I've just completed my setup (after exactly 3 years from moving in, priorities!) and even if I wrote all the code in C#, I could port it easily to LUA (I guess )

I've used Fully Kiosk Browser + 3D Printed Mount (check https://makesbymike.com/) and a custom HTML dashboard, all running on an Amazon Fire Tablet:

WAF is very high

Sorry for the Italian interface. First row is temperature/humidity sensors (esterno = outside, piscina = pool, salotto = open space, zona giorno = 1st floor, zona notte = 2nd floor, lavanderia = laundry room).
Then I have a bunch of commands/scenes sent to Vera to change blinds/roller shutters (they are automatically managed, but wife pretends to be smarter than code, from time to time ). Last row has notifications for washer/dryer, with the cycle end date. When doing its cycle, the background becomes orange, then green when completed. It's probably the best feature, since the laundry room is in the basement. There's also a link to cams (videosorveglianza) and I automatically open TinyCamPro in case of movement outside/doors/gates are opened.

Is there any interest in a generic wall mount tablet plug-in, offering simple dashboard (maybe json-driven) and integration with Fully Kiosk API?

I'm currently dimming screen on/off, get the battery status and schedule a 20-80 cycle for the battery, via a smart plug and a bunch of lua code. I planned for this when I did the electrical setup, so the tablet has a standard european 503 (recessed) box with ethernet, that I attached to the 5V into the network closet to feed the tablet. I'm updating the screen via AJAX every 30 secs.

Here's a behind the scenes photo as well

I've moved all the triggers and rules to MSR now, and I'm pushing everything to my MQTT broker for further integration, but some code is still on my Vera because it's easier at the moment. I've moved back a lot of code to my C# based tool, because it's easier for me.

After a full week of use, I've got a couple of desiderata to further improve this wonderful tool:

• I would like to see the logs in the web UI. I'm frequently tweaking things and opening an SSH connection just to see the latest logs is overkill. Maybe something to see the streaming logs will be perfect, but refreshing them is OK
• More info about reactions latest execution - or the ability to see them via MQTT. Ideally, show me the latest 4-5 executions
• start page directly to status, instead of about, after the first time I've seen the license
• the ability search for device ID/alias in the Entity Action's Chose Entity window - I've spent years in my Vera and I know the IDs instead of the name - sad but true story
• a way to see controllers' status and their health in the UI - and maybe start/stop them individually, because I'm seeing there's a start and a stop action in the controller base class
• the ability to use an MQTT message as a trigger/condition - I'm effectively using the MQTT bus as a communication bus, so all my things (including Vera) are sending MQTT messages for various things, like notifications, TTS, cams, etc - this is handy because I can add independent reactions to statuses in different part of my system/using different tools
• support for re-ordering in mobile browser (iOS, for me)
• a tool to see where I'm using an entity, as trigger or condition

Keep them as suggestion, no pressure. Thanks for the hard work @toggledbits !

As another one asked for it on the other forum, I finally created a new plug-in for Telegram notifications: https://github.com/dbochicchio/vera-Telegram/

You can:

• send text messages
• send (still) images
• send videos (gif or mp4)
• send silent notifications

I remember @CatmanV2 was searching for something similar (maybe?).

I'm using it to send push notifications to me and my wife, using a group. I have my own code streaming my cameras and sending a video as gif based on certain events (ie motion sensors or door/entryways left open). While this part is not included into the plug-in, if you're able to get a video yourself (by pointing to a URL), you'd good to go. Still images from cams (or, let's say, your favorite weather map, or any video/gif/image on the Interner ot local) are supported as well.

100% compatible with bot Vera and openLuup (where it was developed, anyway).

Feel free to ask questions or suggest new features.

