home-assistant.io/source/_integrations/binary_sensor.mqtt.markdown

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 or off.

The state will be updated only after a new message is published on state_topic matching payload_on or payload_off. 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 an availability_topic 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 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 configuration.yaml file:

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

{% configuration %} availability_topic: description: "The MQTT topic subscribed to receive birth and LWT messages from the MQTT device. If availability_topic is not defined, the binary sensor will always be considered available and its state will be on, off or unknown. If availability_topic is defined, the binary sensor will be considered as unavailable by default and the sensor's state will be unavailable." 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 through MQTT discovery and when unique_id is set." required: false type: map keys: 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, map] 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 name: description: The name of the device. required: false type: string sw_version: description: The firmware version of the device. 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. required: false type: string expire_after: description: "Defines the number of seconds after the sensor's state expires if it's not updated. After expiry, the sensor's state becomes unavailable if availability_topic is defined and unknown otherwise." 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 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. required: false type: string default: MQTT Binary Sensor 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" qos: description: The maximum QoS level to be used when receiving messages. required: false type: integer default: 0 state_topic: description: The MQTT topic subscribed to receive sensor's state. 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: false type: string value_template: description: "Defines a template that returns a string to be compared to payload_on/payload_off. Available variables: entity_id. Remove this option when 'payload_on' and 'payload_off' are sufficient to match your payloads (i.e no pre-processing of original message is required)." required: false type: string {% endconfiguration %}

Examples

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

Full configuration

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/contact -m "OFF"

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

{% raw %}

# Example configuration.yaml entry
binary_sensor:
  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Window Contact Sensor"
    state_topic: "home-assistant/window/contact"
    payload_on: "ON"
    payload_off: "OFF"
    availability_topic: "home-assistant/window/availability"
    payload_available: "online"
    payload_not_available: "offline"
    qos: 0
    device_class: opening
    value_template: '{{ value.x }}'

{% endraw %}

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

{% raw %}

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