ha-hughes

Home Assistant HACS integration for Hughes Power Watchdog surge protectors and power management devices.

Disclaimer: This is an independent community integration and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Hughes or any of its affiliates. Use it at your own risk.

Connects directly to the device over Bluetooth Low Energy — there is no cloud or internet dependency.

Power Watchdog EPO devices can only connect to one bluetooth device at a time. If you have issues, ensure there is not another app trying to connect to the EPO.

Features

• Auto-discovery via BLE advertisements (name prefix PMD*, PWS*, or WD_*)
• Real-time power monitoring: voltage, current, power, energy, frequency
• Dual-line (50A) support: L1 and L2 entities created automatically when dual-line operation is detected
• Gen1 and Gen2 device support: generation auto-detected from device name
• Gen2 control commands: relay on/off, backlight level, neutral detection, energy reset, time sync
• Diagnostics: connection health binary sensor, BLE signal strength, raw frame dump, one-click diagnostics download

Entities

All devices (Gen1 and Gen2)

Entity	Type	Device Class	Unit	Notes
L1 Voltage	Sensor	voltage	V
L1 Current	Sensor	current	A
L1 Power	Sensor	power	W
L1 Energy	Sensor	energy	kWh	Total increasing
L1 Frequency	Sensor	frequency	Hz
L1 Error	Sensor (diag)	—	—	Text description
L1 Error Code	Sensor (diag)	—	—	Numeric code
L2 Voltage	Sensor	voltage	V	Dual-line only
L2 Current	Sensor	current	A	Dual-line only
L2 Power	Sensor	power	W	Dual-line only
L2 Energy	Sensor	energy	kWh	Dual-line only
L2 Frequency	Sensor	frequency	Hz	Dual-line only
L2 Error	Sensor (diag)	—	—	Dual-line only
L2 Error Code	Sensor (diag)	—	—	Dual-line only
Connected	Binary Sensor (diag)	connectivity	—
Data Healthy	Binary Sensor (diag)	problem	—
Signal Strength	Sensor (diag)	signal_strength	dBm	Updated on reconnect only — see note

Signal Strength (RSSI) note: The PMD stops advertising once a GATT connection is established — standard BLE behavior. The Signal Strength sensor therefore captures the RSSI seen during the most recent connection attempt rather than updating continuously during a session. It refreshes on every reconnect, making it useful for comparing signal quality when moving to a new location or diagnosing range-related instability. As a guide: -55 dBm or better is excellent; -75 dBm is marginal; -80 dBm or below may contribute to connection instability.

Gen2 only

Entity	Type	Notes
Relay	Switch	Main output relay
Neutral Detection	Switch	Enable/disable neutral monitoring
Backlight	Number	Display brightness (0–5)
Reset Energy	Button	Clear cumulative energy counter
Sync Time	Button	Push current UTC time to device

Gen2 enhanced models (E8, V8, E9, V9) only

Entity	Type	Device Class	Unit
L1 Output Voltage	Sensor	voltage	V
Temperature	Sensor	temperature	°F
L1 Boost Active	Binary Sensor (diag)	—	—

Requirements

• Home Assistant 2024.1+ with Bluetooth integration
• Bluetooth adapter on the HA host (or ESPHome BT proxy)
• Hughes Power Watchdog device within BLE range

Installation (HACS)

1. Add this repository as a custom HACS repository
2. Install "Hughes Power Watchdog"
3. Restart Home Assistant
4. The device should auto-discover — or add manually via Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → Hughes Power Watchdog and enter the Bluetooth MAC address

Startup Delay

When Home Assistant restarts, all BLE integrations attempt to connect simultaneously, which can exhaust the Bluetooth adapter's connection slots and cause failures. This integration uses a MAC-derived startup delay to stagger its connection attempt relative to other BLE integrations.

The delay is calculated from the last octet of the device's MAC address:

delay = (last MAC octet) / 20.0   →   range: 0–12.75 seconds

For example, a device with MAC 40:79:12:B6:33:9B has last octet 0x9B = 155, giving a startup delay of 155 / 20 = 7.75s.

The delay is deterministic — the same device always gets the same delay — and requires no user configuration.

To adjust the spread, edit __init__.py and change the divisor:

startup_delay = mac_offset / 20.0   # default: 0–12.75s spread

Divisor	Max delay	When to use
10.0	25.5s	Many co-located BLE integrations
20.0	12.75s	Default — good for up to 5 devices
40.0	6.4s	Fast adapter, few integrations

To disable the delay entirely, set startup_delay = 0.0.

Protocol

Gen1 (PMD*, PWS* name prefix)

• Service: 0000FFE0-0000-1000-8000-00805F9B34FB
• Notify (FFE2): 20-byte chunks assembled in pairs into 40-byte frames
• Notify (FFF5): command response channel, enabled on connect
• Big-endian int32 values ÷ 10000 for electrical measurements
• No authentication or pairing required

Gen2 (WD_* name prefix)

• Service: 000000FF-0000-1000-8000-00805F9B34FB
• Read/Write/Notify (FF01): Binary framed packets with magic header 0x247C2740
• ASCII handshake (!%!%,protocol,open, → ok) enters binary mode
• DLReport (0x01) carries 34-byte (single) or 68-byte (dual-line) measurement body
• No authentication or pairing required

Debug Logging

logger:
  logs:
    custom_components.hughes: debug

Use Download diagnostics from the integration page for a full runtime state dump including raw frame bytes (Gen2), connection health, and all parsed values.

Troubleshooting

BLE connection instability

• Ensure no other app (e.g. the Hughes mobile app) has the device paired or connected — Power Watchdog EPO devices support only one BLE connection at a time.
• If running multiple BLE integrations (EasyTouch, OneControl, etc.) on a single adapter, consider adding an ESPHome Bluetooth proxy near the Power Watchdog to give it a dedicated connection path.
• Check that the device is within reliable BLE range. RSSI below -80 dBm indicates marginal range and may cause intermittent drops.

Device drops connection under heavy load

• Hughes Power Watchdog devices may reset their BLE radio when the surge protector trips or responds to voltage events (overvoltage, undervoltage, overcurrent).
• On 50A (dual-line) installations with long shore power cables, voltage sag under heavy load (AC compressor starts, etc.) can trigger protection events that reset the BLE stack. This is normal device behavior.

Both L1 and L2 not appearing

• L2 entities are created automatically when the first L2 telemetry frame is received. On first installation, wait up to 60 seconds after initial connection for L2 data to appear.
• Confirm dual-line operation in the logs: Gen1 data from <addr>: L2 <V> / <A> / error=OK

License

MIT