Guide: Setting up and testing MQTT Client Gateway

[tante ju]

Hi,

Just tried to set up an ESP-12E as MQTT gateway and noticed one bug in the actual development branch:
As soon as one of the three LED PIN assignments is not defined (commented out), the Example sketch will lock itself after initializing NRF radio, and running DHCP. So, no further NRF communication nor signup at the broker. WDT steps in then.

Just defining all three LEDs, without any other parameter or use the LED blinking feature, and everything is fine.

[hek]

@tante-ju

http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/2749/1-6-gateway-possible-error/8

[gregl]

Im lost...

Ive just setup a new MQTT client gateway ( from link at the top of this post..) and have a few nodes successfully sending data to a mosquito server.

What im trying to now do is, using the RelayActuator sketch, is control the relay via a MQTT message...but im confused as to what i need to send it!

Here is the serial output from the RelayActuator sketch:

Starting repeater (RNNRA-, 2.0.0-beta)
Radio init successful.
send: 9-9-0-0 s=255,c=3,t=15,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,st=ok:0
send: 9-9-0-0 s=255,c=0,t=18,pt=0,l=10,sg=0,st=ok:2.0.0-beta
send: 9-9-0-0 s=255,c=3,t=6,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,st=ok:0
send: 9-9-0-0 s=255,c=3,t=11,pt=0,l=5,sg=0,st=ok:Relay
send: 9-9-0-0 s=255,c=3,t=12,pt=0,l=3,sg=0,st=ok:1.0
send: 9-9-0-0 s=1,c=0,t=3,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=ok:
Init complete, id=9, parent=0, distance=1

So what message do i send it from another MQTT client ?
ive been trying things such as mygateway1-in/9/0/1/1 with message of 0 or 1

Pls help ! ;-)

[hek]

What happens if you send to child sensor 1 (ack disabled)

mygateway1-in/9/1/0/1

[gregl]

Hi @hek
Nothing...
there is no message received from the node. ( based off the serial output)

How can i serial.print out all the messages it receives?

[gregl]

@hek

mmm..perhaps there is a problem between mosquito and the mqttclient gateway. As ive now attached a serial monitor to the mqttclient gateway and sending the message doesnt appear in the console. I assume it should...

Opening port
Port open
0;255;3;0;9;read: 9-9-0 s=255,c=3,t=15,pt=1,l=1,sg=0:0
0;255;3;0;9;Sending message on topic: mygateway1-out/9/255/3/0/15
0;255;3;0;9;read: 9-9-0 s=255,c=0,t=18,pt=0,l=10,sg=0:2.0.0-beta
0;255;3;0;9;Sending message on topic: mygateway1-out/9/255/0/0/18
0;255;3;0;9;read: 9-9-0 s=255,c=3,t=6,pt=1,l=1,sg=0:0
0;255;3;0;9;Sending message on topic: mygateway1-out/9/255/3/0/6
0;255;3;0;9;read: 9-9-0 s=255,c=3,t=11,pt=0,l=5,sg=0:Relay
0;255;3;0;9;Sending message on topic: mygateway1-out/9/255/3/0/11
0;255;3;0;9;read: 9-9-0 s=255,c=3,t=12,pt=0,l=3,sg=0:1.0
0;255;3;0;9;Sending message on topic: mygateway1-out/9/255/3/0/12
0;255;3;0;9;read: 9-9-0 s=1,c=0,t=3,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
0;255;3;0;9;Sending message on topic: mygateway1-out/9/1/0/0/3
0;255;3;0;9;read: 1-1-0 s=0,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:26.8
0;255;3;0;9;Sending message on topic: mygateway1-out/1/0/1/0/0
0;255;3;0;9;read: 1-1-0 s=1,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:26.7
0;255;3;0;9;Sending message on topic: mygateway1-out/1/1/1/0/0

as you can see no incoming messages from mosqutto.

