Generic - Dummy Device

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Plugin details

Type: Generic

Name: Dummy Device

Status ESP32: NORMAL CLIMATE

Status ESP8266: NORMAL CLIMATE

GitHub: P033_Dummy.ino

Maintainer: .

Used libraries: .

Description

You can use a special dummy device within ESP Easy to provide additional features to the rules engine. A dummy device contains 1 (Single) to 4 (Quad) sensor values, depending on the Output Data Type selected, that can be used as variables to store custom numerical data. (floating point values, like 123.50)

The dummy device can be used like any other sensor to send it’s data to a Controller. But this is not mandatory if you only want to use it within your own rules section.

Dummy tasks can be used like temporary variables to store data. One nice benefit is that these task values of Dummy tasks are also kept in RTC memory. So these may survive a reboot, as long as the ESP remains powered.

Device Configuration

• Name: Required by ESPEasy, must be unique among the list of available devices/tasks.

• Enabled: The device can be disabled or enabled. When not enabled the device should not use any resources.

Storing Values

Typically, one can only interact with a Dummy task via the TaskValueSet command:

TaskValueSet <task nr/task name>,<value nr/value name>,<value|formula>

A few examples:

You run your dummy device from task number 3 and the first value should contain something calculated from a temperature sensor labeled “Outdoor”:

TaskValueSet 3,1,[Outdoor#Temperature]-10

To make the variable to set and the task number independent, the name of the task and/or value can be used instead of the numbers.

So for a Dummy device named Dummy, Output Data Type set to Temp / Hum, and Values named Temp and Hum, setting the Temperature value:

TaskValueSet,Dummy,temp,[Outdoor#Temperature]-10

(task name and value name are not case sensitive)

Note: You can use multiple Dummy devices if needed!

Output Configuration

A Dummy can be configured to output a specific data type. Especially Domoticz controllers require some specific data type to properly handle specific devices which output several units of measure.

For example “Temp / Hum / Baro” are obviously intended to mimic the well known Bosch BME280 sensor.

Basic data types like “Single”, “Dual”, “Triple”, “Quad” are intended to set resp. 1 … 4 float values.

This selector is using a categorized display when the build includes this enhanced selector (ESP32 only):

Available options, grouped per category:

Basic: Single, Dual, Triple, Quad

Environment: Temp¹, Hum¹, Baro¹, Wind¹

Other: Switch¹, Dimmer, String, UInt32 (1x), UInt32 (2x), UInt32 (3x), UInt32 (4x), Int32 (1x), Int32 (2x), Int32 (3x), Int32 (4x), UInt64 (1x), UInt64 (2x), Int64 (1x), Int64 (2x), Double (1x), Double (2x)

Value Types marked with ¹ are supported for use in MQTT AutoDiscovery.

Extended Output Data Types

Added: 2023/04/15

Storing data in float values may result in loss of decimals. A float can only store upto 22 bit if numerical information.

For example the “UnixTime” (number of seconds since 1970/01/01) cannot accurately be stored in a float.

To overcome these issues, a number of integer types are added:

• Int32 - Integer value ranging from -2147483648 … 2147483647 (-1 * 2^31 … (2^31 - 1))

• UInt32 - Integer value ranging from 0 … 4294967295 (2^32 - 1)

• Int64 - Integer value ranging from -1 * 2^63 … (2^63 - 1)

• UInt64 - Integer value ranging from 0 … (2^64 - 1)

• Double - “Double” Floating point value capable of storing 52 bit of numerical information.

The offered selection also shows the number of task values being configured. For example Int32 (3x) implies 3 task values of type Int32.

Since 64 bit ints and double need 8 bytes, where the other types only require 4 bytes. Therefore the maximum number of those task values possible is half that of the other types.

Storing data in 64 bit ints may not allow to store the full range as one may expect to store based on the integer types. The TaskValueSet command internally processes data as double, thus limiting the maximum range of these integer values to -9007199254740992 … 9007199254740991.

One can store larger values in these 64 bit int types, but this will result in loss of bits.

For example:

• 9007199254740993 cannot be stored in such a data type as it will be rounded back to 9007199254740992 when used.

