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title description ha_category ha_release ha_iot_class ha_domain
MQTT binary sensor Instructions on how to integrate MQTT binary sensors within Home Assistant.
Binary sensor
0.9 Configurable mqtt

The mqtt binary sensor platform uses an MQTT message received to set the binary sensor's state to on, off or unknown.

The state will be updated only after a new message is published on state_topic matching payload_on, payload_off or None. If these messages are published with the retain flag set, the binary sensor will receive an instant state update after subscription and Home Assistant will display the correct state on startup. Otherwise, the initial state displayed in Home Assistant will be unknown.

Stateless devices such as buttons, remote controls etc are better represented by MQTT device triggers than by binary sensors.

Configuration

The mqtt binary sensor platform optionally supports a list of availability topics to receive online and offline messages (birth and LWT messages) from the MQTT device. During normal operation, if the MQTT sensor device goes offline (i.e., publishes payload_not_available to an availability topic), Home Assistant will display the binary sensor as unavailable. If these messages are published with the retain flag set, the binary sensor will receive an instant update after subscription and Home Assistant will display the correct availability state of the binary sensor when Home Assistant starts up. If the retain flag is not set, Home Assistant will display the binary sensor as unavailable when Home Assistant starts up. If no availability topic is defined, Home Assistant will consider the MQTT device to be available and will display its state.

To use an MQTT binary sensor in your installation, add the following to your {% term "configuration.yaml" %} file:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
  - binary_sensor:
      state_topic: "home-assistant/window/contact"

{% configuration %} availability: description: A list of MQTT topics subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability_topic. required: false type: list keys: payload_available: description: The payload that represents the available state. required: false type: string default: online payload_not_available: description: The payload that represents the unavailable state. required: false type: string default: offline topic: description: An MQTT topic subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. required: true type: string value_template: description: "Defines a template to extract device's availability from the topic. To determine the devices's availability result of this template will be compared to payload_available and payload_not_available." required: false type: template availability_mode: description: When availability is configured, this controls the conditions needed to set the entity to available. Valid entries are all, any, and latest. If set to all, payload_available must be received on all configured availability topics before the entity is marked as online. If set to any, payload_available must be received on at least one configured availability topic before the entity is marked as online. If set to latest, the last payload_available or payload_not_available received on any configured availability topic controls the availability. required: false type: string default: latest availability_template: description: "Defines a template to extract device's availability from the availability_topic. To determine the devices's availability result of this template will be compared to payload_available and payload_not_available." required: false type: template availability_topic: description: "The MQTT topic subscribed to receive birth and LWT messages from the MQTT device. If availability is not defined, the binary sensor will always be considered available and its state will be on, off or unknown. If availability is defined, the binary sensor will be considered as unavailable by default and the sensor's initial state will be unavailable. Must not be used together with availability." required: false type: string device: description: "Information about the device this binary sensor is a part of to tie it into the device registry. Only works when unique_id is set. At least one of identifiers or connections must be present to identify the device." required: false type: map keys: configuration_url: description: 'A link to the webpage that can manage the configuration of this device. Can be either an http://, https:// or an internal homeassistant:// URL.' required: false type: string connections: description: 'A list of connections of the device to the outside world as a list of tuples [connection_type, connection_identifier]. For example the MAC address of a network interface: "connections": [["mac", "02:5b:26:a8:dc:12"]].' required: false type: list hw_version: description: The hardware version of the device. required: false type: string identifiers: description: A list of IDs that uniquely identify the device. For example a serial number. required: false type: [list, string] manufacturer: description: The manufacturer of the device. required: false type: string model: description: The model of the device. required: false type: string model_id: description: The model identifier of the device. required: false type: string name: description: The name of the device. required: false type: string serial_number: description: "The serial number of the device." required: false type: string suggested_area: description: 'Suggest an area if the device isnt in one yet.' required: false type: string sw_version: description: The firmware version of the device. required: false type: string via_device: description: 'Identifier of a device that routes messages between this device and Home Assistant. Examples of such devices are hubs, or parent devices of a sub-device. This is used to show device topology in Home Assistant.' required: false type: string device_class: description: Sets the class of the device, changing the device state and icon that is displayed on the frontend. The device_class can be null. required: false type: string enabled_by_default: description: Flag which defines if the entity should be enabled when first added. required: false type: boolean default: true encoding: description: The encoding of the payloads received. Set to "" to disable decoding of incoming payload. required: false type: string default: "utf-8" entity_category: description: The category of the entity. When set, the entity category must be diagnostic for sensors. required: false type: string entity_picture: description: "Picture URL for the entity." required: false type: string expire_after: description: If set, it defines the number of seconds after the sensor's state expires, if it's not updated. After expiry, the sensor's state becomes unavailable. Default the sensors state never expires. required: false type: integer force_update: description: Sends update events (which results in update of state object's last_changed) even if the sensor's state hasn't changed. Useful if you want to have meaningful value graphs in history or want to create an automation that triggers on every incoming state message (not only when the sensor's new state is different to the current one). required: false type: boolean default: false icon: description: "Icon for the entity." required: false type: icon json_attributes_template: description: "Defines a template to extract the JSON dictionary from messages received on the json_attributes_topic. Usage example can be found in MQTT sensor documentation." required: false type: template json_attributes_topic: description: The MQTT topic subscribed to receive a JSON dictionary payload and then set as sensor attributes. Usage example can be found in MQTT sensor documentation. required: false type: string name: description: The name of the binary sensor. Can be set to null if only the device name is relevant. required: false type: string default: MQTT binary sensor object_id: description: Used instead of name for automatic generation of entity_id required: false type: string off_delay: description: "For sensors that only send on state updates (like PIRs), this variable sets a delay in seconds after which the sensor's state will be updated back to off." required: false type: integer payload_available: description: The string that represents the online state. required: false type: string default: online payload_not_available: description: The string that represents the offline state. required: false type: string default: offline payload_off: description: The string that represents the off state. It will be compared to the message in the state_topic (see value_template for details) required: false type: string default: "OFF" payload_on: description: The string that represents the on state. It will be compared to the message in the state_topic (see value_template for details) required: false type: string default: "ON" platform: description: Must be binary_sensor. Only allowed and required in MQTT auto discovery device messages. required: true type: string qos: description: The maximum QoS level to be used when receiving and publishing messages. required: false type: integer default: 0 state_topic: description: The MQTT topic subscribed to receive sensor's state. Valid states are OFF and ON. Custom OFF and ON values can be set with the payload_off and payload_on config options. required: true type: string unique_id: description: An ID that uniquely identifies this sensor. If two sensors have the same unique ID, Home Assistant will raise an exception. Required when used with device-based discovery. required: false type: string value_template: description: "Defines a template that returns a string to be compared to payload_on/payload_off or an empty string, in which case the MQTT message will be removed. Remove this option when payload_on and payload_off are sufficient to match your payloads (i.e no preprocessing of original message is required)." required: false type: template {% endconfiguration %}

