Wow, this was a lot of information at once
I'm going to go through the code tomorrow and actually figure out whats going on. I'm contemplating actually writing my own code, instead of relying on someone else's. Might make things easier (or harder ) but in the end i think i might benefit from it.
i changed the code i had with the changes you suggested, and i can see the messages coming through to the gateway, but i still can't actually get home-assistant to display them. Trying to figure out if it's the code on the sensor, the code on the gateway or somewhere in-between that the message gets lost.
i really appreciate all your help, i'll get back as soon as i've revised my code and (knock on wood) got it to work
Again, thanks for all the help!