Ability to expose helper entities with no associated device

[smhc]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

As this addon only exposes a limited set of device types there is a need to expose unsupported entities as different types to be able to get their status/control. The helper entity in HA is ideal for doing this, but unfortunately this addon does not expose "orphan" helper entities, even if they are of the supported entity type.

The addon does support helper entities associated with a device, but the only way to associated helper entities with a device is to have them managed by HA. e.g there is no way to model a "cover template" helper in HA such that it can be visible in matterbridge.

Describe the solution you'd like

Support for helper entities that have no associated device.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Support for other device types natively. Another option is to use mqtt which gives you an associated device, unlike yaml configured templates.
Support for "contact"/binary sensors would also be ideal, especially from helpers, but also other devices.

Additional context

I am trying to model a garage roller door status from a tasmota device in HA/matterbridge. But I do not want to model it as a switch that can be toggled to open the door. I want the status only.

[Luligu]

Hi,
published 0.0.9 with support for for helpers with domain input_boolean.

What helper would you like to use for your project?

When you write: "this addon only exposes a limited set of device type". What do you mean by this? What other device types would you like to have?

Sorry again for the late answer.

[smhc]

I am trying to model the binary status of a couple entities, e.g the open/close state of a garage roller door. But I do not want to expose it as a switch that can be toggled - I am just after a "contact" sensor that reports the current state. Ideally I would like to expose a 'cover' that I can configure in HA, e.g https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/cover.template/ - but I would be happy with just a simple 'open/close' contact sensor.

There doesn't appear to be a way to take a helper 'binary_sensor' and expose it via hass.

I didn't have much luck trying to expose a 'input_boolean' helper with the latest version, although I am using whitelists so that might be interfering with it.

Another helper that would be useful is a "light", to help resolve issues with incompatible lights. I did have a RGBW Tasmota light exposed but that seems to be causing an error with the latest matterbridge so had to disable it - it would be good to support helper entities/devices that can be used to wrap troublesome devices.

[Luligu]

If you have individuel entity white list you need then to put all entities in the list.

binary-sensor can work only if we map it to onOff but the is like imput_boolean so is the same.