Reasonable preset of MQTT topics

[Phi2k]

After I moved my installation to docker containers I almost gave up because I did not get it working. Reason for the system not working was wrong strings in the MQTT. After installation lots of settings like e.g. speed come with "(null)". If you do not change these to the expected values the server will not accept any changes from MQTT at all.

Is it possible to directly set all MQTT topics to a working preset?

[Phi2k]

This is a setting which works for me. Make sure you setup every fan. Even if not installed.
You have to stop the server in order to make the changes if you have a malign setting.
The MQTT Broker must be setup in a way that all states are updated after the server is connecting.

The JSON-File at "state" must also be set accordingly and must not be contradicting the other settings.

[RosaEinhorn]

Thanks for providing this info as a hint on how the json data looks like. Unfortunately, Home Assistant auto discovery is not working for me (even as I see the server sending data to the homeassistant/# topic).
As this is not working I am not sure on how to setup the mqtt configuration manually. I managed to turn of one fan group (I have 3, each consisting of 2 fans) by sending an {"state": "false"} to comfospot40_zone1_fan/on/set. But now I cannot turn on the fan group anymore.
I appreciate any hint on what data is expected by the server or, alternatively, how to make auto discovery work with it. :) Thanks a lot!

[rubenbe]

The autodiscovery works for me (tm).
I'd first enable the debug logging in the home assistant MQTT component. That generally provides a lot of insight.
If not you can also have a look with mosquitto_sub on the topics and see what is sent back and forth.

[RosaEinhorn]

Thank you for checking this one as well. :)
MQTT Discovery does not look that bad actually:

2025-02-03 09:48:17.612 DEBUG (MainThread) [paho.mqtt.client] Received PUBLISH (d0, q0, r1, m0), 'homeassistant/fan/comfospot40_zone1_fan/config', ...  (1137 bytes)
2025-02-03 09:48:17.612 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.mqtt.client] Received retained message on homeassistant/fan/comfospot40_zone1_fan/config (qos=0): b'{"name": "Comfospot40 Zone 1 Fan", "state_topic": "comfospot40_zone1_fan/state", "command_topic": "comfospot40_zone1_fan/on/set", "state_value_template": "{{ value_json.state }}", "direction_state_topic": "comfospot40_zone1_fan/state", "direction_command_topic": "comfospot40_zone1_fan/direction/set", "direction_value_template": "{{ value_json.direction }}", "oscillation_state_topic": "comfospot40_zone1_fan/state", "oscillation_command_topic": "comfospot40_zone1_fan/oscillation/set", "oscillation_value_template": "{{ value_json.oscillation }}", "percentage_state_topic": "comfospot40_zone1_fan/state", "percentage_command_topic": "comfospot40_zone1_fan/speed/percentage", "percentage_value_template": "{{ value_json.percentage }}", "preset_mode_state_topic": "comfospot40_zone1_fan/state", "preset_mode_command_topic": "comfospot40_zone1_fan/preset/set", "preset_mode_value_template": "{{ value_json.preset }}", "preset_modes": ["low", "mid", "high", "max", "custom"], "qos": 0, "payload_on": "true", "payload_off": "false", "payload_oscillation_on": "true", "payload_oscillation_off": "false", "unique_id": "comfospot40_zone1_fan"}'
2025-02-03 09:48:17.613 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.mqtt.discovery] Process component discovery payload {'state_topic': 'comfospot40_zone1_fan/state', 'command_topic': 'comfospot40_zone1_fan/on/set', 'state_value_template': '{{ value_json.state }}', 'direction_state_topic': 'comfospot40_zone1_fan/state', 'direction_command_topic': 'comfospot40_zone1_fan/direction/set', 'direction_value_template': '{{ value_json.direction }}', 'oscillation_state_topic': 'comfospot40_zone1_fan/state', 'oscillation_command_topic': 'comfospot40_zone1_fan/oscillation/set', 'oscillation_value_template': '{{ value_json.oscillation }}', 'percentage_state_topic': 'comfospot40_zone1_fan/state', 'percentage_command_topic': 'comfospot40_zone1_fan/speed/percentage', 'percentage_value_template': '{{ value_json.percentage }}', 'preset_mode_state_topic': 'comfospot40_zone1_fan/state', 'preset_mode_command_topic': 'comfospot40_zone1_fan/preset/set', 'preset_mode_value_template': '{{ value_json.preset }}', 'preset_modes': ['low', 'mid', 'high', 'max', 'custom'], 'qos': 0, 'payload_on': 'true', 'payload_off': 'false', 'payload_oscillation_on': 'true', 'payload_oscillation_off': 'false', 'unique_id': 'comfospot40_zone1_fan', 'name': 'Comfospot40 Zone 1 Fan'}
2025-02-03 09:48:17.613 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.mqtt.discovery] Found new component: fan comfospot40_zone1_fan
2025-02-03 09:48:17.617 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling <Event state_changed[L]: entity_id=fan.comfospot40_zone_1_fan, old_state=None, new_state=<state fan.comfospot40_zone_1_fan=unknown; preset_modes=['low', 'mid', 'high', 'max', 'custom'], direction=None, oscillating=False, percentage=None, percentage_step=1.0, preset_mode=None, friendly_name=Comfospot40 Zone 1 Fan, supported_features=63 @ 2025-02-03T09:48:17.617097+01:00>>
2025-02-03 09:48:17.621 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.mqtt.discovery] Pending discovery for ('fan', 'comfospot40_zone1_fan'): deque([])

However, I saw in another issue that this last line is holding homeassistant back from publishing the discovered device: [homeassistant.components.mqtt.discovery] Pending discovery for ('fan', 'comfospot40_zone1_fan'): deque([])

Edit: Nevermind. The fans are not shown as MQTT devices, but the entities are published correctly in the entity view. Looks like all features are working! 🎉 Thank you so much for creating this. The fans were literally the last dumb (non-homeassistant-controllable) parts of our home.

[Phi2k]

Nice to know that there is another running installation :-). I feedback for others: the current version of the code is now running for more than 6 months without any issues. Issues with the MQTT server sometimes require a restart of the server. This never happened without a reason like playing around with the MQTT config if IOBroker.
For me it was also the last "dump" system which got smart.