@librasun thanks, but I have a job (well, I’m joking with my colleagues that I’m probably doing 6-7 jobs at once) and I’m doing this for the pleasure to give back and find new friends (and because I used to travel a lot and this year I had a lot of free time). So, as I’ve already said to others (@Pabla is here too) I’d appreciate if you could donate to groups trying to create a more inclusive environment, ie promoting a dev career for girls or minorities. Thanks

I just released v2 of my Virtual HTTP Devices Plug-in. As always, 100% local, 100% standard, mobile friendly and working on openluup/altui as well.
GitHub

dbochicchio/vera

LUA Scripts for the eZlo Vera Platform (UI7). Contribute to dbochicchio/vera development by creating an account on GitHub.

What’s new in v2:

• Master/Children: now you can just create a master and have any number of children attached. They will still work separately, but this will greatly improve memory consumption on Vera. Please see GitHub for guidance on migration. No need to do it unless you have many devices on your system.
• async update of device's status. If you want to update the status of your device separately, just return something different than the HTTP code 200/300 family. it’s useful if your device doesn’t complete the response with the call and you want to update its status. Just use a normal Vera call to update the corresponding variable
  -added support for Scene Controllers (see my post in Shelly i3 for a use case)
• more work around switches/heaters
• stabilization and fixes

Get it from GitHub or from AltAppStore.

Well, I think it has a meaning when we add dashboards to the mix. I’ll vote for it, plus combo device (like HA) to express complex devices. I’m using this approach right now in my own dashboard system.

@librasun The plug-in will take care of it. So, just set configured to 0 and it will install it.

I've had a very busy week, but tomorrow I'll have more time to re-try from scratch. Keep in mind that this is using some internal amazon stuff and the chances that they changed something is high. Anyway, it should not create <s>... unless you have announcements enabled. I'll take a deeper look tomorrow. I've tested with 7.32 beta, but not this build, and it worked, but I've not tested all the possibile variants.

No JavaScript needed. Let me take some time later today to prepare something when I’m back home. I did something similar for water valves.

I think lua drivers for devices is a win-win situation, applied to a store to easily distribute them. And local APIs are coming too. It seems they’re doing the opposite of eZlo here…

So, I was messing with my Alexa routines and ha bridge, and I want to share something very cool you could do with the ability to get the last Alexa that heard your command. I mentioned it a couple of times on the old place, but Vera's OS is missing the jq package, but openLuup could have it installed.

Basically, just execute -lastalexa with my VeraAlexa plug-in:

local lastAlexa = luup.call_action("urn:bochicchio-com:serviceId:VeraAlexa1", 
  "RunCommand",
  {Command="-lastalexa"}, 666)

Then use it in your scene, to dynamically generate your TTS response with the device you've asked your question seconds before!

local temperature = 25 -- get it from your sensor
luup.call_action("urn:bochicchio-com:serviceId:VeraAlexa1", 
  "Say",
  {Text="Ok, outise temperature is " .. temperature .. " degree", Volume=50, GroupZones= lastAlexa, Repeat = 2}, 666

Very cool indeed

What’s in this menu that’s not available via haccs? I mean, I’ll eventually add zwave2mqtt and zigbee2mqtt and I’m fine with them being two separate containers.

@gwp1 I’m 110% sure I’m on the latest version, since it’s reported at the top.

I'm still experiencing a strange behavior with 22023. I have a couple of reactions using expression, where they are null and are only updating when I manually press play, thus not firing the associated reaction when an expression changes. Am I the only one with such a problem?

I’m running ha on docker and it’s doing great for me.I have a couple of external integrations installed, no major problems to report.

Engine: New and very experimental Repeat While action group, repeats as long as its conditions are met. The group must have at least one condition or it will not run at all. The repeat will stop if either (a) the conditions result in false, or (b) if it's in a rule-based reaction, the contra-reaction is started by a change of rule state. It is quite possible to make reaction groups that never stop, so be careful with your logic here.

@toggledbits I'm struggling to find this - I'd like to test it for a couple of interval-based rules, but I'm not able to find it. Thanks!

