Posted by: @cathoderay

↑

Posted by: @leichat

↑

(The Vaillant integration, a community developed one, unfortunately integrates with Vaillant's cloud service, so you need their WiFi/ethernet box and to trust the integration with your myVaillant login credentials)

This is typical HA complexity. None of it is necessary, honestly!

I use a wired modbus connection, I think that code in your screen grab uses modbus over TCP/IP ie ethernet/internet. I avoided that because...it is just more complexity, and unnecessary complexity, when a wired connection works well, as it does for me. 

Honestly, the amount of nonsense you spout is tiresome and precisely why I stopped posting here. You're not interested in collaboration, just speaking mistruths about things, shooting people down and pushing your own agenda. I don't get it. 

Case in point, the complexity there is not Home Assistant's but Vaillant's. 

And modbus tcp is not about modbus over the Internet. Still local, still one cable, and not unnecessarily complex. I'd argue it's considerably less complex in many use cases. 

Posted by: @cashback

↑

Posted by: @cathoderay

↑

Posted by: @leichat

↑

(The Vaillant integration, a community developed one, unfortunately integrates with Vaillant's cloud service, so you need their WiFi/ethernet box and to trust the integration with your myVaillant login credentials)

This is typical HA complexity. None of it is necessary, honestly!

I use a wired modbus connection, I think that code in your screen grab uses modbus over TCP/IP ie ethernet/internet. I avoided that because...it is just more complexity, and unnecessary complexity, when a wired connection works well, as it does for me. 

Honestly, the amount of nonsense you spout is tiresome and precisely why I stopped posting here. You're not interested in collaboration, just speaking mistruths about things, shooting people down and pushing your own agenda. I don't get it. 

Case in point, the complexity there is not Home Assistant's but Vaillant's. 

And modbus tcp is not about modbus over the Internet. Still local, still one cable, and not unnecessarily complex. I'd argue it's considerably less complex in many use cases. 

 

Can we please keep the discussions here civil please?  Disagreement on specifics (last para) is fine but personal insults (first para) isn't.  

Posted by: @cashback

↑

Honestly, the amount of nonsense you spout is tiresome and precisely why I stopped posting here. You're not interested in collaboration, just speaking mistruths about things, shooting people down and pushing your own agenda. I don't get it. 

None of that is true, and as a statement, it suspect it says far more about you than it does me. If I was psychologically minded, I would say you are projecting your own anger onto me.

"Case in point, the complexity there is not Home Assistant's but Vaillant's." I disagree, the code is HA's attempt to get at Valliant data, and true to form, the HA code is complex. As I see it, HA never takes the sensible direct route, instead it adds layers of complexity. Another case in point, the file sensor - a bizarre concept, born of HA jargon - what is a file sensor??? - it is nothing of the sort, it is a file reader, and a flawed one at that as it can only read one line, the last line. The HA file sensor documentation goes even further, not only is their crippled file reader a sensor, it's a file sensor platform. WTF is a file sensor platform??? To read HA documentation is to observe a masterclass in the suffocation and strangulation of the English language (and, for the record, that is just my opinion, others can and no doubt will disagree). 

Because of touchy people like you, I was at pains to say in recent posts that it is my experience that HA is a monumental PITA, others of course have different opinions. I do believe a wired modbus RTU connection with simple python code is far easier to implement on heat pumps that have modbus available, and since the whole point of this forum is to share ideas and experience, that's why it is called a forum, I have posted at length - which I don't have to do, I'm giving up my free time - on what has and hasn't worked for me.

It would be more useful if you did the same - for example, why not show us how simple and elegant HA is, with real worked examples - rather than, as you do above, 'shooting people down and pushing your own agenda'.     

Posted by: @kev-m

↑

Can we please keep the discussions here civil please?

I agree, of course, but it was a quite vicious and unnecessary ad hominem attack, and I felt a firm rebuttal as needed, hence my recent cross-post. I don't intend to prolong this, that posts says all that needs to be said, the core point being I am expressing my views, based on my experience, with examples, on why I don't recommend using HA. Others can disagree, and are just as free to express their views, based on experience, with examples. Curiously, for some unknown reason, that doesn't seem to happen.    

@cathoderay Any stats on the number of Home Assistant users worldwide?

@redzer_irl - any stats on the number of heroin users worldwide? Just because somebody uses something, it doesn't necessarily mean it is good for them.

I emphasise a point I made recently: there is a dearth on this forum of real world worked examples of HA doing simple, elegant heat pump monitoring. That is what is sorely needed to move this debate along.  

@cathoderay The Vaillant integration is a community development, not a piece of code provided by the Home Assistant team (Nabu Casa). I suspect the developer opted for the simplest option they were familiar with. Perhaps a public API or one they were easily able to reverse engineer.

re: the file sensor name, relates to how HA integrations expose data as various entity types, and the sensor is one type that indicates what is exposed by the process, rather than the name being what the integration does. On reflection, I have shared the wrong integration/sensor as it's intended to just pull the last row/line from a file (csv/json/etc) and extract a specific value from the line, rather than being an integration designed to consume an entire dataset in a file.

Although, if there wasn't a better option, I guess you could configure multiple "File Sensors" to monitor multiple CVS or have each reading a single CSV but with each configured to read a different column value? I am probably attempting to misuse the tool. I will make some enquiries on the HA community forums.

