Genmon MQTT to Home Assistant (Help)

[geoguy89]

Checklist

• I made sure that there are no existing issues or discussions - open issues,closed issues,open discussion, closed discussion - which may answer my question or that I could contribute my information to.
• I have read the Known Issues Wiki Page and my question / issue is not listed.
• I have provided the version of the software and the operating system in my post.
• If I have an issue with genmon not communicating with the controller, I have read and followed the serial troubleshooting guide.

Version

1.19.03

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I have not submitted logs

What is/are your question(s)?

I'm very new to Genmon (Just got it setup this week) I've been reading on it for months now though.
Now that I'm hands on I'm trying to get MQTT working with Home Assistant. I have the communication part working I believe now but I can't seem to get sensors recognized.
I would like to get something like this in my home assistant from "drizzay" in the HA forums. They mentioned the need for a specific .yaml file which I found here

Sensors will not pull up from mqtt on their own but when I use the .yaml they do but they say they're "unavailable"

I was hoping someone may be able to point me in the right direction??

I appreciate any help/feedback anyone can give.

Thank you!!!

Additional information

No response

[jgyates]

This thread may be of some use.

#155

I personally do not use Home Assistant, but hopefully some of the other users who do can reply.

[geoguy89]

Thank you jgates!

[cbp0616]

Hey tswillette, did you get this working in HA? I've banged my head against the wall on this one. I have MQTT server running fine in HA, the MQTT service is correct on GenMon, and I can use MQTT explorer to see the posted discussions to my HA MQTT server.

This is where it breaks down for me. I just can't get any sensor information to show up in HA. I've tried using that same "Drizzay" YAML from the HA threads but it's been unsuccessful for me. I made sure to remove the root 199191 (or whatever it was) from my YAML as well.

Again, if you got this working, I'd love to know how you crafted the YAML.

[geoguy89]

I have!
The biggest thing I needed to understand was that certain items would not broadcast unless either the software (genmon) was just started or if they actually were running.

So like "Last outage, alarm, action, Exercise, RPM, Generator Output Voltage, etc" None of those are actively running so they can only be polled by HA when they are running/broadcasting. So my initial thought only seeing "Uptime, Utility Voltage, & Battery voltage running was that something had to be misconfigured but just restarting the genmon software fills in the blanks on some of the data rather than just seeing "unkown"

Now in Genmon MQTT make sure to leave the radio buttons off (numeric topics, json, remove spaces in topic path (unless you happened to put spaces in yours)

Below is my genmon configuration I ADDED to the bottom of my configuration.yaml file. I was having trouble referencing another yaml (or maybe it was just because of my misunderstanding at first) either way I didn't want to keep messing with it so I left it at the bottom of my configuration.yaml This was something that had to be rewritten in part. There were some pieces that were deprecated from my understanding so I just had chatgpt make it compatible with the new standard. There may be some parts that are still wrong but everything has been working fine for me for that last month.

https://pastebin.com/hykirAgz

Then the actually card configuration.
You obviously need to make sure to have all the referenced cards installed but here's my configuration

https://pastebin.com/PF1FDHkn

I'd be happy to find out if you figured it out from this!
Let me know if I can be of any more help.
Good luck!

[cbp0616]

This is great and helping me dial it in. My biggest disconnect was why I wasn't seeing these messages published in the HA MQTT broker log. I just saw the initial "MQTT-USER" login. Also the MQTT integration didn't show any devices like it did with my Govee setup. Regardless, I went ahead and wrote in your YAML and noticed that I WAS GETTING SOME INFO! I had to revamp some of your cards, especially the hui-element since it was deprecated.

So I'm still getting unknowns on a lot of the data, I've restarted HA and genmon several times. I'm guessing its something to do with the Genmon MQTT settings. What is your blacklist filter like? Root topic is 'mygen' I'm guessing.

[jgyates]

Look at the setting "Flush Interval" on the Genmon MQTT add on. This value will set the time to send all of the data, even if it has not changed. If this value is zero then the add on will only send MQTT data when it starts (all of the data) and when it changes. The flush interval setting sets a timeout to resend the data even if has not changed. I set min to 1800 seconds (which is 30 minutes). This will make the add on send all of the data that has not changed every 30 minutes.

[cbp0616]

Thanks JG! I’ve removed everything in my black list filter as well as set the flush to 1800. I’ve managed to get everything except my battery and Genmon version populating

My HDR washed out my last photo so here it is now from mobile. Almost there!

[geoguy89]

Hey that's great news!!!! So happy you got that sorted! Glad to be of assistance.
Great info too JG, I didn't know that about the flush interval. I'll definitely be looking into updating that.

[thomasshawn]

mind posting your final files? you did a lot of trial and error. might save someone else the same headache.
thanks

[geoguy89]

mind posting your final files? you did a lot of trial and error. might save someone else the same headache. thanks

If you read through this thread you'll see MY final stuff...I haven't changed anything. This isn't a plug and play solution you have to do a little investigation on your own, as your setup is not going to be identical to anyone elses. Check out mqtt explorer make sure your connections are correct. Make sure you've downloaded the correct cards. If you get an error initially, check what the error is...is a card missing? Get yourself to a point where you're ready to troubleshoot if you're running into problems then we'll see what we can do to help. Read through the thread. Copy the yaml for the generator...you can make a new yaml file for it and reference it in your configuration YAML, if you know how to do that ..I personally was having trouble so I just added it to my configuration.yaml file

My YAML for the cards is there too...I haven't changed anything since I've posted it and it's all been working great.

Do what you can then ask for help if you need it please.

[thomasshawn]

Thanks. I understand it's not a plug N play scenario but serval people get stuck for different reasons. They dissappear for a while and come back with "got it working" and no follow up so was just asking for someone to close the loop for the next guy. Maybe not even me. I've had genmon running for ~2yrs. Toyed with adding it to HA but I get what I need with other methods and I like the built in genmon UI but, maybe if I get bored I'll add it for completeness.

[geoguy89]

Thanks. I understand it's not a plug N play scenario but serval people get stuck for different reasons. They dissappear for a while and come back with "got it working" and no follow up so was just asking for someone to close the loop for the next guy. Maybe not even me. I've had genmon running for ~2yrs. Toyed with adding it to HA but I get what I need with other methods and I like the built in genmon UI but, maybe if I get bored I'll add it for completeness.

Fair enough.
I just wanted it within my HA environment.
Everything I've personally done is within the YAML, I've not altered it since adding it to my configuration.yaml.
I've made sure I had the correct cards installed.
If you decide to try it, I'll help the best I can but I don't have the time to go back and write a step-by step guide.
Feel free to reach out if you decide to take it on and we can troubleshoot if you get stuck.

Thanks