Domoticz help using V_VAR1 and S_CUSTOM

[Boots33]

I have built a lightning detector which all seems to be working fine looking at the serial monitor. with no storms around i decided to send some dummy data to Domoticz so I could see the results. The sketch uses S_CUSTOM and V_VAR1 to send the intensity readings and they are seen by the gateway but do not show up as a device.

In the top of the device list I can see the distance reading and the light switches but no intensity reading. Can anyone tell me the way to access the S_CUSTOM data.

Also the S_DISTANCE device sems to read in CM only but i Guess that is hard coded in so will have to live with that

[AWI]

@Boots33 V_VAR cannot be displayed as a device. it can be used only a internal variable in Domoticz. There is also not a real "custom" device type. A possible (but not very nice solution) is a V_TEXT type.

[Boots33]

@AWI Thanks for that, I suspected that may be the case. I have not done much with Domoticz yet so will have a look at using variables and see what i come up with. I am only using Domoticz to capture the data, form there i will export it to my weather page.

[AWI]

@Boots33 For what I know V_VAR's are not available in Domoticz for processing. Their main purpose is for temporary storages of MySensors values. V_TEXT is more flexible and can be processed from lua in Domoticz.

Just thinking freely: What is the unit of lightning intensity (love you project by the way ;-))? Reading from an article The estimated peak power per lightning stroke is 10^12 watts (1,000,000,000,000 watts or 1,000 Giga Watts). The total energy in a large thunderstorm is thought to be enough to power the whole of the USA for 20 minutes.. , this would be Watts. So V_WATT (S_POWER) could do the trick.

[Boots33]

@AWI Thanks once again, I had a quick look at Domoticz today and used json to list all variables. the result only showed variables that I had defined in Domoticz myself and not the V_VAR1 I was looking for. So i think you are right that variable is not available for processing. I will now look at using V_TEXT or another type as you have suggested. As to the intensity reading, from the AS3935 data sheet....

8.9.2 Energy Calculation
If the received signal is classified as lightning, the energy is calculated. The result of the energy calculation is then stored in the registers
REG0x06[4:0], REG0x05[7:0] and REG0x04[7:0]. This value is just a pure number and has no physical meaning.

So from that i would think it can only be used as rough guide with no real scientific value. I think Sparkman said he has seen values in the high hundreds during storms, Our storm season is still a way off yet for me so will have to wait and see what i get

Once again thanks for your input AWI. I have to say I am having a great time playing with MySensors, still very much on a learning curve but my hat goes off to the devs for an awesome product.

[AWI]

@Boots33 as "energy" here has no real dimension you best make an own interpretation with Watt or Joul.

Great to hear you are having fun too.

[alexsh1]

@boots33 dId you manage to get the distance in km or you are fine with cm?

[Boots33]

@alexsh1 I ended up using the dust sensor type for both readings. In Domoticz it allows you to set the letters to be used after the number so was easy to just add km to the end.

The original post where using dust was discussed is here

[alexsh1]

@boots33 Thanks - I'll check it out. I am using this sensor with another Lipo charging board with BME280+Si7021 and solar panel. I can see you moved the sensor into a seperate enclose? I am also running it on a battery.

[dbemowsk]

So since this is regarding the topic of V_VAR1, I had some questions. One of the reasons that I switched from Domoticz to Vera was because I had built the irrigation controller from the build section which utilizes V_VAR1 - V_VAR3 for each irrigation valve to deal with configuration things between the HA controller and the irrigation node. Back when I switched controllers, the V_VARx variables were not able to work with this. I thought I had read something either on here or the Domoticz forums that said that that was working now. I for the life of me cannot find out where I saw that. So my questions are, first, are the V_VARx variables working? And if they are working, are they accessible from a device like the irrigation node?

[alexsh1]

@dbemowsk sadly, I understand from Domoticz forum, they are not working. Or implementation has to be different with Domoticz variables.

[pjr]

@dbemowsk said in Domoticz help using V_VAR1 and S_CUSTOM:

So my questions are, first, are the V_VARx variables working? And if they are working, are they accessible from a device like the irrigation node?

There is the current state of V_VARx variables in domoticz: MySensors set and send V_VAR

And there is what you can store/request: hardware/MySensorsBase.cpp#L2241

[dbemowsk]

@pjr that is good news. I will have to look into how to use those. When i switched to my vera controller from domoticz, they hadn't implemented that yet, and that was one of my reasons for switching.

[tropicaxarquia]

@dbemowsk Did you find a way to access the domoticz variables?