I’ve been playing with the idea of using IP-Symcon as a universal gateway to Home Assistant. While I like the tree interface of IP-Symcon many devices in my home aren’t supported in IP-Symcon, but (most of them) are supported in Home Assistant. I’m not good enough at PHP or scripting in general, or have the time, to learn PHP and add the unsupported devices in IP-Symcon. (Nor can I ask community members to do it for me )
IP-Symcon is mainly used for EnOcean (Eltako) devices like light switches and dimmers. EnOcean support in Home Assistant is virtually non-existent. It would be great if I could combine the best of both worlds. In my setup it would be easiest if all the devices created in IP-Symcon would „automagically“ appear in Home Assistant. That’s maybe too far of a stretch, but is it possible to configure IP-Symcon in such a way that it publishes all devices/variables using MQTT to Home Assistant, and change variables/status in Home Assistant using MQTT? Has anyone tried this and is willing to give a (detailed) description how to configure MQTT in IP-Symcon and Home Assistant?
Which devices are you using that are not supported?
In general, while IPS can really do a lot, it would not provide for being a universal gateway forwarding all devices. In a way HA and IPS „compete“ or better do similar things, with different approaches.
Well, anything not related to lighting. Yamaha MusicCast, Roon, Google Nest/Home, Android (with Google TV) Streaming Boxes, UniFi Protect, HP Printer, LG TV, Yamaha Receiver, Energy monitor, Water monitor, Solar Panels.
HomeMatic has been integrated in IPS, it would be great if IPS could be integrated in HA. I don’t think there is a module or integration available for that, but I assume it should be doable with MQTT.
I made some progress, I’m able to change the status and intensity of light switches and dimmers in IPS from HA using MQTT. I created a MQTT Server and two MQTT Server devices in IPS for the status and/or intensity variable of light switches/dimmers (one for symcon, one for home assistant) and used flow scripts to trigger the change of the status and/or intensity.
I managed to get this working by creating two MQTT Server Devices in Symcon (command/state) for every variable of every EnOcean device (light, cover, switch, sensor) configured in Symcon. For every MQTT Server Device I created a Flow Script that updates the state (MQTT State) or triggers an action (MQTT Command). Home Assistant subscribes to the MQTT topics published in Symcon.
I’m not sure this is the best way to do this, but it works.