Temperature sensor over MQTT can be "disabled", HA throws value parse exception

[feral crystal]

Hi! I am using BSB-LAN over MQTT for managing my heat pump, and I currently track many internal properties (Installers weren't exactly on top of things), such as temperatures from the outside heat exchanger. In case there is no heat need, the returned temperature value is "---", indicating there is no signal. The auto-discovery topic of the device sets this as an integer, so it can be plotted and tracked, but "---" is of course not a valid integer. I think the correct behaviour here would be to set the temperature to "unknown", instead of keeping the last value received, and continuing to throw exceptions. Is there a mechanism in HA to do that? I currently have an open bug ticket on BSB-LAN and thought asking here might be the best idea

[violet silo]

you could maybe template a helper that tracks the value and if its showing an error you set the helper to unknown. then you can use the helper in your automations/dashboards instead of the original sensor.