send boolean value to node issue

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Hi all,

I earlier introduced my Display Node to present data from other nodes in.

Now I run into the issue where a boolean value sent to this node by using a Pimatic rule not seems te be evaluated as a boolean.

The rule I use where ‘$weerstation.Regen’ is a boolean value

{
 "id": "zend-weerstation-regen-naar-display",
 "name": "Zend weerstation regen naar display",
 "rule": "when $weerstation.Regen gets updated then send custom \"V_VAR1\" nodeid: \"100\" sensorid: \"5\" cmdcode: \"$weerstation.Regen\"",
 "active": true,
 "logging": true
}

On the serial monitor of the Display node I see the data being received, where ‘rain’ in the second line is a debug message for me to see the sensor is evaluated by the Display node and ‘0’ in the third line is the evaluated value (tried both message.GetUInt() and message.GetBool():

11956 TSF:MSG:SEND,100-100-0-0,s=5,c=1,t=24,pt=0,l=4,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:true
rain
0

So the value ‘true’ is evaluated as 0 and also in a test case where a ‘false’ was sent the evaluated value was ‘0’.

Below the code in the ‘receive’ function, where case 5 is for evaluating the boolean Rain value:

void receive(const MyMessage &message)
{
  
  // Explore message
  switch (message.sensor)
  {
    case 0:  // Humidity sensor
    {
      recHumidity = message.getFloat();
      break;
    }
    case 1:  // Temperature sensor
    {   
      recTemperature = message.getFloat();
      break;
    }
    case 2:  // Light sensor
    {
      recLight = message.getUInt();
      break;
    }
    case 3:  // Barometer sensor
    {   
      recPressure = message.getFloat();
      break;
    }
    case 4:  // Barometer Temperature sensor
    {
      break;
    }
    case 5:  // Rain sensor
    {
      //recRain = message.getBool();
      recRain = message.getUInt();
      Serial.println("rain"); 
      Serial.println(recRain); 
      break;
    }
    case 6:  // Battery
    {
      recBattery = message.getUInt();
      break;
    }
  }
}

I guess the sent ‘true’ message by the rule is not recognized as boolean. Of course I defined ‘recRain’ as bool or int in relevant cases.

What am I doing wrong?

Can you switch on debug on the node to see what is actually coming in?

Or try

recRain = atol(message.data);

@rikki78, I tried your suggestion with the same result.

Debug on the node is on and this is what is coming in regarding the boolean variable:

TSF:MSG:SEND,100-100-0-0,s=5,c=1,t=24,pt=0,l=4,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:true

Somehow the ‘true’ value isn’t recognized as a boolean, nor as a string I guess.

The debug output is what is sent from the node, not what is received, isn’t it? Or do I misunderstand?
See here

To verify it has to do with the boolean type, could you send (manually) a 1/0 to the display?

Like

when $testVar gets updated then send custom \"V_VAR1\" nodeid: \"100\" sensorid: \"5\" cmdcode: "$testVar"

I solved it in a different way now since ‘true’ and ‘false’ sent by the Pimatic rule are not recognized by the MySensors Display Node Receive function as boolean.

In Pimatic I defined a variable ‘$weerstation-regen-value’ with the purpose to convert true and false value of the weather station sensor variable ‘$weerstation.Regen’ to 1 and 0 by rules:

    {
      "id": "convert-weerstation-regen",
      "name": "Convert Weerstation Regen",
      "rule": "when Regen of weerstation is equal to ja then set $weerstation-regen-value to 1",
      "active": true,
      "logging": true
    },
    {
      "id": "convert-weerstation-geen-regen",
      "name": "Convert Weerstation Geen Regen",
      "rule": "when Regen of weerstation is equal to nee then set $weerstation-regen-value to 0",
      "active": true,
      "logging": true
    }

I now sent ‘$weerstation-regen-value’ to the Display Node and al seems to work fine now.

    {
      "id": "zend-weerstation-regen-naar-display",
      "name": "Zend weerstation regen naar display",
      "rule": "when $weerstation-regen-value gets updated then send custom \"V_VAR1\" nodeid: \"100\" sensorid: \"5\" cmdcode: \"$weerstation-regen-value\"",
      "active": true,
      "logging": true
    },

Question: I now used two rules to convert ‘true’ and ‘false’ (boolean label ‘ja’ and ‘nee’ in my case) to ‘1’ and ‘0’ in the new variable. With an ‘ELSE’ option I would be able to do this in one rule. Is there an option like that?

No there is no Else statement. But perhaps with an expression it can be done in one rule. I can’t help you, but perhaps @mwittig can

Now I updated Pimatic from 0.9.38 to 0.9.39 and my rules don’t work anymore:

 {
      "id": "convert-weerstation-regen",
      "name": "Convert Weerstation Regen",
      "rule": "when Regen of weerstation is equal to ja then set $weerstation-regen-value to 1",
      "active": true,
      "logging": true
    },
    {
      "id": "convert-weerstation-geen-regen",
      "name": "Convert Weerstation Geen Regen",
      "rule": "when Regen of weerstation is equal to nee then set $weerstation-regen-value to 0",
      "active": true,
      "logging": true
    }

Error:

error [pimatic]: Could not parse rule "when Regen of weerstation is equal to nee then set $weerstation-regen-value to 0": Could not find an provider that decides next predicate of "Regen of weerstation is equal to nee".
20:00:49
error [pimatic]: Could not parse rule "when Regen of weerstation is equal to ja then set $weerstation-regen-value to 1": Could not find an provider that decides next predicate of "Regen of weerstation is equal to ja".
20:00:44

Wat has changed in the parser?
The boolean labels ‘ja’ and ‘nee’ as presentation for ‘true’ and ‘false’ I use in the sensor definition of the weather station don’t seem valid anymore.

But more important: how to resolve this?
Is there a tutoral on how to build rules?