MQTT - WHAT IS IT?
A protocol for the smart home! Many devices support or use this protocol to exchange data. It is based on a central broker that manages and forwards all messages. The concept consists of publish and subscribe. This means that different devices publish information under a topic and any number of recipients can "subscribe" to it and thus receive it. Our VAN PI image has a Mosquitto MQTT broker pre-installed. This means you can start straight away and integrate your devices.
The setup in our system
Activation and firmware
To activate the WifiRelays, first go to the web interface and call up the configuration. There you have to activate the Wifi relays in the "Wifi" section. Then you can change the displayed names of the relays in the "Wifi Relay Name" section. Below the name fields there is a button "Set Wrelay Firmware". If you click on this, a view opens in which the firmware (Tasmota or Shelly) for the respective relay can be selected. Tasmota is selected by default.
Configuration Tasmota
Tasmota is a free firmware for a wide range of devices based on the well-known ESP8266/ESP32 platform. A comprehensive tool for anyone who wants their home network to be secure and local. More info
In the configuration of your Tasmota switch, set <RPI-IP>:1883 as the host in the MQTT settings. No password or user name is required. The topic is then the respective relay that you want to switch (wrelay1 to wrelay8). Pay attention to upper and lower case. "pkw/%prefix%/%topic%" is entered as the full topic. This allows your Tasmota switches to be switched from the system.
Configuration Shelly
In the interface of the Shelly switch (i.e. under the IP of the Shelly, not in the Shelly app), MQTT is activated under "Internet & Security" and "Advanced - Developer Settings". Similar to Tasmota, the server is entered here as <RPI-IP>:1883. We also activate "Use custom MQTT prefix" and enter the corresponding relay (shellyRelay1 to shellyRelay8). Again, the case is important! No username/password is required here either.
Please note that the Shellies cloud function can no longer be used once MQTT has been activated.
