You can find lots of written instructions in the Home Assistant forums. The problem I found was that when I went into the HA Settings I could not find many of the items the instructions mentioned. They had already been changed by updates to HA. That is why I mentioned looking at the newest posts and videos. I found that the Youtube videos seem to have the latest tips and instructions. While I love all the frequent advancements and updates being made in HA, it can be rather difficult for someone new to HA to jump in and get everything working.
V
Venom
@Venom
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
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
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.
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?
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
...is back....
https://arstechnica.com/google/2025/08/researchers-use-calendar-events-to-hack-gemini-control-smart-home-gadgets/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dhfacebook&utm_content=null&fbclid=IwY2xjawMBq-pleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHlSqIalzbz1IxcJFzlw8GBE6nC3FwvxcHgR370nJhogU6JjqbmRxG-lysqgh_aem_lx9XboYFKw9tpHnedGQKUA
C
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.
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.
I foolishly let my system wipe all cookies this morning and with it my settings for my MSR home page.
Once logged back in I can no longer remove errant panes nor is the + available to add new ones.
Brave Browser v1.80.122 (Jul 16, 2025)
What have I done?!
Will check other browsers on my M1.
UPDATE: Safari exhibits same behaviour.
I've tried both sans last-four public key entry and with - no change.
@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.
Posts
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Home Assistant Voice -
Home Assistant VoiceThis morning I noticed an update was available for Home Assistant Voice. I did the update and it broke the HAV. I had to re-enable it along with the Cloud Service to get it working again.
I got mine working by watching a lot of Youtube Videos. I would start by watching the newest videos you find. That is important. The one thing I noticed with Home Assistant in general, Updates come very often and instructions you find today may be different after an update. I also read lots in the Home Assistant Forum. Same goes there, read the latest posts first. What I did 6 months ago, if I could remember what I did, probably would not be the way to do it today. I keep planning on really learning the most I can about Home Assistant but life keeps getting in the way. So I continue to stumble my way through it.. -
Home Assistant VoiceI set one of these up a few months ago. I got it working pretty easily. It controls everything My Amazon Echo Alexa could do. My Logitech Harmony Hubs work better with the Home Assistant Voice. Alexa seems to have a problem here and there telling me the device is not responding. Then I give the same command to HAV and it works. I did activate Alexa in Home assistant and it works pretty well. As mentioned the lag with the HAV was pretty long. As a test I tried the Home Assistant cloud service. That cut down the lag a lot. Now it is only slightly slower than Alexa. I am going to try building a dedicated AI PC. That should cut the lag to zero and I can get rid of the cloud service. Once I get the HAV to react quickly and do everything as I would like I will move on to improving sound quality.
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Looking for Remote Switch boxes that can also be used with a wireless Decora Style Switch.Yes, I have a SmartThings Version 2 Hub. Do I need to use the Shelly Z wave relay switches or would the Shelly Wifi / Bluetooth switches also work with that Z wave Scene Controller wall switch I linked above?
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Looking for Remote Switch boxes that can also be used with a wireless Decora Style Switch.I will look into Shelly, Thank you.
I have also found this, which I think may be what I am looking for... -
Looking for Remote Switch boxes that can also be used with a wireless Decora Style Switch.Hi All,
Kind of new to Home Automation. Started off Using Amazon Echo units and added a Samsung SmartThings hub. I have mostly been using plug in modules for turning lights on and off. I live in a very rural area where the internet goes out a lot. I eventually want to change to to a non internet Hub so things will work without needing an internet connection. But I will post with those questions at a later date.
So, the task at hand is this: I have flood lights at each corner of my house. They are currently controlled by switches at the front and back doors. I would like to add Security Cameras to each corner also. I can easily find small Wifi switches to put into the electrical box where the flood lights are located, then I can terminate the leads together behind the Decora switch to have constant power. Then I can use the constant power up at the lights electrical box to power the security cameras. I would also like to have a wireless switch to take the place of the Decora switch to be able to turn the lights off and on.
I cannot seem to find a product like this. It seems I can find the small wired in switch boxes that will also come with external smart wall switches, but the wall switches are an external box that does not fit in or cover the existing Wall switch electrical box. I can also find Wireless Decora switches that come with a remote wired in small switch box , but they all seem to be RF and do not integrate with a Smart Hub.
I am hoping someone here knows of a product that matches what I am looking for. Any help would be appreciated.Also any recommendations for Wireless Security cameras are welcome.
Thanks for any help.