Bell character over mqtt

[Akstef]

Hello

I have a project to control a water pump with the meshtastic network. I have configured the device to switch a gpio when the alert bell character is received. It is working fine when I send it from the Android app by clicking the bell icon.

I want to be able to do it over mqtt so I can control the device from Home assistant.
I am able to send a message from Home assistant over mqtt by using:
{"from":3774210436,"type":"sendtext","payload":"text to send"}

If I put the bell character as payload by using alt + 7, Home assistant send this:
{"from":3774210436,"type":"sendtext","payload":"•"}

I get the following message on the reciever: •
There is only a text received but no external notification triggered.

I have asked to integrate this fonction on this topic: meshtastic/firmware#6138
I get an answer that this fonction is already implemanted but no answer on how to use it and the topic was closed.

Can someone make a test and confirm me if it is working or not?

I use a t-beam board with the stable firmware 2.5.2

[garthvh]

It is just a character, should be fine over mqtt, only issue I can see is that maybe it gets dropped if you are using json

[Akstef]

Thank you for your assistance.

Can be related to json. According the meshtastic documentation, json output must be activated to use it with home assistant.

I use also mqtt explorer. I have desactivated the json output but how should I send the message - character now?

[Akstef]

Anybody to help me on how to send the bell character over mqtt with home assistant?