Expire Binding: OpenHAB Reports Offline Nodes

[papa]

        This Thread Updated April 21, 2020

                for OpenHAB 2.5.x

I wanted a way for OpenHAB to report any node (ESP8266 or not) offline.  From the computourist Gateway & End Node sketches, I tried using ACK & Device 90 (radio error), but was not successful.

Then I came across the expire binding, that was announced Nov 2016.  It's currently in a 1.14 version, but so far can still be used by both OpenHAB 2.5.x.

1) Install the Expire Binding

        Go to PaperUI/Add-ons/Bindings & install Expire Binding. (This will help us know if a device is offline.)

What if you don't see the Expire Binding to install it?  When we first installed openHAB, it asked what package we wanted: Simple or Standard or Expert. We need to be in either Standard or Expert to see the 1.x bindings.  To fix this I believe you can edit \conf\services\addons.cfg.  Find the line that includes "#package = "  & change it to "package = standard" or "package = expert" (no "#" to begin & disable the setting). Save the edited file & perhaps restart openHAB.

Continues Below:  Use Expire Binding to Report Offline Nodes

[papa]

        Continued: Use Expire Binding to Report Offline Nodes

                Updated April 28, 2020 for OpenHAB 2.5.x

2) Edit the OpenHAB config files to take advantage of the Expire Binding. Below, "Before" indicates before the expire binding & "After" ...

The following assumes the creation of related Things, Channels, & linking the channels to the related items.

        .items file
    Before:

String Node12UpTime "Gardn_12_Up [%s mins]" <network> (Nodes) { channel="mqtt:embedded-mqtt-broker:topic:mything:Node12Channel00" }

String Node2Rssi "LR_02_RSSI (db) [%s]" <network> (Nodes)

    After (change in blue text:

String Node12UpTime "Gardn_12_Up [%s mins]" <network> (Nodes) { channel="mqtt:embedded-mqtt-broker:topic:mything:Node12Channel00", expire="3m,Offline?" }

papa:  All the expire binding declaration needs is a time to allow a non-changing item state (e.g. 3 minutes) & then what will replace the stale state (e.g. Offline?).  The time can include hours, minutes, & seconds.  See the documentation links below.

    .sitemap file
Before: Text item=Node12UpTime
After: No change

    .rules file
No new rules needed

    Continues Below:  Getting Results with the Expire Binding

[papa]

        Continued: Getting Results with the Expire Binding

                Updated April 21, 2020

    As above, I installed the Expire Binding & edited only the .items file.

With typical computourist Gateway & End Node (12) running, I got the following results.

       
        ^^ User Interface results with End Node connected to power.  (OpenHAB reports Node 12's Uptime.)

          
                ^^ User Interface results with End Node disconnected from power for greater than 3 minutes.  A disconnected node no longer reports Uptime & that state grows stale.  After 3 minutes (changeable),  OpenHAB UI reports Node 12 may be offline.  When the node is re-powered, OpenHAB quickly reports Uptime.

See this thread: one might have OpenHAB send an email or a notice about the possibly offline node.

    Continues Below: Documentation for the Expire Binding

[papa]

        Continued: Documentation for the Expire Binding

Besides reporting possibly offline nodes, the Expire Binding can serve other functions.

    See the following documentation.

Announcement & discussion of the Expire Binding

The Expire Binding Wiki

The Expire Binding Read Me  << Updated, April 22, 2020

        How will you use the Expire Binding?

[greginkansas]

This looks cleaner than the way I have been doing this. Good find Papa

[papa]

Thanks, greg. How will you use the Expire Binding?