Examples

In this section, you will find some real-life examples of how to use this sensor.

Full configuration with JSON data

This is an example of a configuration where the state is extracted from a JSON formatted MQTT message. To test, you can use the command line tool mosquitto_pub shipped with mosquitto or the mosquitto-clients package to send MQTT messages.

To set the state of the binary sensor manually:

mosquitto_pub -h 127.0.0.1 -t home-assistant/window/availability -m "online"
mosquitto_pub -h 127.0.0.1 -t home-assistant/window/contact -m '{"state":"ON"}'
mosquitto_pub -h 127.0.0.1 -t home-assistant/window/contact -m '{"state":"OFF"}'

The example below shows a full configuration for a binary sensor:

{% raw %}

# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
  - binary_sensor:
      name: "Window Contact Sensor"
      state_topic: "home-assistant/window/contact"
      payload_on: "ON"
      availability:
        - topic: "home-assistant/window/availability"
          payload_available: "online"
          payload_not_available: "offline"
      qos: 0
      device_class: opening
      value_template: "{{ value_json.state }}"

{% endraw %}

Toggle the binary sensor each time a message is received on state_topic

{% raw %}

# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
  - binary_sensor:
      state_topic: "lab_button/cmnd/POWER"
      value_template: "{%if is_state(entity_id,\"on\")-%}OFF{%-else-%}ON{%-endif%}"

{% endraw %}

Get the state of a device with ESPEasy

Assuming that you have flashed your ESP8266 unit with ESPEasy. Under "Config" is a name ("Unit Name:") set for your device (here it's "bathroom"). A configuration for a "Controller" for MQTT with the protocol "OpenHAB MQTT" is present and the entries ("Controller Subscribe:" and "Controller Publish:") are adjusted to match your needs. In this example, the topics are prefixed with "home". Also, add a "Switch Input" in the "Devices" tap with the name "switch" and "button" as value.

As soon as the unit is online, you will get the state of the attached button.

home/bathroom/status Connected
...
home/bathroom/switch/button 1

The configuration will look like the example below:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
  - binary_sensor:
      name: Bathroom
      state_topic: "home/bathroom/switch/button"
      payload_on: "1"
      payload_off: "0"