This is currently a working project where we will look at controlling and monitoring Tasmota devices using MQTT and Node-red.
In an earlier tutorial we looked at turning a tasmota sonoff switch on and off using the sonoff nodes.
These nodes are useful for basic switch operation but not for device administration. They do not for example allow us to change device settings etc.
The project will involve exploring the tasmota MQTT API in more detail and building flows for both monitoring,administration and control of tasmota devices.
We will also be developing a Tasmota device simulator which I will use in the videos and that you may find useful in simulating your own network.
The project is an open project and I am hoping for feedback and suggestions on what dashboards to build.
So if you are currently looking for a node-red dashboard to manage your tasmota devices and have ideas on what you would like to see in a dashboard then please use the comments box to let me know.
Video 1
Links
Tasmota API
https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Commands/#commands-list
Flow Download
In the video I wrongly stated that there is no configuration needed. This is incorrect you will need to change the broker address and possibly the port.
Video1 Questions
Q1 The water pump topic is house/water-pump. What command would you use to view the state of the water pump? Answer form topic=? payload=?
Q2 Can you change the MQTT group a device belongs to using MQTT?
Q3 You aren’t seeing information like IP address, Group topic etc in the dashboard for some devices. Why is this?
Answers
A1- house/water-pump/cmnd/POWER! with a blank payload
A2 -Yes
A3 -This information is only send at startup.
Part 2 Control Using drop down Menus
In this video we are going to create control panels using drop dynamic down menus.
We also will be cascading menus and make the second dropdown selection dependent on the first selection.
Video 2-Flow Download
Rename the download to tasmota-2.json and start from the command line using:
node-red tasmota-2.json
Video 2 Questions
Q1- What are the alternatives to publishing the sensor list and group topic list using MQTT.
Q2- In the send function could you use a context variable instead of a flow variable.
Answers
A1- Use a global variable or link-in and link-out nodes
A2- Yes normally . However in the current setup only the top control flow would work correctly as there is no toggle,send,power feed into the bottom flow send function
Video3- Tasmota topics and messages
Video 3 Questions
Q1 Your topic structure is %prefix%/%topic%. How would you subscribe to all messages published to the tele prefix.
Q2-Your topic structure is basetopic/%topic%/%prefix%. How would you subscribe to all messages published to the tele prefix.
Answers
A1- tele/#
A2 %basetopic%/+/tele
Related Tutorials and Resources:
- Setting up the Sonoff Tasmota MQTT Switch
- Controlling the Tasmota SonOff Switch with Node-Red
- Setting Tasmota Timers with MQTT