LG Thinq MQTT Proxy

This application can connect to LG Thinq infrastructure and register for the updates coming from smart LG devices. Received messages are converted into JSON payload and sent to your private MQTT server. This way you can enhance your home automation (like OpenHab or HomeAssistant) thanks to received notifications from your fridge or washing machine.

Credits

This application is based on the code written by dcmeglio at https://github.com/dcmeglio/hubitat-thinq . He made a great job by finding all the details necessary to connect to the LG's MQTT servers and register for the messages coming from the LG's appliances.

I have asked him if he doesn't have any objection with adaptation of his work and renaming the project to “Thinq MQTT Proxy”. His answer was

No objections at all. Good luck!

My goal was to keep the code as close to the original one, to make any updates with upstream easier. I have implemented a thin layer which is providing necessary infrastructure for this code to work as standalone application.

Prerequisites

1. Java 8
2. Apache Maven 3.6.3

Building

mvn clean package

First run

Copy state-example.json to state.json and correct your language, region and local MQTT server settings.

java -jar ./target/thinq-mqtt-proxy.jar init

Running

For the first time

Check if application works correctly when running it from command line

java -jar ./target/thinq-mqtt-proxy.jar run

As a service

If previous step was successful, run

sudo ./install.sh

It should create and start thinq-mqtt-proxy service. You can verify if works correctly by inspecting thinq-mqtt-proxy.log or by issuing command

sudo systemctl status thinq-mqtt-proxy.service

As a docker container

Before using it, build the image using

docker build -t thinq2mqtt .

You can now now start the container using the image and linking you state.json to "/home/app/state.json". Make sure to set the timezone by passing an environment variable "TZ" using the timezone from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones

First step is to init the state.json file with the authentication url: run a container in interactive mode (-ti) and with 'init' parameter. On non-unix system, replace $PWD by the current working directory on your host.

docker run -ti --rm -e "TZ=Europe/Paris" --name thinq2mqtt -v=$PWD/state-example.json:/home/app/state.json thinq2mqtt init

Second step is just to start the container with the json file

docker run -e "TZ=Europe/Paris" --name thinq2mqtt -v=$PWD/state-example.json:/home/app/state.json thinq2mqtt

Logging configuration

Per default logging is configured to create a rolling logfile in /home/app/logs called thinq-mqtt-proxy.log. For configuration the file /home/app/logback.xml is used. When creating the container you can mount the folder and file to your local disk. This way you have acces to the logs and they are preserved when recreating the container. You can also change the logging configuration by editing your local file.

Example:

docker run thinq2mqtt -e "TZ=Europe/Vienna" -v=/home/app/state.json:</path/to>/state.json \
                                            -v=/home/app/logs:</path/to/>logs \
                                            -v=/home/app/logback.xml:</path/to/>logback.xml

Items to do

1. [x] MQTT reconnects
2. [ ] Error handling
3. [x] Easier setup
4. [x] Better format of the messages after conversion
5. [x] Provide documentation on how to run it as service

6. [x] Friendly names for the MQTT topic (i.e. washer instead of long id string)

   Instead of using cryptic uuid of the device as the topic name, by default is it generated from the device type in lower case (ie. "refrigerator"). This name is persisted into the configuration file and can be modified if different name is needed.

7. [ ] Code cleanup and hardening
8. [ ] Tests
9. [x] Better logging

Disclaimer

• As I have only v2 devices, I have not corrected the code to handle v1 ones. Original code is written to handle them, so adding support should be doable.
• I have tested only washer and fridge, because I don't have more Thinq enabled devices. There might be some fixes necessary for other devices.
• This application is a hobby project for other hobbyists, provided as-is. I am not responsible for any issues caused by its use.

Discussion

https://community.openhab.org/t/lg-smart-thinq/38818