Hey everyone, I’ve been exploring how to better monitor my Zigbee devices using zigbee2mqtt. One thing I’ve noticed is the availability feature, which checks if devices are online or offline. This is super useful for troubleshooting, but I wanted to take it a step further by creating a dashboard card that shows all offline devices at a glance.
I stumbled upon the availability feature in zigbee2mqtt, which publishes the state of each device to zigbee2mqtt/[FRIENDLY_NAME]/availability. The payload is either online or offline. To visualize this, I decided to create a card that aggregates all offline devices.
Here’s how I approached it:
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Identify the MQTT Topics: First, I needed to list all the devices and their corresponding availability topics. This was a bit time-consuming, but it gave me a clear overview of my network.
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Create a Custom Card: I used the
apexcharts-cardfrom HACS to display the offline devices. The chart dynamically updates as devices come online or go offline. -
Set Up Alerts: I also set up notifications using Home Assistant’s automation feature. Now, I get a notification whenever a device goes offline, which helps me address issues quickly.
This setup has been a game-changer for me. It not only helps me monitor my devices but also ensures that I can troubleshoot issues before they become major problems. If anyone has tips on improving this further, I’d love to hear them! 