Hey everyone, I’m new to Home Assistant and I’ve been trying to set up some custom sensors using TCP and UDP. I have a few devices that communicate over these protocols, like my alarm system which sends UDP messages when a window is opened or an alarm is triggered. I also need to send commands back to the alarm system, like arming it or excluding certain windows from monitoring.
At first, I thought this would be straightforward, but I couldn’t find a built-in integration in Home Assistant that supports TCP/UDP communication. I tried using the command_line platform with netcat, but it didn’t work as expected. The messages kept getting sent repeatedly, and I couldn’t figure out how to dynamically change the message content.
I remember reading about Node-RED in the community, so I decided to give it a try. Node-RED has excellent support for TCP and UDP, and it was surprisingly easy to set up listeners and senders. I created a flow that listens for incoming UDP messages from my alarm system and sends them to Home Assistant as sensor updates. On the other side, I set up another flow that accepts commands from Home Assistant and sends them back to the alarm system via UDP.
This setup has worked like a charm! Now, I can monitor my alarm system’s status in the Home Assistant dashboard and control it using automations. I’m really impressed with how flexible Node-RED is and how well it integrates with Home Assistant. If you’re looking to add custom sensors or control systems using TCP/UDP, I highly recommend exploring Node-RED. It’s a powerful tool that can help you achieve even the most exotic automation ideas.
If anyone has questions about setting up TCP/UDP sensors or Node-RED flows, feel free to reach out! I’d be happy to share more details or help troubleshoot any issues you might encounter. Happy automating! 