[greginkansas]

I had a rule for every node like this

rule "is node4 transmiting in the last 10 Minutes"
when
Item node2UPtime changed
then if (node4UPtime.changedSince(now.minusMinutes(10))) {
postUpdate (node4_is_it_on,"ON")
}
else {
postUpdate (node4_is_it_on,"OFF")
}
end

So it looks like I can add 1 item per node and get rid of the rules
also keep track of the time of last contact

rule "node 28 Changed"
when
Item node28UPtime received update
then
postUpdate(node28updatetime, new DateTimeType())
end

[agecrabahaykubo]

I had mine using MAP which I got from OH forum

.sitemap file
Group item=LivingRoom label="Living Room" icon="room"
{
Text item=wemostemp2 label="Temperature" valuecolor=[>22="red",<=22="blue"]
Text item=wemoshumidity2 label="Humidity" valuecolor=[<=29="red",>=30="green"]
Text item=echoDot label="Amazon Echo Dot" valuecolor=[ON="green", OFF="red"] icon="echodot"
Text item=AgecraTV label="Samsung TV" valuecolor=[ON="green", OFF="red"] icon="tv"
Text item=Node02_PIR label="Motion Sensor" valuecolor=["red"]
Switch item=livingroom label="Living Room Light" icon="lightbulb"
Switch item=Lamp1 label="Living Room Lamp" icon="lightbulb"
}


.items file
Group Living_Room (Room)
Number wemostemp2 "Temperature [%.1f °C]" <temperature2> ["CurrentTemperature"] {mqtt="<[mosquitto:home/rfm_gw/nb/node02/dev48:state:default]"}
Number wemoshumidity2 "Humidity [%.1f]" <comfort_level> ["CurrentHumidity"] {mqtt="<[mosquitto:home/rfm_gw/nb/node02/dev49:state:default]"}
Switch AgecraTV "Samsung Smart TV [MAP(device_status.map):%s]" <tv> {channel="network:pingdevice:192_168_xx_xx:online"}
Switch echoDot "Amazon Echo Dot [MAP(device_status.map):%s]" <echodot> {channel="network:pingdevice:651ac123:online", mqtt="<[mosquitto:/home/livingroom/echo/state:state:MAP(onoff2.map)], >[mosquitto:/home/livingroom/echo/switch:command:default],>[mosquitto:/home/livingroom/echo/switch:state:*:default]"}

Switch livingroom "Living Room Light" <lightbulb> ["Lighting"] {channel="zwave:device:123e7d6a:node2:switch_binary", mqtt="<[mosquitto:/home/livingroom/zwave/switch/state:state:MAP(onoff2.map)], >[mosquitto:/home/livingroom/zwave/switch:command:default],>[mosquitto:/home/livingroom/zwave/switch:state:*:default]"}

Switch Lamp1 "Switch 1" <lightbulb> ["Lighting"] {mqtt="<[mosquitto:/home/livingroom/nodemcu/light/state:state:MAP(onoff.map)],>[mosquitto:/home/livingroom/nodemcu/light/com:command:ON:1],>[mosquitto:/home/livingroom/nodemcu/light/com:command:OFF:0]"}

.map file
ON=ONLINE
OFF=OFFLINE
-=Unknown

[papa]

Yes, agecrabahaykubo, network devices are pingable & I use code similar to yours for indicating that such devices are online or offline.

I was not successful with the last will feature of ESP8266 devices & did not find something similar for RFM69 devices.

Adding the Expire Binding to RSSI (Radio Signals) gave me a fairly short & reliable way of telling if RFM69 or ESP82xx WiFi devices were online

Thanks for giving some examples of using the Network Binding & Things

[greginkansas]

I like to have the offline nodes on a switch, so I can have a page that only shows offline nodes
This line does this. Device 10 is for the IP but here just sets the switch to ON.

Switch node70_is_it_on (network, Node70){ mqtt="<[mosquitto:home/esp_gw/nb/node70/dev10:command:ON::]", expire="5m,command=OFF" }

papa:  Thanks, Greg, for another example of using the expire binding.  I see you are using Mosquitto as your MQTT message service.  I've switched to openHAB's embedded MQTT broker

[papa]

        Above, see how this thread was updated April, 2020