Auto T I also have many things on my network monitored at sensible specified intervals dpeending on the type of device.
Having to edit a database rather than a simple’ish YAML file is a major backward step for me. I suspect some of my devices will fail badly if pinged too often and others will go offline if ot ping’d at the correct frequency to keep them alve. Automations - horrible solution to a minor specification item no longer being provided. You did not have to specify this as the default does suit many devices and systems.
It is configurable with an automation and the homeassistant.update_entity service. This is the path forward, it’s set in stone. It’s something that isn’t going to change. The decision was made years ago at this point. Sorry. All UI integrations are this way and any YAML integration that moves to the UI will adopt this functionality. And before you get upset with me, I did not make this decision, it was a group decision from many volunteer & core developers.
Yes. That’s why I’m confused. I do understand the reasoning, but I still don’t get why then change the defaults just after the relase.
Also the deprecation occured so long ago, but was still advised in the documentation without any hint this would be removed (as it is now for the YAML config).
Anyways I do appreciate that it can be done with automations, for me the issue is what are we supposed to do with the device tracker consider_home option.
This release breaks functionality of the device tracker ping platform without a clear documented path to remedy. Again, if I’m not mistaken.
I’ve had to roll back to 2023.11.3 as my ping stopped working also the RPi 4 CPU Temperature. Ping is used to auto reboot my Router after 16S is the connection cuts and CPU Cooling Fan Control.
I think you may agree with me that this is not 2023.12-related.
This is probably worth to be discussed in another place.
As for “yaml->UI” trend - totally agree with you.
As for PING:
I had 10-15 ping sensors (mainly device_trackers, 2 binary_sensors) in yaml.
After update I got these (they seemed as “these”) entities added in “Integrations” UI. Then I commented lines for these entities in a code.
And none of these device_trackers were working.
Rebooted - did not help, all tracker not_home.
Removed all PING integrations for device_trackers from UI, only 2 PING binary_sensors remained .
Rebooted.
Quest continues.
Well, my attempts to add ping device_trackers from yaml failed.
Lines in yaml are commented.
Some “device_tracker.some_device_ping_device_tracker” line deleted from “known_devices.yaml”.
Ping integrations in UI (automatically created on HA updated) removed.
HA rebooted several times.
But still I see this “device_tracker.some_device_ping_device_tracker” in Entities list. And because of this I cannot add a PING integration with entities with a same name… (same for ALL my old entities - they are stuck and cannot be replaced).
Observe that this “move ping entities from yaml → UI” functionality is not working in my case. Not mature.
Then please give the flexibility to declutter the Automations list as well! Which has been asked multiple times already… as it is just a long list without able to hide these fake Automations made as a stop gap solution…
I’m going to stick my oar in again as, in my irritation with the impact on ping, I hadn’t appreciated the impact on my device tracker configuration. Here is my highly highly (irony for those of you in America!) complex yaml:
# Use ping at home to detect presence
device_tracker:
- platform: ping
hosts:
my_phone: 172.16.0.116
wife_phone: 172.16.0.118
car: 172.16.0.121
interval_seconds: 1
count: 2
Sorry but where in the whole wide world of sport is what’s been removed helpful to anyone? How do I replace this with anything “simple”?! I use this to switch on lights at night when we get home. I suppose I could wait 5 minutes, or 30 seconds in the next release, for the lights to come on (again, for those of you in America, irony!).
Agree 100% that it is a step backwards. Having to create 15 new automations (which in themselves have had issues over the past two releases) to get a new interval is hardly a user benefit.
If I have a critical device that is down, I do not want to wait 5 minutes to know about it. This will be yet another piece of functionality I have to move to another solution from Home Assistant.
The logic of making it easy for the user is deeply flawed. How hard can it be to leave one field that defaults to 5 minutes but is editable (with the ability to change from minutes to seconds)?
If they use the same scan interval a simple, single automation covering multiple entities will do the job, which should be the case for those that used the defaults.
That said, I remembered these two smart options by @CentralCommandfrom a year ago which truly allows you to have only one, regardless of varying scan intervals (as long as its constant per entity).
So, please, can everybody still complaining about this just pause for a moment and think about this.
If you don’t get this by now:
scan_interval is being deprecated. This has been going on for years. None of this is specific to the ping integration. It’s just another one on the list. I simply don’t get how this can still be a surprise if you’ve made any attempt at regularly reading blog posts and release notes.
This is a home automation platform. Automations: Use them. There are so many complaints about using the UI vs YAML, or not having flexibility and control. Here you have it all.
Presuming you’re talking about my pinged devices, the sensors were already set up. And working. And it could be done in one place. Now it is in two places, and even with that it is more complex as in the second place it requires several additions. Your original assertion that it’s one automation is a bit flawed in my situation. As someone else has stated for their use case, I have varying poll times based on the type of device. That means different triggers, and different automations.
Why is this better than simply having a polling frequency in the place where the monitored devices are set up to begin with? It’s among the worst UX experiences (outside of manually editing YAML) I can imagine in this case.
To be sure, the way the migration went was mostly spot-on. It’s great that the existing devices were automatically imported into the new (visible) integration. It’s also great that I was given a warning that the YAML should be edited to remove the prior ping definitions.
With all of this said, I’ll just be disabling this part of my Home Asisstant implementation and move it to UptimeKuma. My only use case for this integration was for the purpose of notifications and one dashboard showing the status of said devices. I suppose I’d be sad if I had an automation that flashed my lights if my garage door opener didn’t respond to a ping. But that’s not the situation here. It’s just a shame that I’m having to move more things away.
these I remember (even found them in my templating toolbook now … had forgotten all about them because no need.
they are not ging to work for those Pingers that use the seconds scan_interval? wonder if it will take long before we see those being updated with that detail. Probably a nice challenge for the next few days (hours…)
… had forgotten all about them because no need.