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[Reactor] Variables not updating correctly in latest-25201-2aa18550
therealdbT
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Multi-System Reactor
Handling Dead Entities and Renamed Entities
PablaP
Hello all.. been a minute! I recently rebuilt my Z wave network and migrated to a new z wave stick. In order to prevent any downtime I kept my original z wave network up and ran a docker version of Z Wave JS UI with my new controller. This way I could add device by device without having any devices down. I finally moved all the devices over to my new stick today. The final step was to migrate everything from my Docker instance of Z Wave JS UI to the HA add-on of Z Wave JS UI. However during this migration some of the names didn't populate correctly which I later managed to import back into Z Wave JS UI. The issue was in Reactor it is stuck on the default names and the entities are not updating. I removed the controller from Reactor, restarted, hard refreshed, and added the controller back however the new entity names have not updated. Also it seems like the old entities from my previous instance of Z Wave JS UI are lingering and not being marked as dead (I believe a certain amount of time needs to lapse before they're marked as dead in Reactor). My goal is to basically purge all the entities for the 'ZWaveJS' controller in Reactor so it can pull all the updated entity names and only the entities that exist in Z Wave JS UI. I cannot find a quick way to do this, I know entities can be deleted one by one, but with over 100 entities this would take long I am guessing that if I added the controller with a new name in in the Reactor config it would pull the updated entities and names but I think that would break my rules since the entity IDs would change (I made sure to name all the entities the exact same as they were previously to prevent this issue).
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Multi-System Reactor
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I'm slowly migrating all my stuff to MQTT under MSR, so I have a central place to integrate everything (and, in a not-so-distant future, to remove virtual devices from my Vera and leave it running zwave only). Anyway, here's my reactor-mqtt-contrib package: https://github.com/dbochicchio/reactor-mqtt-contrib Simply download yaml files (everything or just the ones you need) and you're good to go. I have mapped my most useful devices, but I'll add others soon. Feel free to ask for specific templates, since I've worked a lot in the last weeks to understand and operate them. The templates are supporting both init and query, so you have always up-to-date devices at startup, and the ability to poll them. Online status is supported as well, so you can get disconnected devices with a simple expression. Many-many thanks to @toggledbits for its dedication, support, and patience with me and my requests
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Tangentially did I miss 2025.9.4 getting blessed in MSR? I've been holding off Cheers C
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Multi-System Reactor
[Reactor] Copy&Paste of Rules
therealdbT
I don't know if I'm the only one, but managing more than one Reactor installs, the need to have some sort of copy&paste for rules has grown on me. While I understand the technical challenges, I'm wondering if a "god mode" where I could copy the raw JSON rule and paste it into another rule could be an advanced, flag only feature that could benefit power users. I know I can copy the JSON file and proceed, but I must stop Reactor and when doing maintenance, it's more clicks to do. Just an idea
Multi-System Reactor
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therealdbT
I’ve added a couple of Shelly Wave i4 as scene controllers and I’m planning to add more, since I can just use standard buttons instead of battery-powered scene controllers, which also looks better aesthetically. That said, I’m struggling to figure out how to write a simple rule that cycles between states every time I press a button. Example: Light 1 ON → OFF, then Light 2 ON → OFF. The part I can’t get right is handling the case where Light 1 or Light 2 might already be ON independently of the rule. Maybe it’s just too much sun and relaxation clouding my brain, but any hint would be appreciated.
Multi-System Reactor
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wmarcolinW
Use case: When performing home maintenance, such as air conditioning, I want all rules involving air conditioning to be disabled. To do this, to day, I have a virtual switch that I placed within all rules involving air conditioning, meaning that if I turn it off, none of them work. Then another situation: the water pump system and garden irrigation, another switch. In short, I had to create several virtual switches in Hubitat to disable rules in MSR. Unfortunately, however, I was unable to cover all scenarios, so I wondered if it would be possible for MSR to support a virtual MSR switch, which, when configured in the reactor settings, would function as a general on/off switch for MSR. If it is configured and turned off, the entire rules and actions in MSR stops working, except for the status change reading process, specifically for this switch, which, when turned on, would restart the MSR. Would it be possible to do something like this? Any recommendations from the experts?
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Probably a really dumb question. Currently I am using the owntracks_sensor for tracking phones being in region in MSR and it works great. Digging around with Home Assistant and toying with some dashboards, is there any way of exposing that sensor to HA trivially? I could set MSR to trip a virtual switch in OpenLuup which can then be exposed to HA (with all my other Vera devices) but that feels a bit in-elegant if I can do it directly. Any thoughts? Apologies if the ask is not clear/ TIA C
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I have several Global Expressions that are set by a rule so the definition area is blank. I'd like to add a comment in this area that explains what is setting the value. Commenting in this area breaks the remote setting. Any way to document what is setting the GE?
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As there are statements about compatibility for home assistant versions in MSR new version announcements (e.g. "HassController: Bless Hass to 2025.7.3"), I thought it would be good idea to track other controllers as well. As an example, I can confirm that build "latest-25208-c53e8513" works with Hubitat Elevation C-8 platform version 2.4.2.134 using Maker API. Updates: (the latest versions first in the list) OK: build "latest-25264-2fbe9217" with Hubitat C-8 platform v. 2.4.3.123
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Build 21228 has been released. Docker images available from DockerHub as usual, and bare-metal packages here. Home Assistant up to version 2021.8.6 supported; the online version of the manual will now state the current supported versions; Fix an error in OWMWeatherController that could cause it to stop updating; Unify the approach to entity filtering on all hub interface classes (controllers); this works for device entities only; it may be extended to other entities later; Improve error detail in messages for EzloController during auth phase; Add isRuleSet() and isRuleEnabled() functions to expressions extensions; Implement set action for lock and passage capabilities (makes them more easily scriptable in some cases); Fix a place in the UI where 24-hour time was not being displayed.
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@toggledbits, not sure if this is a feature request or I'm using the search tool wrong. You have a "Search for rule" in the Rules Set tab in MSR. It works nicely to find a rule and bring up said rule, but can it/could it be used for as a "where used?" global search? For instance, I have a fairly large set of rules, divided up into 10 different rulesets. There's easily a hundred individual rules, and many of the rules have Rule State triggers, which of course refer to other rules. Amongst my troubleshooting today, I came across what may have been a duplicate or troubleshooting attempt, but I can't tell if it's actually used as a Rule State in another rule without opening each rule that I suspect it may be a part of. Thanks.
Multi-System Reactor

