OKAY!!! After a whole lot of YouTube video time and some head scratching, as well as a lot of cursing and using Bill Gates name in vain, I got a flow going and sucessfully used a Sonoff wireless PIR sensor that triggers a Sonoff RF Bridge to talk through MQTT and turn on a Sonoff Basic for 3 seconds then turn back off (This will get changed to 15 minutes before I finalize the install). The Sonoff gear is flashed with Tasmota and the bridge is called HL_Bridge and the Basic is called HL_Sonoff in the config. The config to get the Basic to be triggered by an MQTT topic and turn the loop on, set a timer and turn off was pretty simple. Setting up the Bridge was a PITA though as it does not send an MQTT message out unless you set up a rule within the Tasmota command line to do so. Nobody seems to cover that in their videos except for one guy. Fortunately he covers it in great detail.
Now, to connect the bridge message to the Basic message so the Basic turns on when the Bridge is triggered, I used an MQTT in node that connects to an MQTT out node with HL_Bridge and HL_Sonoff as the topics. ISN’T THERE AN EASIER WAY TO DO THAT??? LOL I am pretty sure I crossed State lines to go to the neighbors house on this one. Suggestions on how to do this type of thing better? Have you crossed paths with a tutorial on how the best way to do MQTT messages is? I am glad I was able to get it to work as it is my first project to get from A to Z with but talk about hoops!!!
