@karenbobiv
I doubt it's related to the MySensors communication. Are you using a Dallas temp sensor? Could you check that the is actually connected to the dallas sensor by using isConnected().
When googling your problem I found a few hits on -196.6 which is the error code (DEVICE_DISCONNECTED) converted to Fahrenheit.
Start debug mode (Config.h) to see what the sensor actually sends.
@zboblamont OK, so experiments concluded that the return data from the latest version of Domoticz is a String whether it be V_VARx or V_TEXT.
I tried the dual declaration using the same CHILD_ID as intended and as VAR_X (using an RF24 - not sure of the relevance) and the actual value sent but failed to make any sense of abstracting the Ulong conversion or the string.
Only by presenting a fresh CHILD_ID and duplicating the send of data (water meter) as a V_VAR1 could I recover the last sent reading as a V_VAR1 from that fresh CHILD_ID, thence eventually arriving at 'strtoul' as a solution to restoring the last known value.
For clarity my Gateway and Controller run on a UPS, and I hope shortly to add the spare router to that UPS so I'm not left in the dark on what is happening in the dark on a battery powered laptop...
Hope this helps others trying to keep track of meters between relentless power cuts and reboots...
