How exactly does matchmaker work?

[michalk-k]

In git repo, I found an entry for Shelly 3EM and Shelly Mini. But neither one is offered to me by PowerCalc offers me it as autodiscovery nor I can add it manually from the library. Especially inability to choose manually from the library is especially strange. it offers me Epson and Shelly, then only Shelly MINI PM gen3, while there are 4 profiles for Shelly in the library.

I suppose it might be because of a manufacturer difference. I have the manufacturer set to Allterco Robotics. The Shelly is not a manufacturer, while the path is profile_library/shelly/Shelly 3EM/model.json. Probably it can be solved with use of aliases, but I humbly suggest being consistent. If you allow me, I will reorganize that.
Before one starts arguing that the shelly is a more famous name, Twinkly doesn't have a twinkly subdirectory, but ledworks which is the proper company name.

I would also ask additional questions:

1. The documentation does mention, the library can be downloaded on demand. How to download the most recent library?

2. How can I be sure I have the most recent library downloaded

3. If I create profile locally, how can I let PpowerCalc know about that? Does it scan filesystem periodically? Or the HA restart is needed? I found no service call for that.

4. Now harder part. Shelly 3EM is a meter with 4 inputs (and afaik one additional relay). I suppose the consumption defined in its profile represents the value applicable to the whole device (?). What feature to use to track self-consumption? Assign only one of many sensors.

PS. Sorry for the lot of questions, and issues recently. You know - Christmas, free time to invest in HA as well is contribute to PowerCalc maybe.

[bramstroker]

In git repo, I found an entry for Shelly 3EM and Shelly Mini. But neither one is offered to me by PowerCalc offers me it as autodiscovery nor I can add it manually from the library. Especially inability to choose manually from the library is especially strange. it offers me Epson and Shelly, then only Shelly MINI PM gen3, while there are 4 profiles for Shelly in the library.

profiles with "device_type": "smart_switch" are only applicable to switch.* devices.
So probably you are trying to use it for a sensor.* device now.

I suppose it might be because of a manufacturer difference. I have the manufacturer set to Allterco Robotics. The Shelly is not a manufacturer, while the path is profile_library/shelly/Shelly 3EM/model.json. Probably it can be solved with use of aliases, but I humbly suggest being consistent. If you allow me, I will reorganize that.
Before one starts arguing that the shelly is a more famous name, Twinkly doesn't have a twinkly subdirectory, but ledworks which is the proper company name.

Please see https://docs.powercalc.nl/library/library/#discovery, which I added today.
Which integration are you using, as all these shelly devices have manufacturer set to shelly in HA, at least with the official shelly integration?
It's indeed a matter of getting Allterco Robotics added as an alias to the shelly manufacturer.json. https://github.com/bramstroker/homeassistant-powercalc/blob/master/profile_library/shelly/manufacturer.json#L3
Than auto discovery would work both when the manufacturer is Shelly in device info, as well as Allterco Robotics.
Please leave it in shelly directory as people 99% of the cases will search for shelly here in manufacturer dropdown. https://library.powercalc.nl/. "Allterco Robotics" is a lesser known brand/manufacturer so I prefer to keep this shelly.

I would also ask additional questions:

1. The documentation does mention, the library can be downloaded on demand. How to download the most recent library?

On each HA restart Powercalc will redownload https://api.powercalc.nl/library containing all metadata about all the available power profiles.

2. How can I be sure I have the most recent library downloaded

Powercalc will always redownload this full library JSON and redownload / download LUT files when profile is updated.
It's all automatically. If you don't see any errors in the logs it will work.

3. If I create profile locally, how can I let PpowerCalc know about that? Does it scan filesystem periodically? Or the HA restart is needed? I found no service call for that.

If you put profile locally there is no need to restart, only to activate discovery routine.
But when using Virtual power sensor (library) the profile should be selectable right away. As long as the profile matches the entity domain. See my first comment.

4. Now harder part. Shelly 3EM is a meter with 4 inputs (and afaik one additional relay). I suppose the consumption defined in its profile represents the value applicable to the whole device (?). What feature to use to track self-consumption? Assign only one of many sensors.

I'm not sure about this question. Shelly 3EM is only a powermeter, right? No relay's in it, or am I missing something.

[RubenKelevra]

Ah I see, both standby_power and fixed_config are set to 1.22, so probably the initial purpose of this profile is to not have the relay included. But only for self-usage of the device.
@RubenKelevra can probably chime in on this as he contributed the profile.

Yeah, I don't own the Shelly 3EM, I just saw the review by zerobrain on YouTube where he measured the consumption. That's what my profile is based on.

I had no idea it can operate a contactor. :)

Not sure how he was able to configure the profile in his installation as for the smart_switch device type a switch entity is required.

Well, we patched that out, didn't we?

Because the Shelly pm mini gen3 has no switch either, it's just power measurement.

[michalk-k]

I had no idea it can operate a contactor. :)

But then why did you set it up as a smart_switch instead of a power_meter?

[bramstroker]

@michalk-k I just implemented power_meter last week, so that wasn't available at that time.
We can just change that profile now from smart_switch to power_meter.

[RubenKelevra]

@bramstroker I'll do that, thanks.

[michalk-k]

@bramstroker I'll do that, thanks.

I have already prepared a few more changes (added aliases representing device ids).

I can share it with you or make PR myself

[RubenKelevra]

@michalk-k can you please provide how the Shelly 3EM reports itself in Home Assistant?

"This can be found on the device page in HA, on the top left under Device Info."

[michalk-k]

TBH I don't know. I thought you know :)
I'm using manually created mqtt devices/entities.

I created PR with added aliases to manufacturer as well as devices. Included the discussed change from smart_switch to energy_meter for 3EM.
#2867

[michalk-k]

Let's continue the discussion about 3EM.

We know it's dedicated to power measurement. But it provides a relay. Considering one may need to measure the power needed for controlling the relay, we would need 2 profiles right? One for power_meter alone, then for the switch.

How such a profile would be structured to accept either one of power/energy sensors or the switch entity?

[bramstroker]

Currently a unique manufacturer/model profile can only be configured for one device type.
So the use case sketched above is not yet possible in the library.
We could create the profile with device type smart_switch, than it would be bound to switch.* entity, but it will only work when a switch entity is available, which is not the case for you right?

I would also say it's quite unlikely that people actually use the relay, as it seems more of an extra feature and not the main purpose of the device.

So for now I would say the best we can do is to add it as device_type power_meter, as you already have a PR for now. #2867
Also "discovery_by": "device" needs to be added there to prevent duplicate discovery flows. I have a PR for that already #2868. So you can go forward and add that to the model.json in your PR.
Additionally I suggest to add the property config_flow_discovery_remarks also to the model.json with some explanation / warning that the power profile will only measure the self usage of the 3EM without the relay.