Home Assistant

MQTT Switch

The mqtt switch platform lets you control your MQTT enabled switches.

In an ideal scenario, the MQTT device will have a state_topic to publish state changes. If these messages are published with a RETAIN flag, the MQTT switch will receive an instant state update after subscription, and will start with the correct state. Otherwise, the initial state of the switch will be false / off.

When a state_topic is not available, the switch will work in optimistic mode. In this mode, the switch will immediately change state after every command. Otherwise, the switch will wait for state confirmation from the device (message from state_topic).

Optimistic mode can be forced, even if the state_topic is available. Try to enable it, if experiencing incorrect switch operation.

To enable this switch in your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:

# Example configuration.yml entry
switch:
  - platform: mqtt
    command_topic: "home/bedroom/switch1/set"

Configuration Variables

name

(string)(Optional)The name to use when displaying this switch.

Default value: MQTT Switch

state_topic

(string)(Optional)The MQTT topic subscribed to receive state updates.

command_topic

(string)(Optional)The MQTT topic to publish commands to change the switch state.

availability_topic

(string)(Optional)The MQTT topic subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates.

payload_on

(string)(Optional)The payload that represents enabled state.

Default value: true

payload_off

(string)(Optional)The payload that represents disabled state.

Default value: false

payload_available

(string)(Optional)The payload that represents the available state.

Default value: online

payload_not_available

(string)(Optional)The payload that represents the unavailable state.

Default value: offline

optimistic

(boolean)(Optional)Flag that defines if switch works in optimistic mode.

Default value: true if no state_topic defined, else false.

qos

(integer)(Optional)The maximum QoS level of the state topic. Default is 0 and will also be used to publishing messages.

Default value: 0

retain

(boolean)(Optional)If the published message should have the retain flag on or not.

Default value: false

value_template

(string)(Optional)Defines a template to extract a value from the payload.

Make sure that your topic matches exactly. some-topic/ and some-topic are different topics.

Examples

In this section you will find some real life examples of how to use this sensor.

Full configuration

The example below shows a full configuration for a switch.

# Example configuration.yml entry
switch:
  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Bedroom Switch"
    state_topic: "home/bedroom/switch1"
    command_topic: "home/bedroom/switch1/set"
    availability_topic: "home/bedroom/switch1/available"
    payload_on: "ON"
    payload_off: "OFF"
    optimistic: false
    qos: 0
    retain: true

For a check you can use the command line tools mosquitto_pub shipped with mosquitto to send MQTT messages. This allows you to operate your switch manually:

$ mosquitto_pub -h 127.0.0.1 -t home/bedroom/switch1 -m "ON"

Set the state of a device with ESPEasy

Assuming that you have flashed your ESP8266 unit with ESPEasy. Under “Config” is a name (“Unit Name:”) set for your device (here it’s “bathroom”). A configuration for a “Controller” for MQTT with the protocol “OpenHAB MQTT” is present and the entries (“Controller Subscribe:” and “Controller Publish:”) are adjusted to match your needs. In this example the topics are prefixed with “home”. There is no further configuration needed as the GPIOs can be controlled with MQTT directly.

Manually you can set pin 13 to high with mosquitto_pub or another MQTT tool:

$ mosquitto_pub -h 127.0.0.1 -t home/bathroom/gpio/13 -m "1"

The configuration will look like the example below:

# Example configuration.yml entry
switch:
  - platform: mqtt
    name: bathroom
    state_topic: "home/bathroom/gpio/13"
    command_topic: "home/bathroom/gpio/13"
    payload_on: "1"
    payload_off: "0"