Retrieve data from unused devices

[Wolly76]

Dear all,

Many physical devices comes with many (sub) devices showing as separate devices in the device list.
If you want to use then you'll have to add them as 'used' but some are rarely necessary. This ends up with an enormous large list and causes issues for readability and clarity. Also when connecting Domoticz to Homebridge too many devices are transposed from one to the other without any usage.

One solution is to set most devices to unused but then I don't know how to get any data when necessary. For example, I don't need the battery state on my dashboard but I would still like to retrieve those data in a dzVents script to know which devices needs new batteries. Get the point?

My question is therefore, is there a way to retrieve data from unused devices so I do not have to add them to active 'used' list?
Or does anybody have a proper (another) solution for the problem of too many devices?

Many thanks in advance.
kind regards,
Wol

[waltervl]

One other solution to hide the not really necessary devices is to rename them and start the name with $.
They will show up in the device list (menu setup - devices) but will not be shown in the devices tabs. If it was a favorite device (and so shown on dashboard tab) it will stay a favorite (and will be shown on dashboard but not in for example temperature tab.

[Wolly76]

Why didn't I know this? I'm gonna try immediately. This is might be the solution. Great.
Thanks!

[rrozema]

There is also alternative method to this: if you add any device to the pre-defined room "$Hidden devices", that device will no longer be shown in the tab pages. I'm not sure, but I think it will also be hidden from the favorites tab page. And just like with renaming it to have a $ in front of the name, it is still accessible to retrieve it's value. One big advantage of the $Hidden-devices-room-method is that you don't have to change the device's name, so any scripts that you previously wrote and reference the name of the (now hidden) device will still work.