• 1234567890123456789 will be read back as 1234567890123456768, which may seem correct at first sight, but the last few digits are wrong.

Storing large values in other integer types, like UInt32, will be clipped to the maximum value that can be handled by that type.

For example:

• 1234567890123456789 stored in an UInt32 will be read back as 4294967295

• -1 stored in an UInt32 will be read back as 4294967295

• 1234567890123456789 stored in an Int32 will be read back as 2147483647

• -1 stored in an Int32 will be read back as -2147483648

Data Acquisition

This group of settings are standard available configuration items.

• Single event with all values: When this setting is enabled, all available values will be sent in a single event <TaskName>#All, with all values in order as arguments to the event.

• Show derived values: When checked, the Devices overview page, and the /json endpoint (used for updating the Devices overview page) will include any Derived values as defined. See the TaskValueSetDerived and TaskValueSetPresentation commands.

• Event & Log derived values: When checked, the Derived values will be generated as Events, to be handled in Rules, and sent to logging devices like the Syslog server and/or SD-card logging.

(The derived values options are only available if String variables feature is included in the build.)

• Send to Controller: Select the Controller(s) to send the Values to, either on a TaskRun command applied to the task, or on an Interval time action.

Send to Controller is only visible when one or more Controllers are configured.

Depending on the controller capabilities, some configuration settings may be shown:

All configured Controllers are shown here, including the enabled or disabled state (multiple Controllers can be enabled, only a single MQTT Controller can be enabled at one time!).

For each controller the user can select wether the data should be sent on each Interval (or explicit TaskRun).

For the Domoticz controllers the value index (IDX) has to be configured.

For some controllers, like Home Assistant/openHAB, there are extra options available.

• Group: This represents the group id to combine all values from multiple tasks into a single grouped-device during MQTT AutoDiscovery. Groups, by design, can span multiple ESPEasy devices, if desired, as long as the Task/Valuename combinations are unique. If a group should only combine Tasks from a single ESPEasy unit, the group id should be unique across multiple ESPEasy units. The group description, default Group <n>, can be adjusted in Home Assistant. If the Group value matches the current Unit nr, the Unit name, %sysname%, is used instead of Group <nr>.

• Retained: For MQTT Controllers, this setting can be enabled to send the values for the current task with the Retain flag set. The Publish Retain flag in the Controller settings will override this by sending all task values with Retain flag enabled.

• Send derived: This checkbox determines if any configured Derived values should also be sent to the controller (and included in the AutoDiscovery if that’s available and enabled).

• Resend MQTT Discovery: When checked, will start a resend of the MQTT Discovery process for this task after a random delay, when Submit is clicked, so any changed settings will be updated in the MQTT broker. This setting is only available if the controller is enabled, the Auto Discovery feature is available and enabled for the controller. This setting is not stored.

Other controllers, like f.e. FHEM HTTP, do not support additional settings besides the checkbox to enable sending the data.

In ESPEasy, a task can be triggered to yield some new sample data. For other plugins, this means the sensor is read and when successful there is some new data to process.

However, since the Dummy device doesn’t interact with a device, it will always be “successful” on a task run.

One may set the “Interval” to periodically trigger a new task run, or trigger a task run via the command TaskRun.

Note

The command TaskValueSetAndRun is a combination of TaskValueSet and TaskRun.

On a task run, there will be one or more events fired (depending on whether or not “Single event with all values” is checked). And all connected controllers of that task will be handed over the values present in the task values.

Especially Domoticz controllers are very specific to the output data type.

Values

The plugin provides the Dummy value, that can be changed to the desired name. A formula can be set to recalculate the displayed, and sent, value. The number of decimals can be set as desired, and defaults to 2.

In selected builds, per Value is a Stats checkbox available, that when checked, gathers the data and presents recent data in a graph, as described here: Task Value Statistics:

Change log

Changed in version 2.0: …

improved 2025-07-17 Add categorized output configuration (ESP32 only)

improved 2023-04-15 Add more types of task values, like (u)int32, (u)int64 and double.

improved 2021-08-18 Make Interval optional, so no interval (0) can be used.

added Major overhaul for 2.0 release.

Added in version 1.0: …

added Initial release version.