I’ve built a migrator from datamine format to the format used by MSR in influxdb. If anyone needs it, I could think of releasing it.
I’ve moved 4 years worth of data this way and it’s working beautifully, since I used to run queries with my own engine and now they’re running inside influxdb, that’s very quick, since it’s built for that purpose.

@toggledbits said in "Plugins"/firm-coded rulesets in MSR?:

OK. Let's talk about this for a minute. How do you envision that working? If you are working on an expression for a Rule, how would it establish context? Do you work from inside the rule, and if so, what is needed that is not currently provided? Same for global expressions... how would this operate differently from the global expression editor? Is it really necessary to create a separate facility, or would changes to the current expression editors somehow suffice?

I usually open two windows, and I'm working on a (disabled) test rule where I test things, and then copy it over to the final rule. The problem is that sometimes I don't want to mess existing expressions, or the expressions require values that are not evaluated until I save the rule - and then scrolling up and down. I just want a way to quickly test expressions without messing with existing expressions. Sometimes you're just testing new expressions, sometimes you're trying to tweak things. A debug tool is a better way to test, imho, since I don't need to persist the status.

Curious about this. In the MQTT example, there is a perform() function that can be used to run an action from an expression, and you can publish anything you want (using x_mqtt.publish), so I assume you are talking about something else. On HTTP, are you suggesting/imagining a function to perform an HTTP request and return the response as the function value?

The message could be complex, like

  text: "ABC",
  priority: 1,
  silent: true
  icon: "icon"
}

and I want to pass parameters instead of trying to compose every time dynamically.

I'd like to invoke a function, instead, and be free to change the format in the future in a single place - or define defaults if necessary. I usually have functions for things like notifications (and I'm using the same payload to decide if I want to deliver it to TVs or PCs as well), TTS (where I pass volume, if it's emergency notification, etc) or to invoke an enpoint to get cams screenshot. Right now I'm still invoking luup endpoints that translate them via UDP/MQTT, but I want to remove this depedency on luup and invoke my own HTTP endpoints - or compose an MQTT message, based on the same placeholder (my system accepts the same message via MQTT or HTTP - for the same action).

So, I just want the ability to define a function like this (pseudo code):

function sendAlert(what, silent, sendToTv, chatid, localEmoji) {
	chatid = chatid or chats.group;
	silent = silent or false;
	sendToTv = sendToTv or false;

	publishMqtt("dbdomoticz/cmd/notification",
		{
			text = what,
			emoji = localEmoji,
			chatid = chatid,
			silent = silent
		}
	);

	if (sendToTv)
		sendAlertToLGTV(what);
}

And then have an action in the GUI, where placeholders are the parameters I have in the function.

@toggledbits as I've already said via other routes, I'd like the ability to have an expression console, in order to better debug them.
My other requests at the moment are related to define virtual devices (or, if you like it more, persistent expressions) and functions (in order to define an action - let's say publish via mqtt or call an HTTP endpoint or whatever, and pass parameters - probably tied to the first part of this request, after all). I'm not sure plugins are necessary at this point, but I'm a programmer and I'm using MSR when I don't want to write code, or I want to tweak things visually. I'll further complicate things in the upcoming days, since I'll add solar prediction to the mix.

Yep. I've moved my rules to MSR, but a couple are still on luup, waiting to be migrated.

What do you need, in particular?

I'm using a couple of rules to balance between solar and pellet stove, and to automatically start the electric heating when there's solar production going on for X hours.

I'm basing the logic on a couple of global expressions here:

The two variables heating_pellet and heating_prefersolar are two options we could switch to indicate we want to use solar or pellett (or not) to manually override the selection.

This is the main logic taking actions:

And I have others taking similar actions, to set the thermostat on when solar is producing a lot, etc. Termo richiesta is linked to thermostats, while Pompa di Calore drives our electric heater. The reset actions is turning the relays off.

@droy you could definitely call MSR http endpoint to achieve the same result. At this point, MSR will perform the call for you.