating the hex number and looking for the 45034th element; if the key starting with a digit isn’t “translatable” it just breaks:
