Automatic device discovery in MQTT?

Configuration
1

Good evening, Hello,

I’m continuing my exploration of Gladys after connecting my external broker, but to my surprise no MQTT device is showing up. Is there no automatic discovery?

I did get devices reported when using the internet broker and Zigbee2MQTT internally as well.

2

The MQTT and Zigbee2mqtt integrations are two different integrations, and for now the Zigbee2mqtt integration does not support external brokers.

There had been an initial development on the topic by @AlexTrovato but for lack of demand / and time, it was put aside for now.

3

After that, I never really paid attention, but is it the ‹ Z2mqtt instance › that does the discovery towards Gladys? and not MQTT?

4

MQTT is just a communication protocol; essentially, it’s an exchange of messages between Zigbee2mqtt and Gladys :slight_smile:

5

Ok thanks, I had never looked into this topic.

So it’s not easy to test Gladys with an external broker because you have to create all the sensors one by one.

Thanks for your reply, I’ll close the thread.

6

If you’re talking about the Zigbee2mqtt integration, indeed that’s not possible at the moment.

The Zigbee2mqtt integration was designed for users who are getting started with Gladys and so we intentionally hid all of Zigbee2mqtt’s complexity (starting the container, configuration, etc…).

For the user, you just have to select the USB port to which the dongle is connected and voilà Gladys does the rest :slight_smile: We don’t require any command lines, nothing, it’s all clicks.

(If you want to see what it looks like, at 4:52: https://youtu.be/ALW3uDB9P0s?si=IJaTtedE5TSQHeNI\u0026t=292 )

For the MQTT integration in Gladys, it’s an integration that allows you to create « virtual » devices in Gladys to control them from outside Gladys via MQTT (via Node-RED for example, via an ESP, etc..).

7

Yes yes, thanks for these explanations. I thought discovery was done via MQTT and not via Z2mqtt, hence my surprise when it didn’t discover my devices.

I can confirm that installing z2m or mqtt is very simple and well suited to the average user.

The only thing that bothers me, but it’s also because I have a particular configuration (not that of the average user), is that I thought I could test with my broker and therefore quickly add all my sensors.

So I’ll have to test with a second dongle and new sensors.

@pierre-gilles Couldn’t Mosquitto automatically report what it finds? Is that technically possible? Or not at all?

8

We started development in that direction (being able to use the Zigbee2mqtt service with an external broker), but there were few requests afterwards and quite a few other « hot » topics, so it was deprioritized :slight_smile

9

Yes, I had seen about externalizing z2mqtt.

But weren’t you talking about doing autodiscovery from Mosquitto?

10

Good evening,

I’m also interested in this feature :wink:
I’m currently on HAOS and would like to be able to simply test Gladys with autodiscovery via my external MQTT and my external z2m :wink:

Thanks

1 Like
11

Yes that’s what we plan to do :slight_smile:

Can you create a feature request? Or check if there isn’t already a request and vote for it?

That will help gauge the demand and prioritize it.

13

It’s created :slight_smile:

1 Like
14

Thanks!

Sorry I wasn’t clear, the name of the feature is “ability to use Zigbee2mqtt with an external broker”

Can you rename it? :slight_smile:

15

It’s done :wink:

16

I think we misunderstood each other.

Being able to connect Gladys’s z2mqtt to an external broker is not going to be very much in demand. If we have an external broker, there’s a good chance the rest will be external as well.

Being able to connect an external z2mqtt to Gladys is probably more interesting.

But the ideal would be for Mosquitto to perform (or offer) automatic discovery of devices. I think that’s what

17

We misunderstood each other, that’s exactly what I’m proposing! :slight_smile:

18

Indeed, that’s how I understood it, but the title of the topic isn’t very clear, I think :wink:
I’ll modify it accordingly

19

Yes, the title is connecting a Gladys Z2mqtt to an external broker.

But I’m returning to my original message — wouldn’t it be more advantageous to perform auto-discovery from Mosquitto? When Mosquitto has a new device, does it add it or offer it to Gladys?

20

What do you mean by “when Mosquitto has a new device”?

Mosquitto is an MQTT broker… MQTT is just a protocol like HTTP :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

You have to code the application

1 Like
21

When I connect a device to the Mosquitto broker, it could be automatically discovered in Gladys instead of having to create it. Is that clearer? :zany_face: