Add Nautical Miles as a valid unit for 'distance' device class

Feature Requests
1

I have an AIS receiver and plot the maximum range that I can detect vessels, however this is returned from the unit in Nautical Miles (1,852m) and HA doesn’t accept this as a valid device class

ValueError: Sensor sensor.ais_catcher_max_range_last_hour has device class ‘distance’, state class ‘None’ unit ‘nmi’ and suggested precision ‘None’ thus indicating it has a numeric value; however, it has the non-numeric value: ‘None’ (<class ‘str’>)

Given that speed is already allowed in knots (kn) which are equal to 1NM per hour, this seems like an oversight.

Acceptable abbreviations for Nautical Mile include (NM - uppercase to distinguish from nanometers), nmi or possibly ‘M’ but I figure the last one could be easily confused with metre or statute miles.

2

Don’t forget to vote for your request :slight_smile:

3

I just wanted to bring up the same!

I also have an AIS receiver and it spits out the distance of a vessel in nautical miles. I have to convert it like this:

      - name: "rsk450ni_md.maximum_distance"
        unit_of_measurement: "km"
        state: "{{ state_attr('sensor.rsk450ni_md', 'maximum_distance') * 1.852 }} "
        unique_id: rsk450ni_md.maximum_distance
        state_class: measurement
        device_class: distance

to be able to properly use it in HA!

The exchange rate is: 1 nautical miles equals 1852 meters (one thousand eight hundred fifty two meters).

Abbreviation should be “NM”, see here.

4

Since I’m working on an AIS receiver integration (Add AIS tracker integration by mib1185 · Pull Request #123956 · home-assistant/core · GitHub) to be added to HA core, why not also add nautical miles to HA unit conversion system :sunglasses:

Neccessary architectual discussion about entity model change started:

5

The architectural discussion has been approved and the corresponding PR #124723 is merged. It will be available in 2024.11

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