Raspberry Pi MQTT Monitor

Gather system information and send it to MQTT server. Raspberry Pi MQTT monitor is written in python and gathers information about your system cpu load, cpu temperature, free space, used memory, swap usage, uptime, wifi signal quality, voltage and system clock speed. The script is written for Raspberry Pi but can also be used on Ubuntu based system.

Raspberry Pi MQTT monitor integrates with home assistant. The script works fine both on Python 2 and 3 and is very light on the cpu, there are some sleeps in the code due to mqtt comunication having problems if the messages are shot with out delay.

Each value measured by the script is sent via a separate message for easier creation of home assistant sensors.

Installation

Automated Installation

There is an automated bash installation, its working but not extensively tested (recently updated).

Run this command to use the automated installation:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hjelev/rpi-mqtt-monitor/master/remote_install.sh)

Raspberry Pi MQTT monitor will be intalled in the location where the auto installer is called, inside a folder named rpi-mqtt-monitor.

The auto-installer needs the software below and will install it if its not found:

• python (2 or 3)
• python-pip
• git
• paho-mqtt

Only python is not automatically installed, the rest of the dependancies should be handeled by the auto installation. It will also help you configure the host and credentials for the mqtt server in config.py and create the cronjob configuration for you.

Manual Installation

If you don't like the automated installation here are manuall installation instructions:

Install pip if you don't have it:

$ sudo apt install python-pip

Then install this module needed for the script:

$ pip3 install paho-mqtt

Clone the repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/hjelev/rpi-mqtt-monitor.git

Rename src/config.py.example to src/config.py

Configuration

(only needed for manual installation) Populate the variables for MQTT host, user, password and main topic in src/config.py.

You can also choose what messages are sent and what is the delay (sleep_time is only used for multiple messages) between them. If you are sending a grouped message, and you want to delay the execution of the script you need to use the random_delay variable which is set to 1 by default. This is the default configuration:

random_delay = randrange(1)
discovery_messages = True
group_messages = False
sleep_time = 0.5
cpu_load = True
cpu_temp = True
used_space = True
voltage = True
sys_clock_speed = True
swap = True
memory = True
uptime = True
wifi_signal = False
wifi_signal_dbm = False

If discovery_messages is set to true, the script will send MQTT Discovery config messages which allows Home Assistant to automatically add the sensors without having to define them in configuration. Note, this setting is only available when group_messages is set to False.

If group_messages is set to true the script will send just one message containing all values in CSV format. The group message looks like this:

1.3, 47.1, 12, 1.2, 600, nan, 14.1, 12, 50, -60

Test Raspberry Pi MQTT monitor

$ /usr/bin/python /home/pi/rpi-mqtt-monitor/rpi-cpu2mqtt.py

Once you run Raspberry Pi MQTT monitor there will be no output if it run OK, but you should get 8 or more messages via the configured MQTT server (the messages count depends on your configuration).

Schedule Raspberry Pi MQTT Monitor execution

Create a cron entry like this (you might need to update the path in the cron entry below, depending on where you put the script files):

*/2 * * * * /usr/bin/python /home/pi/rpi-mqtt-monitor/rpi-cpu2mqtt.py

Home Assistant Integration

Once you installed the script on your raspberry you need to create some sensors in home assistant. If you are using discovery_messages, then this step is not required as the sensors are automatically discovered by Home Assistant and all you need to do is add them from the UI.

This is the sensors configuration if group_messages = True assuming your sensors are separated in sensors.yaml file.

