I saw that FlexFob was now supported, so bought a couple. Added a test one to the YoLink app without issue. I upgraded my HA core from 2023.3.6 to 2023.4.2 then found that the fob had been added as a device. However, the buttons do not show up as entities. This is all I get:
I have been waiting nearly 6 Months for the Flex-Fob to integrate with HA. I got the same results that you did, only two entities were created sensor.yolink_fob_battery and sensor.yolink_fob_signal. I was hoping to get a couple more to handle some triggers in automations. My concern is whether HA will be able to differentiate between them. Meanwhile, I am waiting for @Eric-YoLink to weigh in and guide us.
I could be wrong here, but I don’t think that’s how buttons integrate in.
I have other buttons that show nothing more than a battery entity. You may have to use the Developer Tools to listen for the events of the button presses for your Home Assistant to learn those and you can take that into an Automation.
Or, if someone creates a Blueprint, that makes it incredibly easy.
I’ve only used Blueprints for this, so can’t offer much help on the event learning.
It looks like you are right, @Nameless, thank you. I never would have thought of that. I tried listening to events in the Developer Tools, first for the state_changed listeners with no joy. Then tried the * (everything?) listener and got:
event_type: yolink_event
data:
type: button_1_short_press
device_id: XX----hex id unique to fob----XX
origin: LOCAL
time_fired: "2023-04-11T15:05:47.096106+00:00"
context:
id: XX----alphanumeric id changes every time?--XX
parent_id: null
user_id: null
All of the buttons come through, short- and long-presses.
I use Node-Red for my automations and now have the same information via an events: all node. @007DJ, once I figure out how to parse the message to identify buttons, I’ll be happy to share.
I was given some info for the FlexFob integration. See below. I do want to clarify you can use the fob to trigger an HA automation but you can not trigger the fob, which is why you can’t set up button entities.
What actions of your fob are you attempting to carry out that you can’t do directly from HA?
@Eric-YoLink, Sorry but I dont have the cycles to read the backlog of entries…
What ever happened to local control for a yolink hub? Did that ever get delivered to the market? I would go out and buy a new hub today if it is availible…
Thanks for the explanation, Eric. I get now that the button entities I was asking for wouldn’t work - makes sense.
@Nameless gave me the clue to find the event that was being fired on button press. (See my post #513 above.) I was able to quickly create a flow in Node-Red that captured an event and route it to trigger 8 possible actions, corresponding to buttons 1-4, short- vs. long-press. This flow would would allow multiple fobs to be “programmed” so that the actions triggered by each would be identical, which fits my current use case.
Looking to the future, I was able to adapt the first to create a second flow that will allow two fobs to be “programmed” individually. More fobs could be added easily. Works great!
Thanks @matrixd2 for adding the Fob to the integration.
It is in development, but I do not have a schedule for it. Our engineers are mostly tied up with cameras and the X3 Hub, which will work with ethernet and/or 2.4 or 5GHz WiFi, with a cellular module slot, SpeakerHub features, audio output jack. I think it might have Matter support. But the biggest thing is the addition of HaLow WiFi, to support our new long-range cameras. This feature will add mesh capabilities to the hubs, as the YoLink network will be on a HaLow backchannel, as I understand it, possibly allowing for multi-mile network applications.
The local hub was going to run on hardware meant to handle video AI for new 5GHz LoRa cameras, but we went a different direction on cameras. There was been talk of a USB YoLink transceiver, that would work in conjunction with server software, so you can run it on your own machine. But this project is moving slow until the monster X3 Hub is released. I don’t want to speculate on a release date, as our new product roadmap changes often.
That’s a shame, and very different than what was said 18+ months ago. There are many of us that simply will NEVER use any YoLink device until there is a local API/control/access.
Neat devices, but I have zero interest in being trapped in your cloud based walled garden - for sensors at least. Cameras may be different, we’ll see.
To be fair, I guess this is “tecnically” true, although 100% misleading:
“This year” in that post being 2022… Sounds like it won’t be 2023 either.
@Eric-YoLink please include (and please respond to this):
A standalone local control hub, many of us do not want to have to any additional dedicated compute hardware running 24/7…
The ability to continue to use the third party alarm monitoring service if we switch over from the current online hub to the standalone (even if that means having to use both the old standalone hub and the new device at the same time, and then ignore duplicated devices in home assistant (if that is what happens - which we can easly do - I mean ignore or hide sensors in Home Assistan\t))…?
I’m not that involved in the development. I get updates when they make them. This product is still very malleable. We can probably partly blame the addition of HaLow cameras and Matter integration for why it’s not here already, as we made a decision to make two new hubs instead of one super-hub. I can’t really say much in here without having my words thrown back at me if something doesn’t happen when I hoped it would, and giving an accurate date for a new product, especially a very complex one like this, is like making a 100 yard putt in golf.
Understood, thank you, please forward my suggestions, the third party alarm monitoring system to which I was referring is with your sensors and the Yolink integration relationship/service Virtualarm -
@Eric-YoLink I just received my YoLink Hub starter kit with 2 contact sensors plus a FlexFob.
I fired-up the Hub: AOK
I added the FlexFOB: AOK, then to my great disappointment, after adding them to Home Assistant, all I see is:
Just scroll up a bit. It’s been talked about several times here recently. You just need listen for “yolink_event” in Developer Tools / Events and find out what your buttons device IDs are and then use them in your automations.
So I’m trying to replace a YoLink Relay Switch with a Garage Controller. I first delete (Unbind) the switch in the YoLink app. Then in HA, I reload the integration, but noticed that the device still remains, even after a HA restart. It just shows that it is no longer managed by the YoLink integration. Clicking on the three dots on the device doesn’t even give me the option to delete it. How can I get this removed so I can add my new controller (using the same name)?