[gregl]

I can see in mosquitto logs a subscription from the gateway

1452645694: mosquitto version 1.3.4 terminating
1452645694: Sending CONNACK to mysensors-1 (0)
1452645694: Received SUBSCRIBE from mysensors-1
1452645694: 	mygateway1-in/+/+/+/+/+ (QoS 0)
1452645694: Sending SUBACK to mysensors-1

So looks like i need to add an extra level to the message i send!
So i just tried sending a message to topic:

mygateway1-in/9/1/0/1/1

and now i can see in my serial outputs of both the mqttclient gateway and the relaysketch node the message received!
( but its not swithing my relay yet! )

@hek is this the correct MQTT formatting:
MY_MQTT_PUBLISH_TOPIC_PREFIX/FROM-NODE-ID/SENSOR-ID/CMD-TYPE/ACK-FLAG/SUB-TYPE

[gregl]

Ok got it... ( sorry for making mess of this discussion!)
If i publish to
mygateway1-in/9/1/1/0/2 and send message values of 0 or 1 it works.... ;-)

Hope this helps someone else!

Greg ;-)

[tante ju]

@hek
That thread does not directly touch on the issue I noticed, although that might be connected.

Some other questions:
Why is the topic structure as it is? I like my MQTT topics in hierarchical order. So, having different prefixes for send and receive (in and out) is not nice, but ok. BUt why is the ACK flag before the data type, which is usually linked to a value or variable in the sensor? I would consider ACK to be a sub-value of that one.

And is there a way to have more speaky names instead of numbers? So, the source does not have that option and as that gateway is now included in the library I only see the possibility of changing the source in the library, which will disconnect from updates. Not nice. What about an option of excluding gatewayTransportSend and incomingMQTT via define from the library and define then in the own sketch?

[moskovskiy82]

What is the correct way to run DHCP? Tried commenting out
#define MY_IP_ADDRESS
but that didn't help.

Also is it possible to use fqdn for the mqtt broker instead of the ip?

[gregl]

@moskovskiy82

I also tried to use DHCP and fqdn for mosqitto, but no luck....so I cant help but I too would like to know if its possible.

[hek]

@gregl

A PR was merged 5 days ago where you can specify
MY_CONTROLLER_URL_ADDRESS

https://github.com/mysensors/Arduino/pull/375

I haven't verified it myself yet though.

[mbj]

Finally I have the ESP8266 gateway running with Mosquitto and Openhab. Because the ESP8266 Gateway installation was painless and Mosquitto and Openhab the major problems I have posted some general info at this link in case anyone is interested, see http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/3005/switching-from-v1-5-mqtt-gateway-to-esp8266-mqtt-client-gateway.
(Sorry if this is the wrong procedure but found no way to add other tags to a message in this thread).

[gregl]

@hek
Thanks Hek - will give it a try soon!

[moskovskiy82]

I have been successfully running the MQTT client gateway receiving the data from sensors. Now build the first mysensors relay and would like to know if the MQTT client gateway can act as a transmitter?

I have assigned the nod id of 55 to the relay sensor and trying to send
mosquitto_pub -t mygateway1-in/55/1/0/0/3 -m "1"

But doesn't seem to help

[hek]

Yes, it should work as a transmitter as well. What does the log say on gateway and node?

[moskovskiy82]

Resolved. Power supply was the problem

[mbj]

@mbj said:

Finally I have the ESP8266 gateway running with Mosquitto and Openhab. Because the ESP8266 Gateway installation was painless and Mosquitto and Openhab the major problems I have posted some general info at this link in case anyone is interested, see http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/3005/switching-from-v1-5-mqtt-gateway-to-esp8266-mqtt-client-gateway.
(Sorry if this is the wrong procedure but found no way to add other tags to a message in this thread).

Do not know if this info is of any interest but my ESP8266 MQTT gateway (based on a NodeMCU board) has been running without hiccups for almost a month now. So it has been very stable. I have also made a very short test using a Wemos D1 Mini for the gateway and this one seemed to be working as expected as well (not very surprised but you never know until it has been tested :-)).

[DirkB19]

Hi,

I've uploaded the GatewayW5100MQTTClient.ino to a UNO with W5100.

I have changed IP adresses to my Mosquitto broker (on Raspberry Pi) as instructed.

However,
I don't see the gateway connecting to the Mosquitto (in the /var/log/mosquitto/mosquitto.log on RPI) and also I don't see anything in the serial monitor. I've got 10+ sensornodes that work well when using another gateway (to OpenHab).
What am I overlooking here ?

The same hardware UNO+W5100 worked before as MQTTgateway(+broker), so I'm guessing it's not the hardware?

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
DirkB

[gregl]

@DirkB19

Hi Dirk - did you change the MAC address ( these need to be unique too and it could have the same one "DEADBEEFFEED" as your existing GW )