Virtual device for device with only post/get web request

[FlorisVandeVijver]

Hi,

I have an husdata dongle that reads out the register settings of my heatpump. a Homey app exists for Husdata (Husdata | Homey ), but this app does not show all the registers which I can read via the webinterface.

So in order to get all the information directly into Homey, I thought of creating a virtual device. that parses (every minute?) the data from the webinterface (with GET web request), and would also be capable of setting the register via a POST web request. Is this the right way to do this?
Which Virtual Device is the best for this use case? i see that there are multiple apps with this capability (besides the Homey Experiment): Virtual Devices, Device capabilities,.. or is there another app/way to achieve the same?

kind regards,
Floris

[Peter_Kawa]

I’d suggest to use the Advanced Virtual Device. It can take up to over 10 capabilities for text/numeric/boolean/OnOff and has picker and cam possibilities , and the status indicator can be filled with anything.

You can write the web request values to these capabilities with flow cards;
Numeric & boolean values can also be logged to Insights.

An example:

[APP][Pro] Fast.com - Speedtest

Interface & Insights For anyone interested: I created an advanced virtual device to get the latest values on a device tile, and to record these to Insights at the same time. How it can look [14752] [Screenshot20260520174127Homey] Device setup [Screenshot20260520180100Homey] [Screenshot20260520180133Homey] Flow [14740] Insights [14758]

Advanced virtual devices topic:

[APP][Pro] Advanced Virtual Device (Device Capabilities App) with Unique Text Status Indicator

If you have questions about the App Device Capabilities or seek help with an Flow or with the Flow Exchanger, please see the Device Capabilities Topic. German Another German topic English If you have questions about the Advanced Virtual Device or seek help with the Exchanger File, please see the Advanced Virtual Devices Topic. This topic! German English If you want to post a AVD as a Template for others to use, please post it on Share Your Device! - Advanced Virtual Devices. Germa…

[Arie_J_Godschalk]

@Peter_Kawa

It can take up to 10 capabilities for text/numeric/boolean/OnOff

That was with version 1, where the configuration was in the settings of the avd.

That why I moved it to device-repair, to make it dynamic: you can have way more than 10 capabilities.

[FlorisVandeVijver]

Thanks Arie & Peter,

It looks promising:
one simple thing is not clear: i want to link a ‘text field’ to an existing Homey variable. is this possible?

when i install the better logic library, i dont see the Homey variables in the dropdown list. Am i doing something very basic wrong?

kind regards,
Floris

[Peter_Kawa]

@Arie_J_Godschalk

you can have way more than 10 capabilities.

Whoops! It was based on my current knowledge. Plus, apparently I never needed over 10 capabilities of one type yet

Way more than 10 is even better, Arie!

[Peter_Kawa]

Hi Floris,

Thanks!

Homey variables and Better Logic variables are separate things, but in flows you can use the tags of a Hvar in a BLvar and the other way round.

@FlorisVandeVijver

i want to link a ‘text field’ to an existing Homey variable. is this possible?

To sync a Homey variable with an AVD (text) field, or with a BL variable, you’d use a flow like:

@FlorisVandeVijver

when i install the better logic library, i dont see the Homey variables in the dropdown list. Am i doing something very basic wrong?

No that’s correct. You’ll have to create BL vars from scratch.

To add them in bulk, this is quite simple to achieve when you use the export/import function.

This takes a JSON formatted input like this

[
  {
    "name": "myYesNoVar",
    "value": true,
    "type": "bool"
  },
  {
    "name": "myNumVar",
    "value": 0,
    "type": "number"
  },
  {
    "name": "myTextVar",
    "value": "hello",
    "type": "string"
  }
]

Note:
string values should sit between double quotes;
numeric values / boolean states don’t.

[FlorisVandeVijver]

Thanks Peter,

that really clarifies things!

KInd regards,
Floris