GGreg20_V3 Radiation Sensor Node with ThingSpeak REST-API for Home Assistant

Connecting Kyiv-based Live GGreg20_V3 Geiger counter sensor node to the Home Assistant via HTTP GET API.

General sensor information

GGreg20_V3 Geiger counter Hackaday project page: https://hackaday.io/project/183103-ggreg20v3-ionizing-radiation-detector

ThingSpeak Channel: https://thingspeak.com/channels/1749073

Datasheets: EN, UA

Order on Tindie: https://www.tindie.com/stores/iotdev/

About this repo

This repository is for Home Assistant server users who want to add radiation data from the GGreg20_V3 demo module located in Kyiv, Ukraine, to their Home Assistant sensor list. This is a real module that continuously measures background radiation levels (excluding blackouts) and transmits them directly to ThingSpeak via the HTTP API.

To add the necessary entities, you need to edit the configuration.yaml file and create widgets. And that's it.

Step 1. Add REST sensors to Home Assistant counfiguration.yaml

Here Home Assistant API is used: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/sensor.rest/

sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: https://api.thingspeak.com/channels/1749073/fields/1.json?results=1
    name: ThingSpeakAPI Sensor CPM
    state_class: measurement
    value_template: "{{ int(value_json.feeds.0.field1) }}"
    
  - platform: rest
    resource: https://api.thingspeak.com/channels/1749073/fields/2.json?results=1
    name: ThingSpeakAPI Sensor uSvperH
    state_class: measurement
    value_template: "{{ float(value_json.feeds.0.field2) }}"
    
  - platform: rest
    resource: https://api.thingspeak.com/channels/1749073/fields/3.json?results=1
    name: ThingSpeakAPI Sensor dose usV
    state_class: measurement
    value_template: "{{ float(value_json.feeds.0.field3) }}"

After adding the sensors to the configuration and restarting the server, the following sensor entities will be available with data received from the ThingSpeak channel for the GGreg20_V3 Radiation Sensor Node.

Step 2. Make widgets in Home Assistant

2.1 Basic Widget Example

To add a simple widget to the dashboard, just create an Entity-based card with the following settings in the form of code: Basic Widget Code:

type: entities
entities:
  - entity: sensor.thingspeakapi_sensor_cpm
    icon: mdi:pulse
    name: ThingSpeakAPI Sensor CPM
  - entity: sensor.thingspeakapi_sensor_usvperh
    icon: mdi:radioactive
    name: ThingSpeakAPI Sensor uSv/h
  - entity: sensor.thingspeakapi_sensor_dose_usv
    icon: mdi:radioactive
    name: ThingSpeakAPI Sensor dose uSv
title: GGreg20_V3 Radiation (MA5)

2.2 Extended Widgets

However, to have beautiful and expressive widgets, you can use the unofficial HACS extension (installed in Home Assistant additionally, according to a separate procedure) and dashboard plugins such as custom-mini-card. If you already have these extensions installed, here's an example of how to set up widgets for them:

2.2.1 24-Hour Widget Example

24-hour widget code:

type: custom:mini-graph-card
icon: mdi:radioactive
entities:
  - entity: sensor.thingspeakapi_sensor_usvperh
    name: GGreg20_V3
name: GGreg20_V3 Sensor Node, uSv/h (24h)
hours_to_show: 24
show:
  labels: true
color_thresholds:
  - value: 0.2
    color: '#28a745'
  - value: 0.3
    color: '#c0392b'
  - value: 0.6
    color: '#dc3545'

2.2.2 Hourly Widget Example with min / max / avg

Hourly Wigdet with min / max / avg code:

type: custom:mini-graph-card
icon: mdi:radioactive
entities:
  - entity: sensor.thingspeakapi_sensor_usvperh
    aggregate_func: max
    name: Max
    color: null
  - entity: sensor.thingspeakapi_sensor_usvperh
    aggregate_func: min
    name: Min
  - entity: sensor.thingspeakapi_sensor_usvperh
    aggregate_func: avg
    name: Avg
    color: green
name: GGreg20_V3 Radiation Power (Hourly)
hours_to_show: 24
points_per_hour: 12
group_by: hour
show:
  labels: true

2.2.3 Gauge Widget Example

Gauge widget code:

type: gauge
entity: sensor.thingspeakapi_sensor_usvperh
min: 0
max: 0.9
unit: uSv/h
name: GGreg20_V3 Sensor Node ThingSpeak
needle: true
severity:
  green: 0
  yellow: 0.3
  red: 0.6