MQTT Import for the ESP32 DIY Device is not yet working, need help

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I successfully created a DIY Device which has:

  1. Configurable number of Relays (Switches) with configurable Auto-OFF Timers (Individual Timer per Relay);
  2. Configurable number of Contact Sensors;
  3. Configurable number of DS18B20 Temperature Sensors;
  4. Will add a Configurable Number of ADCs (Analog Sensors);
  5. One multi-level Liquid Sensor;

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D5XMGCLM?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

The Device has buit-in Web UI Control/Status interface.
So far everything is working OK and as expected.

For the integration with HE I am planning to use built-in MQTT Import (previous DIY Controllers used Hubduino). Current MQTT Broker is Mosquetto on Home Assistant.
With MQTT Explorer I can see all States for every Sensor and Relay and can control Relay On/Off and set Auto-Off timeout.

However attempt to import all that sensors/controls into HE via MQTT Import integration so far is not working. HE can see all Topics but this is about it. For instance, here is a page for mapping Switches (Relays):

image
image1979×680 40.6 KB

switch radio button is red and not clicable. And here is a Next page:

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image1979×497 26.6 KB

Nothing is imported and therefore there is nothing to map.

I am sure, payload I am sending to the HE is simply incorrect. Current Commands are switcch1 on or swutch1 off. Contact sensors reporting contac1 open or conact1 closed.

Any ideas about what I am doing wrong?

Any help and suggestions are very welcome.

PS.
If anybody interested in I can share the project details (i.e. Arduino sketch, etc.).

UPDATE

I found HE (supposed to be) compatible payload format.
Now in the MQTT Explorer it looks like this:

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image1328×542 29.4 KB

HE MQTT Import can see all these topics, but I still cannot map anything.

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UPDATE

I was hoping to use a relatively new built-in "MQTT Import" integration in order to skip a necessity to create a custom driver for each DIY IO Device. Plus, I was hoping to use a built-in MQTT Broker instead of external one. Unfortunately, this did not work for many reasons.

Just to name few:

  • HE does not have a Numeric Value capability (maybe it is time to add this one);
  • Current MQTT Import integration does not support a device with multiple attributes
    Each Attribute is treated as an individual Device. This is not a desired solution because it creates enormous number of Devices (unless I missed or misunderstood something).

Plus (or minus in this case) the built-in MQTT Broker did not pick up any MQTT Topic. But this could be my fault (i.e. something was not correctly configured).

However, with help of AI (MS Copilot did a far much better job vs ChatGPT) the custom parent-child type driver was created. Finally this setup works exactly as expected.

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Tagging @support_team

Going to repeat a suggestion I made during beta testing the MQTT integration. Hubitat supports numerical hub variables, which can be used to trigger automations. Why not permit numeric MQTT values to be mapped to hub variables (of the appropriate type)?