@cathoderay

Posted by: @cathoderay

↑

@redzer_irl - any stats on the number of heroin users worldwide? Just because somebody uses something, it doesn't necessarily mean it is good for them.

Very useful to the discussion at hand.

You have a problem with Home Assistant - that's fine. You prefer Python - also fine. 

I (along with many others I guess) have joined this forum to learn from others and to figure out problems I have had issues with. And I have had fantastic help and examples shared with me on how to solve issues I am facing.

I don't feel that criticising efforts to further the knowledge in this area adds anything to the discussion.

And if you feel like giving home assistant another go, there are plug-and-play options out there too. 😉 
https://www.home-assistant.io/green/

Posted by: @leichat

↑

the file sensor name, relates to how HA integrations expose data as various entity types, and the sensor is one type that indicates what is exposed by the process, rather than the name being what the integration does.

This exposes HA jargon as various words exposed by the process... Sometimes, I manage to penetrate HA jargon, but I am always left wondering: why can't they use plain English?

Can I suggest that you 'shared the wrong integration' precisely because HA is so confusing? It is because of the jargon and complexity that it is easy to make mistakes.

Posted by: @leichat

↑

Although, if there wasn't a better option

There is, in my opinion, a better option, use native python if all you want to do is read a text file, or better still use, pandas, a python module (or 'integration' as HA would have it'), which can read a csv file in one line (...pandas.read_csv(mydata.csv, many useful options go here)...) and then you can do what you want with it. I refer back to my earlier example, in effect at its core a three lines of code example of how to plot a variable from a csv file that is simple, neat and elegant - and human readable:

df = pd.read_csv('mideadata.csv') 

fig = px.line(df, x='datetime', y='ambient', title='Ambient Temp with Range Slider and Selectors')

fig.show()

First line: read the csv data in mideadata.csv

Second line: make a line plot called fig from the data in the read csv file, using the column labelled datetime for the x axis and the column labelled ambient of the y axis, and give the plot a title

Third line: show the plot (defaults to in browser, but can also be saved as an image or pdf).

Surely that is simpler than getting stuff into HA, and getting all tangled up in sensors, entities, processes, platform and integrations?  

Posted by: @redzer_irl

↑

I don't feel that criticising efforts to further the knowledge in this area adds anything to the discussion.

I may seem to be splitting hairs here, but generally I don't blandly criticise the efforts of others to further knowledge in this area, instead I relate my experience of HA, and other approaches, albeit sometimes in colourful language, but that just happens to be the way I write. My last post is an example: I know you can get file data into HA, and do a plot, but in my experience there is a far simple way. I'm making observations, and yes there is an implied criticism (of HA complexity), but that is not my primary purpose, which is to make observations, and let the reader decide for themselves.

I've had a look at the HAG page (those familiar with language will know that it is usually a good idea to check acronyms after naming something just in case...) and maybe it is just me, but I can't really see what I get for my $99* (Recommended MSRP. Pricing subject to individual retailers.). Apparently, it might make my smart home (which isn't smart) smarter. All I have to do is plug in the power supply and my network cables and I'll be 'up and running' (whatever that means? For the door? Like a hamster in a wheel?). But I don't have any network cables, unless you count the modbus cable as a 'network cable', which of course it isn't in the HA sense.

Don't get me wrong, I am not for a moment suggesting that Nabu Casa can't make and sell something called a HAG. Al I am saying is that I don't think it is the right product for me. Horses for courses, forever.       

@cathoderay I'm still learning how HA works but I am very happy with what I have achieved with it so far.

I appreciate where you are coming from, if you don't already use HA then writing your own code/app to expose/analyse the data makes sense. I did that originally for the myenergi data because I wanted more detail than their own app offers. I wanted the totals for EV charging by solar, during off-peak and during peak. Someone has kindly already written a python library that reads the myenergi API and then someone has kindly created a Home Assistant integration that reuses that python library to import and expose the data and also the functions you can call. (start/stop charging, change modes, etc.)
In Home Assistant I can create a dashboard view that combines data from all those different sources to help me make informed decisions without having to open each individual app. I could write and host my own web application that consumed the data from each of those sources but why bother when Home Assistant and it's generous community have already done the hard work?

I don't see HA as a black hole. It's certainly addictive but mostly fun and rewarding for the time/money I've invested. I have all my other electricity consumption and generation devices already in HA so I would like to add the ASHP data too. Aside from just presenting the data in a pleasant format it will enable me to create notifications and automations for a variety of scenarios. I can send myself a notification if a window or door is left open when the outside temperature is below a threshold and the ASHP is trying to heat the house. Or notify me to adjust the minimum off-peak desired SoC on our storage battery if the water tank needs heating, the EV needs charging and the solar forecast for the next day (or two) is low. If we've had a good few days PV generation there's no point in topping the battery up from the grid at night if the SoC will cover the consumption.

There's an industrious gent on the GivEnergy forums that's created a piece of software named "PredBat" that will attempt to predict how much energy you'll need based on previous consumption and define charging schedules best suited for your (agile) energy tariff.

Posted by: @cathoderay

↑

Don't get me wrong, I am not for a moment suggesting that Nabu Casa can't make and sell something called a HAG. Al I am saying is that I don't think it is the right product for me. Horses for courses, forever.       

I think I need to read the entire thread to understand the context of the recent comments.
Are those that are enthusiastic about HA hoping to collaborate with you so that the ASHP data extraction work you have already accomplished is compiled into a library that's suitable for someone with HA integration authoring skills to reuse?