Meross Plug in --> Any developers interested?

[dbwarner5]

I have a second home where I use Samsung smarthings hub with meross switches and bulbs. 

For the 2nd or 3d time, my Smartthings has lost all the devices in my 30+ routines, making them unusable until I recreate them.

Annoying to say the least..

I would like to switch over to an Eisy at this location, but I need a Meross Plug in. 

Is there any developers out there that would like to work on this? Feel free to DM me. 

Thanks!

[bpwwer]

Looks like there's a python library available -- https://github.com/albertogeniola/MerossIot so creating a PG3x plug-in should be possible without too much trouble.

It would be a fair amount of work since it would have to support a few different device types.  I'm estimating a week or two to get something usable.  The biggest question is how much of a demand is there.  

They do have quite a variety of device types so getting them all supported by a plug-in would be quite a lot of work. At least they don't see all that expensive.

It also looks like they are able to work with Matter so assuming the devices you have work with Matter, it may make more sense to just wait for UDI to get Matter support working and supporting them.

[dbwarner5]

I would say about half of my devices work with matter. 

Yes they have quite a few devices..if this is something of interest to you to pursue, I would be happy to send you a few devices: dimmer, plug, bulb, on/off switch.

Let me know. 

[bpwwer]

I ordered a couple of devices and started on a plug-in for it.   They seem to have a lot of different devices so I'm not sure how many of those can be supported.  Basic switch/plug are pretty easy but the garage door kits and various thermostats are a bit more effort.  

[bpwwer]

I finally got the devices that I ordered.  I didn't realize they were going to be shipped directly from China.  I got a pair of smart plugs MSS115 and a door/window sensor + hub. 

So far, I'm very not impressed with these devices.  I've managed to get the door/window sensor and hub added to the app, but no matter what I try, I can't get the smart plugs to add.  They always fail to add.

To get as far as I have, I've had to turn off my 5G wireless network and some of the steps in their troubleshooting info seems crazy.

I have been working a bit on a plug-in, but that's having about as much success as getting the devices added.  Although I have learned that there are multiple ways to communicate with the devices.

1) Using the Meross MQTT servers.  With this, commands are sent to the server, and status responses are returned via the server.  This does seem to require that the devices be added to the Meross app.

2) Create a local MQTT server (Polisy/eisy can do this) and point the devices at it instead of the Meross servers.  I suspect that once you do this, you lose access to the devices via the app. I believe this is what the integration for HomeAssistant does.

3) Use direct http commands and polling to the devices locally.  I've seen some references to doing this, but haven't found any good docs/info on how.   I think this is the direction I want to go with the plug-in since it doesn't require any specific configuration of the devices and doesn't seem like it would interfere with any other app controlling the devices.  

[dbwarner5]

Interesting on your double adding the devices.. I have not had any problem with plugs, switches, and bulbs.. I seem to remember though if they are Apple HomeKit version, than you need to add it via home kit app.

[bpwwer]

I don't use HomeKit but the hub for the door/window sensor needed to be added that way.  When I tried to add the plugs, it said it needed a AppleTV or something but I don't have that set up either.  I finally got the plugs added.  I had to hold the on/off button for something like 30 seconds and then it worked.  Every other attempt, even though the lights were flashing in the manner it said was waiting to add, failed. 

I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'm having pretty major issues with the hub.  When I query it via the local http interface, the response time varies from about 1 second to 40+ seconds to no response it all.  When I connect to the Meross MQTT server, it still takes a couple of seconds to send out messages related to the door/window sensor state and the hub seems to loose it's connection frequently resulting in missed state changes.

I haven't played around with the plugs enough yet to know if they're having the same issues.

It may be the wifi in the hub just isn't very good.  While nothing else in the room has had any issues with my wifi, the hub is reporting fairly low signal strength. 

I still want to experiment with switching to devices over to using a local MQTT server and see if that helps. It seems like all the other HA systems (HomeAssistant, OpenHAB, etc.) are doing that with these devices.

