ESP32 Classic MQTT Publisher & Home Assistant

[mcsarge]

Oh right, that makes sense. Running inside Docker or directly from the Pi, this would be less of an issue.

[ClassicCrazy]

I got my Raspberry Pi 3B+ running - I had earlier installed Docker and some other programs on it using the Andreas Spies video about it. One of the options on the installer is HAAS IO so I ran that awhile ago.
I am still trying to figure out how to open up and use all these programs and features.
I also have Mosquito MQTT on it so I want to try to use that with the esp32 and Classic for my local network use here.
There is a lot to learn and setup.

Larry

[mcsarge]

Larry,

The cool thing about having the MQTT outside your network is that you will not have to poke a hole in your firewall for the app to reach into. But setting up Mosquito is super easy, just remember you need to add users.

Matt

[ClassicCrazy]

ha ha - I wouldn't call any of this stuff super easy !  Maybe when I get my head wrapped around it a little bit more. At least I am out of the novice linux and raspberry pi stage so  I know what is getting talked about and how to do stuff either by ssh into pi or to vnc into it for full web interface.

Larry

[ClassicCrazy]

I did get Grahams esp32 code working to his Android Classic monitor using MQTT server via Matt.
But then I decided I wanted to install Mosquitto MQTT Broker on my own Raspberry Pi and use that locally so I could learn how that works and also try to do some other MQTT stuff around here maybe via node red.
So I downloaded the Andreas Spiess recommended Docker and other installer by the other Graham from South Africa  - everything installed okay - I can get Portainer to run on the pi chrome browser and Node Red too by just  going to their web interfaces.
But I have spent many nights reading up or trying to figure out the Mosquitto stuff - watched lots of videos . I  find that other  instructional videos won't work unless I start over with their naming systems from scratch.
I think everyone assumes that  everyone has some knowledge of the most confusing file naming and location and linux schemes imaginable. I admit defeat for now. It seems there is some simple step to putting a files somewhere else on the Pi to make mosquitto work but I just don't get it and nothing I have tried works. I get halfway into someones detailed video before they leave me in the dust and my eyes glaze over  and I am convinced they are just talking gibberish and having a laugh that someone out there wasted their time listening to their meaningless BS.
So thanks Graham and Matt - your explanations and your stuff works. For the rest of it I may have to wipe the pi and docker and start out fresh and not use the predownloaded method  Andreas explains because they assume I probably understand all the untold steps and I don't !
But I did put in a lot of hours trying.

Larry

[Graham]

Sorry to hear your having some frustration with the setup
I would just install home assistant on the Raspberry PI and use the add-on store within the hassio/dashboard to install Node-Red and the mosquito broker. The HassIO image comes pre-configured with everything you need like docker etc...

The Mosquito broker is in the "Official add-ons" repository and NodeRed is in the "Community Add-ons" repository

https://www.home-assistant.io/getting-started/


Graham.

[mcsarge]

Hello Fellows.

I am attempting to read from the Classic registers starting at 16385, I would like to read the app_rev and the net_rev. When I try to read those over the MODBUS I get an error. Any suggestions? That register number is alot higher than the others, so maybe it is just not there?

Matt

[ClassicCrazy]

Sorry to hear your having some frustration with the setup
I would just install home assistant on the Raspberry PI and use the add-on store within the hassio/dashboard to install Node-Red and the mosquito broker. The HassIO image comes pre-configured with everything you need like docker etc...

The Mosquito broker is in the "Official add-ons" repository and NodeRed is in the "Community Add-ons" repository

https://www.home-assistant.io/getting-started/

Graham.

Thanks Graham- I will give that a try !  I didn't realize it was something ready to go as a flash and maybe when i tried it before I was doing it on top of other install .

Larry

[mcsarge]

Graham,

I have been able to collect the MAC address and I can send it on in the "info" package - do you have an identifier that I should use to send it to the app, or are you not yet gathering that? If you have not done it yet, I am using the identifier in the JSON of "mac".

I can add similar code the ESP32 code if you want.

Matt

[Graham]

Hello Fellows.

I am attempting to read from the Classic registers starting at 16385, I would like to read the app_rev and the net_rev. When I try to read those over the MODBUS I get an error. Any suggestions? That register number is alot higher than the others, so maybe it is just not there?

Matt

I have a modbus tool I wrote a few years ago that might be useful, it's a bit buggy but gets the job done
https://github.com/graham22/ModbusTool

It includes a master & Slave app, you can connect to the classic using the master, once you read some registers, you can export the data and load it into the slave app to emulate the classic then you can manually change some register values to see how it affects the android app or MQTT publisher...

Attached is a snip of the Modbus Master having read 4 bytes at 16386 from the classic


Graham.

[Graham]

Graham,

I have been able to collect the MAC address and I can send it on in the "info" package - do you have an identifier that I should use to send it to the app, or are you not yet gathering that? If you have not done it yet, I am using the identifier in the JSON of "mac".

I can add similar code the ESP32 code if you want.

Matt

unfortunately the android subscriber is not expecting the mac address in the ChargeControllerTransfer.java class.

the MQTT version of the android app needs some re-factoring since it currently can only handle one classic

here is my todo list for the app

1. remove the MQTT publisher code since it makes more sense to use a Rpi or a esp32 for this
2. move the root topic setting out of the config and put it into the nav bar + so you can add more than one just like adding an IP address/port in the regular app version
3. Update the info transfer to include the missing data

#2 is the most difficult since the app would have to subscribe to multiple root topics to sum the values used in the system view...


Graham.

[mcsarge]

OK,

I was able to get the app_rev and net_rev read - I looked at your code in the Classic Android App and noticed you were reading not at 16384 but at the location of the 2 values you are interested in. Once I did that I could collect the values no problem.

I now have the code running on my Pi on the island pumping data to an MQTT on azure.

It seems to work on my copy of the Android app...

Matt

[mcsarge]

OK,

I created a pull request so you can grab the python version.

It requires python3, pymodbus and paho-mqtt.

Matt

[mcsarge]

Give me a little more time on this, I am working out some issues with when mqtt disconnects and reconnects.

[ClassicCrazy]

I did get the Home Assistant flashed on the Raspberry Pi here.
I made some progress but very slow progress figuring out Home Assistant  and it isn't for lack of spending time watching tutorials.
Biggest issues I find
They have made so many changes to Home Assistant that none of the old tutorials make a lot of sense with new versions.
Some of the things have been renamed to make it even more confusing. For example the add on File Editor used to be called Configurator .
Many of the detailed instructions don't work - for example I installed add on Mosquitto Broker and followed the steps - but they show a screen in the install or setup for configuring it - but that setup screen just does not ever show up.
I tried adding custom cards to the UI- sort of - watched tutorials but some of those guys don't show a blown up screen of what they are doing and go so fast and are working with the old version , etc . 
Nothing I try ever seems to work - such as just paste something to the Yaml config but then it has all kinds of errors showing up - spacing , indents , this, that, and the other thing ! 
This Home Assistant program just is not intuitive - maybe some day it will be.
I think I will go back to trying to figure out Node Red - at least that program isn't all over the map like Home Assistant.
But as I said before - if I was just doing the basic project in this forum topic- getting an Esp32 programmed and publishing to MQTT broker and then using Android with Classic Monitoring  app to subscribe to that and display the Classic data - yes got that done and that works !

Larry