neilk wrote:would it not be possible to just bypass the HA part completely and subscribe to the MQTT topic directly in Indigo ?l
There is/was a node red indigo .... node. I know it hadn't been updated in a while, but talking to node red via MQTT should be very doable. I also scrapped my node red project (I think.... it might still be running in the background on a project computer somewhere in my office.... but I stopped using it.)
For me, Node Red was a stop gap for automating things that I couldn't get working in indigo. Mainly amazon alexa integration and CCTV integration. Indigo's link to alexa has greatly improved since then and way more stable than my memory of it on Node Red. I've switched my NVR from Amcrest to Blue Iris which has a direct indigo plugin..... so I really didn't have a use for it anymore.
I still have another rPi running Bullseye?.... with Mosquitto and owntracks recorder in the background.... plenty of room to add in a node-red server.
While it (the smart meter HA Add-on) was running, It was only updating me every hour. From the smart meter web documentation, it should be able to get a read every 15 minutes and should be able to pull history in 15 minute increments. (The add on didn't pull in history) I don't remember if you can do on command meter reads or not. I'm not sure if that was an issue with the smart meter server, with HA or with the internet (we were in the middle of a cold snap and internet has been wonky all week).
For better automating, I would want data as close to 'now' as possible. Since I am finally figuring out MQTT, I may look at the shelly energy meter for the whole house (around $50USD). Then flying diver's plugins will carry it the rest of the way home for instant knowledge of electric use without a 3rd party device (HA), without an internet API link, etc.