See detailed device information

[dhylands]

As a user, I'd like to be able to get some detailed information about a particular device.

This might include information like the following (for a zigbee device):

• The 64-bit device address
• The 16-bit device address
• Perhaps other information like endpoints/clusters - although this is available from the saved config file
• A message count
• the time the last message was received from the device

I don't think that this type of information merits being a property.

[benfrancis]

I can't think of any reason that ordinary end users would be interested in this information, but I can see why developers would.

I agree this protocol-specific shouldn't be represented as properties in the Web Thing API. If we were to display this information in a developer section of the UI, it would perhaps need some kind of back channel API to get the information from adapters.

[dhylands]

Knowing the last time a message was received from a device allows the user to know if the device is "alive".

[mrstegeman]

@dhylands Shouldn't this be handled by the adapter itself, now that we have the ability to report device connection state?

[dhylands]

Battery powered devices only report in every couple of hours or when an actual event occurs, so it may take a few hours before you can detect if a device is "dead" or not.

[flatsiedatsie]

Pre-emptively (as Domoticz does not support this): allow the time after which a device is registered as 'missing' to be individually set per device.

For example, I have plant sensors that only report once a day, and that's normal.

I have temperature sensors that report every 2 seconds.

The threshold for "hey it seems to be gone" should be different for both.

[flatsiedatsie]

By the way, perhaps ideally the system could have the ability to learn that some devices communicate at regular intervals, and alert if that changes. That wouldn't work on irregular things like door sensors, but it would work great for things like the plant sensor. And in those cases it would save the user (or device creator) from defining the interval.

[flatsiedatsie]

An idea:

[GarthDB]

As I mentioned in WebThingsIO/zwave-adapter#65, this information would be useful in making a homebridge-plugin (so the gateway can be used as a homekit hub) since HAP supports a lot more device information.

Also, in response to @benfrancis's initial reply, as an end user, this information is useful when debug/troubleshooting devices. I had a Z-Wave switch fail on me but without having to open up the switch plate I could look up the model and serial number Wink App (and homebridge) to get warranty information.

[benfrancis]

See also: WebThingsIO/zwave-adapter#65 (comment)