I have made some progress with the plug-in, it is monitoring the state of the plugs and the door/window sensor.

[dbwarner5]

When you say hub, what are you referring to? 

Meross doesn't have a hub as far as I know.

I do not use a hub for meross directly, but they are part of my Smartthings hub. 

For apple HomeKit, all you need is the app on your phone. No other apple hardware should be needed. 

thanks.

[bpwwer]

My hub is a msh300hk, it came with the ms200 door/window sensor.  My understanding is that the various sensors (door/window, leak, smoke, temp/humidity) need to pair with a hub to work.  The plugs/switches are all standalone devices.

I've made a bit of progress and I believe I understand better how they work, but I'm still not able to get some of the important parts of the API to work.

If I use just the local HTTP interface on the devices, things seem to work mostly as expected.  However, based on some stuff I've read, new firmware versions may require additional changes to work with the local interface.  To use this, the plug-in user would have to configure the plug-in with the names and IP addresses of the devices since there's no discovery method.

I am able to query the Meross servers and get a list of devices associated with the user's account.  In theory, this would allow discovery of the devices without having to configure anything. But the information about the devices doesn't include the IP address so I can't make use of the local HTTP interface.  When I try to use the Meross servers to get additional information about the devices (which would include the IP address), they ignore me and don't send anything back.  However, I am able to send commands to turn the plugs on/off.  So it's a bit strange that I can send commands to control the device, but the commands to query the device information/state seem to fail.

What I'd like to use is a combination of methods so that I can auto-discover the devices and then send commands through the local interface. 

Another issue I'm going to have is dealing with other devices.  Their data structures aren't easy to work with. For example, instead of providing a list of sensors with the sensor type embedded in the list like this:

[sensor_type: door/window, state: open]
[sensor_type: smoke, state: off]
[sensor_type: temperature, state: 79]

They do this:

[doorwindow: {onoff: 1, online: 1}]
[smoke: {}]
[temperature: {value: 79}]

So I have know what the sensor names are before I can parse the info about them.  Without documentation, it will take folks using the plug-in to determine what the device data looks like before I can update the plug-in to support the devices.

 

[dbwarner5]

I think I understand most of what you said.. lol... if there is any data I can get for you from my current switches etc, let me know how etc. 

I have on / off, dimmer, 3ways, plug and bulbs. 

thanks. 

[bpwwer]

I finally figured out the magic last night so I'm now able to discover the devices and get nodes configured. Once I get this all cleaned up, I'll publish a beta release.

The beta will dump a bunch of data in the log for each device it doesn't know about, I can then use that data to add the code to create nodes for those devices.   I don't think any of your devices will create nodes unless I make some guesses about the plugs and right now only the MSS115 plugs are "known" to the plug-in.

With the basics working, it should be pretty easy to add new device types.

[dbwarner5]

Will I be able to control the meross devices remotely? Meaning, right now my Eisy is at house #1, the meross are at house #2. But if we can get it working, I will be adding a new Eisy to house #2. 

So in the meantime, it sounds like you are expecting a "local" connection for the plug in to work? So I am not sure I can help with testing in that case for now. 

 

[bpwwer]

The idea was to use a local connection when possible and for my initial development I've been using it to send commands to the devices.  But commands can be sent direct to the device IP address or to the Meross server, I just haven't written that part (yet). 

Right now, the only commands being sent are on/off for the plugs, periodic queries for device on-line status, and a query for the device WiFi signal strength.

What I have now will query the Meross servers for the devices associated with your account.  For each device, it will query the Meross servers for some additional info on the device and then try to create a node for the device.  

It sounds like we don't have any overlap in the devices we have so when you run it, all it will end up doing is documenting the details about each device in the plug-in's log file.  I can then take that log info and add support those devices.

Given the devices are remote to your currently location, I just need to figure out a way you can choose, how you want the plug-in to send commands; direct or via the server.  With that, you'll be able to monitor/control the devices in house #2 from house#1 eisy.