Home Assistant

MQTT Discovery, devices, automations, and the topics that break.

Meshloom publishes mesh data to Home Assistant through MQTT Discovery. Devices and entities appear automatically. No custom component or HACS repository is required.

Requirements

Home Assistant with the MQTT integration configured
An MQTT broker reachable by both HA and Meshloom
Meshloom connected to a radio

Setup

In Meshloom, open Settings > Integrations > Add > Home Assistant MQTT Discovery.
Enter the broker host and port.
Add credentials and TLS settings if needed.
Select contacts for GPS tracking and repeaters for telemetry.
Set the message event scope.
Save and enable.

Devices appear under Settings > Devices & services > MQTT.

MeshCore IDs and HA IDs

Meshloom uses the first 12 lowercase hexadecimal characters of a public key:

public key: ae92577bae6c4f1d...
node_id: ae92577bae6c
state topic: meshcore/ae92577bae6c/gps

HA entity IDs are generated from device and entity names, not node_id. The integration UI shows them under What gets created in Home Assistant and Published topic summary.

What gets created in Home Assistant

Local radio

Entity	Type	Description
`binary_sensor.<radio>_connected`	Connectivity	Radio online/offline
`sensor.<radio>_noise_floor`	Signal strength	Noise floor in dBm

Repeaters

One device per selected repeater, updated by automatic telemetry (about every 8 hours) or manual dashboard fetch:

Entity	Unit	Description
`sensor.<repeater>_battery_voltage`	V	Battery level
`sensor.<repeater>_noise_floor`	dBm	Local noise floor
`sensor.<repeater>_last_rssi`	dBm	Last received power
`sensor.<repeater>_last_snr`	dB	Last signal-to-noise ratio
`sensor.<repeater>_packets_received`	count	Received packets
`sensor.<repeater>_packets_sent`	count	Sent packets
`sensor.<repeater>_uptime`	s	Time since reboot

Contacts

Entity	Description
`device_tracker.<contact>`	GPS position, with `latitude`, `longitude`, and optional `altitude`
`sensor.<contact>_lpp_<type>_ch<n>`	Automatically detected CayenneLPP reading

Message event entity

event.<radio>_messages fires for each message allowed by the configured scope.

Attribute	Example	Description
`event_type`	`message_received`	Always `message_received`
`sender_name`	`Alice`	Display name
`sender_key`	`aabbccdd...`	Sender public key
`text`	`hello`	Message body
`message_type`	`PRIV` or `CHAN`	DM or channel
`channel_name`	`#general`	Channel name, or `null` for DM
`conversation_key`	`aabbccdd...`	Contact or channel key
`outgoing`	`false`	Whether you sent it

Representative automations

Low repeater battery

automation:
  - alias: "Repeater battery low"
    trigger:
      - platform: numeric_state
        entity_id: sensor.hilltop_battery_voltage
        below: 3.8
    action:
      - service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone
        data:
          title: "Repeater Battery Low"
          message: >-
            {{ state_attr('sensor.hilltop_battery_voltage', 'friendly_name') }}
            is at {{ states('sensor.hilltop_battery_voltage') }}V

Radio offline for five minutes

automation:
  - alias: "Radio offline"
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.myradio_connected
        to: "off"
        for: "00:05:00"
    action:
      - service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone
        data:
          title: "MeshCore Radio Offline"
          message: "Radio has been disconnected for 5 minutes"

Message in a specific channel

Set scope to Only listed channels and select the channel, or filter all events:

automation:
  - alias: "Emergency channel alert"
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: event.myradio_messages
    condition:
      - condition: template
        value_template: >-
          {{ trigger.to_state.attributes.channel_name == '#emergency' }}
    action:
      - service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone
        data:
          title: "Message in #emergency"
          message: >-
            {{ trigger.to_state.attributes.sender_name }}:
            {{ trigger.to_state.attributes.text }}

Troubleshooting

If no device appears, check that HA MQTT is connected, Meshloom shows a green status, and both use the same broker. Inspect discovery:

mosquitto_sub -h <broker> -t 'homeassistant/#' -v

Stale or duplicate devices can be removed with retained empty payloads:

mosquitto_pub -h <broker> -t 'homeassistant/binary_sensor/meshcore_unknown/connected/config' -r -n
mosquitto_pub -h <broker> -t 'homeassistant/sensor/meshcore_unknown/noise_floor/config' -r -n

Telemetry entities remain Unknown until telemetry is collected. Contact trackers remain unknown until a GPS advert or telemetry report arrives. Health entities expire after 120 seconds. Disabling or deleting the integration publishes empty retained discovery messages so HA removes its entities.

MQTT topic reference

Topic	Content	Frequency
`meshcore/{node_id}/health`	`{"connected": bool, "noise_floor_dbm": int}`	60 s
`meshcore/{node_id}/telemetry`	`{"battery_volts": float, ...}`	~8 h or manual
`meshcore/{node_id}/gps`	`{"latitude": float, "longitude": float, ...}`	each advert
`meshcore/{node_id}/events/message`	`{"event_type": "message_received", ...}`	each message

Discovery topics:

Pattern	Entity type
`homeassistant/binary_sensor/meshcore_<node_id>/connected/config`	Radio connectivity
`homeassistant/sensor/meshcore_<node_id>/noise_floor/config`	Noise floor
`homeassistant/sensor/meshcore_<node_id>/battery_voltage/config`	Repeater battery
`homeassistant/sensor/meshcore_<node_id>/*/config`	Other repeater sensors
`homeassistant/device_tracker/meshcore_<node_id>/config`	Contact GPS tracker
`homeassistant/event/meshcore_<node_id>/messages/config`	Message event entity