Automation Actions don't run when triggered by time

[Meister_Li]

Hello there!

I have an automation to turn the switch on a Tuya Smart Power Strip on at a specific time in the morning. Unfortunately, this does not seem to work all the time and instead - seemingly - randomgly does not actually perform the actions in the automations. Looking at the history, I can see the Automation triggering from time, but then seemingly not actually turning the switch on:

opera_cNByQBr1N3.png

If I run it manually, it works fine:

opera_IydJ0SLxf1.png

There is no entry in the error logs around the time of triggering and I used the UI to create the automation. Still, here’s the yaml as well:

alias: Plant Light Morning
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: time
    at: '08:00:00'
condition: []
action:
  - type: turn_on
    device_id: eb1aa22e5f6c32ab6284c699e18e63d0
    entity_id: switch.smart_power_strip_socket_3
    domain: switch
mode: single

[vingerha]

@Meister_Li

Automation triggering from time, but then seemingly not actually turning the switch on

What do the various (date/time) show trace present ?

[Meister_Li]

Thanks for the reply! I hope this is the right thing - I downloaded the log in it’s entirety from the page.

{
  "trace": {
    "last_step": "action/0",
    "run_id": "337608de2a9028bf9f922d7f2269c27d",
    "state": "stopped",
    "script_execution": "finished",
    "timestamp": {
      "start": "2022-07-18T06:00:00.002405+00:00",
      "finish": "2022-07-18T06:00:07.130169+00:00"
    },
    "domain": "automation",
    "item_id": "1657827646039",
    "trigger": "time",
    "trace": {
      "trigger/0": [
        {
          "path": "trigger/0",
          "timestamp": "2022-07-18T06:00:00.002604+00:00",
          "changed_variables": {
            "this": {
              "entity_id": "automation.plant_light",
              "state": "on",
              "attributes": {
                "last_triggered": "2022-07-17T06:00:00.002781+00:00",
                "mode": "single",
                "current": 0,
                "id": "1657827646039",
                "friendly_name": "Plant Light Morning"
              },
              "last_changed": "2022-07-15T19:40:08.086143+00:00",
              "last_updated": "2022-07-17T06:00:07.128361+00:00",
              "context": {
                "id": "01G85BW6PR7QAZKZN1YZ7BJJ9Y",
                "parent_id": null,
                "user_id": null
              }
            },
            "trigger": {
              "id": "0",
              "idx": "0",
              "platform": "time",
              "now": "2022-07-18T08:00:00.001511+02:00",
              "description": "time",
              "entity_id": null
            }
          }
        }
      ],
      "action/0": [
        {
          "path": "action/0",
          "timestamp": "2022-07-18T06:00:00.009771+00:00",
          "changed_variables": {
            "context": {
              "id": "01G87Y8PR2Q7WDJ3EESX48NG0J",
              "parent_id": null,
              "user_id": null
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    },
    "config": {
      "id": "1657827646039",
      "alias": "Plant Light Morning",
      "description": "",
      "trigger": [
        {
          "platform": "time",
          "at": "08:00:00"
        }
      ],
      "condition": [],
      "action": [
        {
          "type": "turn_on",
          "device_id": "eb1aa22e5f6c32ab6284c699e18e63d0",
          "entity_id": "switch.smart_power_strip_socket_3",
          "domain": "switch"
        }
      ],
      "mode": "single"
    },
    "blueprint_inputs": null,
    "context": {
      "id": "01G87Y8PR2Q7WDJ3EESX48NG0J",
      "parent_id": null,
      "user_id": null
    }
  },
  "logbookEntries": [
    {
      "name": "Plant Light Morning",
      "message": "triggered by time",
      "source": "time",
      "entity_id": "automation.plant_light",
      "context_id": "01G87Y8PR2Q7WDJ3EESX48NG0J",
      "when": 1658124000.002981,
      "domain": "automation"
    }
  ]
}

[vingerha]

Try to get insight if at least the aytomation runs and ends…it may send the ‘on’ to the lamp but the lamp might not be responding

[vingerha]

And also try to see if your device (switch.smart_power_strip_socket_3) is doing something (logbook entries).
What happens when you switch it on manually (via HA > Developer Tools > States you can set the value manually)

[Meister_Li]

The plant light has no Logbook entries for the time-triggered automation, but it does have one for the manual triggering.

For the one triggered by time, I can see the following for the first step:

this:
  entity_id: automation.plant_light
  state: 'on'
  attributes:
    last_triggered: '2022-07-17T06:00:00.002781+00:00'
    mode: single
    current: 0
    id: '1657827646039'
    friendly_name: Plant Light Morning
  last_changed: '2022-07-15T19:40:08.086143+00:00'
  last_updated: '2022-07-17T06:00:07.128361+00:00'
  context:
    id: 01G85BW6PR7QAZKZN1YZ7BJJ9Y
    parent_id: null
    user_id: null
trigger:
  id: '0'
  idx: '0'
  platform: time
  now: '2022-07-18T08:00:00.001511+02:00'
  description: time
  entity_id: null

And the second step:

context:
  id: 01G87YB1XZCWAJ4YDNRTW4K838
  parent_id: null
  user_id: null

I can however see that the manually triggered one has a parent ID, which the time-triggered one doesn’t have:

context:
  id: 01G87YB1XZCWAJ4YDNRTW4K838
  parent_id: 01G87YB1XXXNCZACH65CRWAVJT
  user_id: null

Triggering it in the Developer Tools by setting the status to on, off, On or Off, nothing happens.

[vingerha]

And if you tick ‘Run Actions’ to test the automation, does it switch-on the lamp?

[Meister_Li]

Yes, in that case the lamp is switched on correctly. Same if I do it in the Lovelace-Interface.

[larronni]

I have the same issue with a Tuya light-strip. The automation seems to work, and it runs to the end - but the light is not turned on. The trace says it turns on the light.
If I edit the automation (change something, like the brightness) - it works one time again, but not the next time.
If I run the automation manually (just the action), it works.

I have another automation to turn off the light, that works every time.
If I try to turn on/off the light manually, it works every time.

I changed to use scene (not “device - turn on”) yesterday, so I will see today if that does something different…

[vingerha]

Hmm, indeed you automations seems A-OK to me, using a very similar one myself.
Does the device have multiple ways to turn on? e.g. I have this for my tuya lightstrip and only one works fine

[Meister_Li]

It really only seems to have on/off and toggle. For the most part, it’s a very simple device.

This could be a general Tuya bug however, as I see some reports like this in the bug tracker:

Tuya switch not switched off by automation

[vingerha]

And btw… my tuya lights strips are under domain ‘light’ (tuyalocal)…no clue if that would change a things though, for me this should just work as you wrote it (now leaving home as on holidays)… hope someone else has good ideas

[Meister_Li]

I’ll switch the switch to the light domain and see if that does anything.

[Meister_Li]

That doesn’t seem to have done anything. Mh… Maybe I’ll try switching it all to local Tuya and see if that works better.

[vingerha]

It is weird, the automation is dead simple and manually it works. What I am missing in the log is a section action/1. So maybe the time 00:00:00 is frustrating it, did you try to run it on a normal daytime slot, e.g. in 2 minutes from your ‘now’ ?

[Meister_Li]

Yeah, I added +3 Minutes to it and it didn’t help either - I did switch to local Tuya now tho, away from the official Tuya, and that seems to be working!

[kroma]

I don’t think it’s a Tuya only problem. I’m having the same issue with a Sonoff BASIC R3.