  - platform: mqtt
    name: 'rpi4 cpu load'
    state_topic: 'masoko/rpi4'
    value_template: '{{ value.split(",")[0] }}'
    unit_of_measurement: "%"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: 'masoko/rpi4'
    value_template: '{{ value.split(",")[1] }}'
    name: rpi4 cpu temp
    unit_of_measurement: "°C"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: 'masoko/rpi4'
    value_template: '{{ value.split(",")[2] }}'
    name: rpi4 diskusage
    unit_of_measurement: "%"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: 'masoko/rpi4'
    value_template: '{{ value.split(",")[3] }}'
    name: rpi4 voltage
    unit_of_measurement: "V"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: 'masoko/rpi4'
    value_template: '{{ value.split(",")[4] }}'
    name: rpi4 sys clock speed
    unit_of_measurement: "MHz"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: 'masoko/rpi4'
    value_template: '{{ value.split(",")[5] }}'
    name: rpi4 swap
    unit_of_measurement: "%"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: 'masoko/rpi4'
    value_template: '{{ value.split(",")[6] }}'
    name: rpi4 memory
    unit_of_measurement: "%"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: 'masoko/rpi4'
    value_template: '{{ value.split(",")[7] }}'
    name: rpi4 uptime
    unit_of_measurement: "days"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: 'masoko/rpi4'
    value_template: '{{ value.split(",")[8] }}'
    name: rpi4 wifi signal
    unit_of_measurement: "%"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: 'masoko/rpi4'
    value_template: '{{ value.split(",")[9] }}'
    name: rpi4 wifi signal
    unit_of_measurement: "dBm"

This is the sensors configuration if group_messages = False assuming your sensors are separated in sensors.yaml file.

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "masoko/rpi4/cpuload"
    name: rpi4 cpu load
    unit_of_measurement: "%"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "masoko/rpi4/cputemp"
    name: rpi4 cpu temp
    unit_of_measurement: "°C"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "masoko/rpi4/diskusage"
    name: rpi4 diskusage
    unit_of_measurement: "%"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "masoko/rpi4/voltage"
    name: rpi4 voltage
    unit_of_measurement: "V"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "masoko/rpi4/sys_clock_speed"
    name: rpi4 sys clock speed
    unit_of_measurement: "hz"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "masoko/rpi4/swap"
    name: rpi4 swap
    unit_of_measurement: "%"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "masoko/rpi4/memory"
    name: rpi4 memory
    unit_of_measurement: "%"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "masoko/rpi4/uptime_days"
    name: rpi4 uptime
    unit_of_measurement: "days"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "masoko/rpi4/wifi_signal"
    name: rpi4 wifi signal
    unit_of_measurement: "%"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "masoko/rpi4/wifi_signal_dbm"
    name: rpi4 wifi signal
    unit_of_measurement: "dBm"

Add this to your customize.yaml file to change the icons of the sensors.

sensor.rpi4_voltage:
  friendly_name: rpi 4 voltage
  icon: mdi:flash
sensor.rpi4_cpu_load:
  friendly_name: rpi4 cpu load
  icon: mdi:chip
sensor.rpi4_diskusage:
  friendly_name: rpi4 diskusage
  icon: mdi:harddisk
sensor.rpi4_sys_clock_speed:
  icon: mdi:clock
sensor.rpi4_cpu_temp:
  friendly_name: rpi4 cpu temperature
sensor.rpi4_swap:
  icon: mdi:folder-swap
sensor.rpi4_memory:
  icon: mdi:memory

After that you need to create entities list via the home assistant GUI. You can use this code or compose it via the GUI.

type: entities
title: Rapsberry Pi MQTT monitor
entities:
  - entity: sensor.rpi4_cpu_load
  - entity: sensor.rpi4_cpu_temp
  - entity: sensor.rpi4_diskusage
  - entity: sensor.rpi4_voltage
  - entity: sensor.rpi4_sys_clock_speed
  - entity: sensor.rpi4_swap
  - entity: sensor.rpi4_memory
  - entity: sensor.rpi4_uptime
  - entity: sensor.rpi4_wifi_signal
  - entity: sensor.rpi4_wifi_signal_dbm

To Do

• maybe add network traffic monitoring via some third party software (for now I can't find a way to do it without additional software)

Feature request:

If you want to suggest a new feature or improvement don't hesitate to open an issue or pull request.