Using Variables in notifications

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  • C Offline
    C Offline
    Cadwizzard
    wrote on last edited by Cadwizzard
    #1

    I'm trying to insert variables into notifications. I've tried
    {
    "message": "Oil Level is {{Oil_Level_V_to_Percent}}"
    }

    Also prefixing {{ with $ and a few other things.
    I get the main body but the variable is missing, i.e "Oil Level Is"
    Could someone please help me send the variable (and to title the notification would be great too)
    Many thanks 🙂
    Apologies

    Hass: v2022.10.4
    MSR: latest-22274-24dfd72c

    The rule :
    heatingoilalert.png variable.png

    PablaP 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • C Cadwizzard

      I'm trying to insert variables into notifications. I've tried
      {
      "message": "Oil Level is {{Oil_Level_V_to_Percent}}"
      }

      Also prefixing {{ with $ and a few other things.
      I get the main body but the variable is missing, i.e "Oil Level Is"
      Could someone please help me send the variable (and to title the notification would be great too)
      Many thanks 🙂
      Apologies

      Hass: v2022.10.4
      MSR: latest-22274-24dfd72c

      The rule :
      heatingoilalert.png variable.png

      PablaP Offline
      PablaP Offline
      Pabla
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      @cadwizzard first we’d need to know what home controller you are using and what version of MSR.

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      0
      • toggledbitsT Offline
        toggledbitsT Offline
        toggledbits
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        ...and if the variable and action is in a Rule (show it) or a Global Reaction (show it). And show the variable definition, be it rule-based or global.

        Author of Multi-system Reactor and Reactor, DelayLight, Switchboard, and about a dozen other plugins that run on Vera and openLuup.

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        0
        • C Offline
          C Offline
          Cadwizzard
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          Apologies
          Initial post updated

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          0
          • PablaP Offline
            PablaP Offline
            Pabla
            wrote on last edited by Pabla
            #5

            So when you are testing if the actions work using a variable you have to use the big play button that right under the "Set Reaction" title. As for using said variable you're going to want to use it in this form ${{<variable_name>}}. Since you were likely hitting the play button just for this action that is probably why you werent getting the variable value in your notification.

            As for adding a title it will look like this

            {
              "message": "${{Oil_Level_V_to_Percent}}",
              "title": "<insert title name>"
            }
            
            C 1 Reply Last reply
            1
            • PablaP Pabla

              So when you are testing if the actions work using a variable you have to use the big play button that right under the "Set Reaction" title. As for using said variable you're going to want to use it in this form ${{<variable_name>}}. Since you were likely hitting the play button just for this action that is probably why you werent getting the variable value in your notification.

              As for adding a title it will look like this

              {
                "message": "${{Oil_Level_V_to_Percent}}",
                "title": "<insert title name>"
              }
              
              C Offline
              C Offline
              Cadwizzard
              wrote on last edited by Cadwizzard
              #6

              @pabla Thank You!
              I was going wrong with the title by missing the comma in preceding line, I had the rest right and indented the same before I took the code out, as it wasn't working.

              And right again, I had tested the code with ${{content}} but it didn't work - most likely because I used the play button to the right and not above the reaction.

              Really appreciated, i've updated my template I copy from, so that should be notifications sorted for everything now.

