Some problems with Shelly Dimmer configuration with new installation on raspi4

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Re: MQTT JSON message.

Hello to all,

since yesterday I installed a new instance of pimatic. In the past my pimatic run on a raspberry 3 with old node.js and old version 0.9.48.
As i said, now its running on a raspi4 with version 0.8.54, node.js 10.20.0 and Openssl version 1.1.1e.
After installation I copied my old config.json to the new system and started. Like a miracle, it seemed to work.

As i looked into the pimatic-daemon.log I saw the following mssages, everytime the mqtt information from my shelly dimmer was send:
[pimatic-mqtt] error: value: NaN is out of range
the configuration (which works very well on the older system) looks like these:

{
“brokerId”: “myBroker”,
“topic”: “shellies/shellydimmer-Raimond/light/0/set”,
“resolution”: 101,
“message”: “{“turn”: “on”, “brightness”: value}”,
“stateTopic”: “shellies/shellydimmer-Raimond/light/0”,
“id”: “shellydimmer-Raimond”,
“name”: “Raimond”,
“class”: “MqttDimmer”
},

In the forum I found an older discussion with a similar problem, but that solved the problem by just a reboot. And, of course, i tried these also. But the error is still there.
Is there any idea where is the fault in the configuration?
There is also a second shellydimmer, excact the same problem.

Hope someone has some helpfull hints about these.
Untill now I only tested some mqtt devices (dimmer switches, sensors etc) and all other of them worked very succesfull in the new enviroment. And next days i am going on to switch over the homeduino devices. But I think, this will work without any complications.

best regards
Manfred

The error message is about receive a string when a number is expected.

In the “message” config the escape chars are missing it should be .
In the config of the device via the gui you enter in the message field

{"turn": "on", "brightness": value}

But if you copy the config info it should look like

 "message": "{\"turn\": \"on\", \"brightness\": value}",

and you could add

 "stateValueKey": "brightness",

Thanks for your fast response. But this seemed not to be the solution.

The line for the message was exact the same that you wrote. Now I added the line
"stateValueKey": “brightness”,
but nothing changed. Everytime when the shellydimmer a message sends I will get the error:
10:56:11.062 [pimatic-mqtt] error: value: NaN is out of range
10:56:41.080 [pimatic-mqtt] error: value: NaN is out of range
10:57:11.086 [pimatic-mqtt] error: value: NaN is out of range
10:57:41.101 [pimatic-mqtt] error: value: NaN is out of range
10:58:11.115 [pimatic-mqtt] error: value: NaN is out of range
10:58:41.129 [pimatic-mqtt] error: value: NaN is out of range
10:59:11.142 [pimatic-mqtt] error: value: NaN is out of range
10:59:41.155 [pimatic-mqtt] error: value: NaN is out of range

Any additional idea?

Thanks a lot
Manfred

As I could see now, the escape chars disappeared during the translation from my editor to the forum. How do I have to copy parts of my config.json to the forum?

Sorry, but it is a long time ago that I used the forum and actual i do not find the way.

regards
Manfred

Hi, just to be sure.
In the gui device config you type in the stateValueKey field just the word brightness
No quotes or double quotes

So that was with the shelly dimmer.
For me it was just restarting the pimatic.

After that, the mistake never came back.

System: Raspberry 4 with Ubuntu 18 Node 10

Right, just the words and no quotes as you wrote.
I Would like to copy this to this thread, but I have no idea, how is the right way to copy it exact as it is in the config.json.
@ heiko1988: I saw this thread and in the first moment I’am glad about this. But – no change after restart.

Sorry, in my first message i wrote pimatic version is 0.8.54. This is wrong. It is 0.9.54.
Sorry about this.

But I’am going on, perhaps we will find a reason (and then a solution)

regards
Manfred

Ok.

Try the resolution to 100 or 99.

And test it again

Update my dimmer setup:

brokerId:default
topic:shellies/shellydimmer-xxxx/light/0/set
message:{“turn”: “on”, “brightness”: value}
echo{1}
id:dimmer-licht-wohnzimmer
name:Licht Wohnzimmer Dimmer
class:MqttDimmer
stateTopic:shellies/shellydimmer-xxxx/light/0/state
resolution:101

@manfred said in Some problems with Shelly Dimmer configuration with new installation on raspi4:

Right, just the words and no quotes as you wrote.
I Would like to copy this to this thread, but I have no idea, how is the right way to copy it exact as it is in the config.json.
@ heiko1988: I saw this thread and in the first moment I’am glad about this. But – no change after restart.

Sorry, in my first message i wrote pimatic version is 0.8.54. This is wrong. It is 0.9.54.
Sorry about this.

But I’am going on, perhaps we will find a reason (and then a solution)

regards
Manfred

Hi, you can copy code to the forum by putting the code between ``` and ```

This is a line between ```

And showing the ``` in normal lines is done by putting a backslash (=escape character) in front of it: \```

Testing the mqtt behaviour can also be done via a MQTT tool like MQTT.fx.
You connect to your broker, send the commands you’re shelly is using and play with formats to find where the problem is.

Hello again,

I just found time again to test everything you mentioned.
So I changed the resolution to 100 and also to 99.
Still the same.
What about your config? in one line I find:

echo{1}

without any escape chars. etc. This will result in my system in a failure. I think there is also a problem with the editor. What exact has to be in this line?

With the MQTTfx I had tried by myself already to find any problem. But there is (with my knowledge) nothing to find which may be wrong.
Actual I have no further idea.

Nevertheless I thank you for your support.

regards Manfred

Hi, what type of Shelly are you using?

The Dimmer is named: ShellyDimmer"
Smart Wifi LED Dimmer.

That’s all on information on the description.

This one ?

Yes, this one.

This dimmer is controlled via web interface or mqtt.
Do you need to get info from the dimmer? If not you can leave the state topic field blank and the error should not come back.

The dimmer in my config is controlled via mqtt.
Will I get the dimmer % in my visualization when I leave the state topic blanc ?
I do not need any other information from the dimmer.
If not, it is not the way that I would like to go.

regards
Manfred

The dimmer value is already available via the slider.
If you check <dimmer-device-name>.dimlevel you see the dimlevel/brightness value of your dimmer.

If you still want to use the StateTopic and that feedback info from the dimmer, i need to debug the problem with a real shelly dimmer.

Of course, I would like to see the information in my GUI.
Actual I own 2 dimmer from shelly and both a fix installed in my house. So I actual I can’t give a test-dimmer to you.
Perhaps in a few days, I’m waiting for some parts from allterco robotics. In the meantime I will disable the stat topic.
Thanks again for your support. When I’m able to give you new information I will give it to you.