              Seperate issue is the value on the sensor flaps up and down by 1% when its close to changing (temperature in the oil tank/expansion) and sends lots of notifications, just need to figure out how to address that. But off topic for this post 🙂

              PablaP 1 Reply Last reply
              1
              • C Cadwizzard

                @pabla Thank You!
                I was going wrong with the title by missing the comma in preceding line, I had the rest right and indented the same before I took the code out, as it wasn't working.

                And right again, I had tested the code with ${{content}} but it didn't work - most likely because I used the play button to the right and not above the reaction.

                Really appreciated, i've updated my template I copy from, so that should be notifications sorted for everything now.

                Seperate issue is the value on the sensor flaps up and down by 1% when its close to changing (temperature in the oil tank/expansion) and sends lots of notifications, just need to figure out how to address that. But off topic for this post 🙂

                PablaP Offline
                PablaP Offline
                Pabla
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                @cadwizzard You can use the round function for your variable to round it to whatever decimal point you need. Have a look in reactor docs under expressions -> functions for more info

                C 1 Reply Last reply
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                • PablaP Pabla

                  @cadwizzard You can use the round function for your variable to round it to whatever decimal point you need. Have a look in reactor docs under expressions -> functions for more info

                  C Offline
                  C Offline
                  Cadwizzard
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  @pabla The issue isn't rounding, the sensor is in Volts, i multiply by 10 to get % for gauges etc, so it's always rounded.
                  The issue is due to temperature and the accuracy of the sensor (ultrasonic), when the oil level is very close to for example 55 and 56% (5.5v/5.6v) and the oil expands, the reading will go from 55 to 56 and then 55 and then 56 over and over due to the tiny variance between the two readings. If that makes sense.
                  I can't set a rule to only track decreasing changes as we also fill up the tank sometimes too 🙂

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                  • toggledbitsT Offline
                    toggledbitsT Offline
                    toggledbits
                    wrote on last edited by toggledbits
                    #9

                    You might consider a bit of time-based hysteresis by using the "sustain for" option in your rule/condition(s). I do this with various things around the house... if the attic humidity is above X% for more than YY minutes, start the dehumidifier, etc. This removes the short-cycling that can occur when a measurement is unstable around a critical point.

                    Also, there are ways previously documented in Reactor for Vera to do things like one-hour averages and moving averages, which can dampen those bounces/drifts. I'm not sure if anyone has done an MSR version of those, but the general approach is the same.

                    Author of Multi-system Reactor and Reactor, DelayLight, Switchboard, and about a dozen other plugins that run on Vera and openLuup.

                    therealdbT MikeReadingtonM 2 Replies Last reply
                    1
                    • toggledbitsT toggledbits

                      You might consider a bit of time-based hysteresis by using the "sustain for" option in your rule/condition(s). I do this with various things around the house... if the attic humidity is above X% for more than YY minutes, start the dehumidifier, etc. This removes the short-cycling that can occur when a measurement is unstable around a critical point.

                      Also, there are ways previously documented in Reactor for Vera to do things like one-hour averages and moving averages, which can dampen those bounces/drifts. I'm not sure if anyone has done an MSR version of those, but the general approach is the same.

                      therealdbT Offline
                      therealdbT Offline
                      therealdb
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      @toggledbits said in Using Variables in notifications:

                      Also, there are ways previously documented in Reactor for Vera to do things like one-hour averages and moving averages, which can dampen those bounces/drifts. I'm not sure if anyone has done an MSR version of those, but the general approach is the same.

                      Speaking of this, I'll surely welcome some recipes somewhere. I'll think a curated list will definitely benefit the community. I think it's fair to link reactor ones as well, since expressions are almost similar.

                      --
                      On a mission to automate everything.

                      My MS Reactor contrib
                      My Luup Plug-ins

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      1
                      • toggledbitsT toggledbits

                        You might consider a bit of time-based hysteresis by using the "sustain for" option in your rule/condition(s). I do this with various things around the house... if the attic humidity is above X% for more than YY minutes, start the dehumidifier, etc. This removes the short-cycling that can occur when a measurement is unstable around a critical point.

                        Also, there are ways previously documented in Reactor for Vera to do things like one-hour averages and moving averages, which can dampen those bounces/drifts. I'm not sure if anyone has done an MSR version of those, but the general approach is the same.

                        MikeReadingtonM Offline
                        MikeReadingtonM Offline
                        MikeReadington
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        @toggledbits I used something like that to dampen solar panel logic. I am not "legally" allowed to hook up, but I still wanted to play with them. I still have a dumb meter and it's easily possible to end up negative for the month. I used a couple of RIB relays to turn panel groups off if the consumption target for the month was trending under what would be considered believable.

                        (I also turn them off by the driveway entrance sensor logic on the days that I know the meter reader will show up. I don't particularly need an observant reader seeing the meter flying around backward)

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