Automation trigger entitity id in an action

Configuration
1

I have an automation that fires when a PIR sensor picks up motion.

The triggers are set as 2 different sensors in 2 different rooms, and so have 2 different entity_ids.

When motion is detected, I fire a notification to my phone via pushbullet.

I would like the notification to stipulate where the motion was detected.

Looking through the docs I think its possible using templating, but I cant figure it out.
I create all my automations via the front end configuration panel, and my automations.yaml file doesn’t really seem to make much sense, or at least have a logical flow to it?

Could anyone help me out?
Do people generally use the front end to create and manage automations, or is it best to ‘manually’ create them in a .yaml file?

2

try that:

    service: notify.notification_service_you_use
    data_template:
      message: 'Motion detected on {{states.binary_sensor.pir_name.name}}'
1 Like
3

Thanks for taking the time to help.

That just returns Motion detected on
As in blank
My PIR snesors aren’t binary sensors, they are mqtt sensors

4

Few screen dumps of how I’ve set it up…

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SmartSelectImage_2017-12-15-17-30-06
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5

you’d then need to replace binary_sensor.pir_name with the name of your sensor…
I have no idea how you defined your MQTT Sensor, though I would expect them to be binary as they’ll either return a status showing motion (so on) or no motion (so off) and they should therefore be defined as binary_ssensors.
In addition you can define them with device_class: motion and they’ll behave as motion sensors in HA.
if you provide an extract if your config I can have a closer look

6

you’d need to have 2 sensors returned by MQTT of course for this to work…

7

Both sensors are defined as this, just the name and mqtt topic change

- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "sensor-node/lounge"
  name: 'Lounge Sensor Node PIR'
  value_template: '{{ value_json.motion }}'

I want the notification to tell me which sensor has been triggered?

8

I would just put the trigger device in the message like the example and report trigger.entity_id

automation:
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: 
      - sensor.one
      - sensor.two
  action:
    service: notify.notify
    data_template:
      message: >
            Motion just occured at  {{ trigger.entity_id }}
1 Like
9

How does one use templating when using the front end to create automations?

Or can you not?

10

I am not sure if you can, I just edit my configuration.yaml when I add automations.

11

Ah ok.
So I can still edit automations.yaml as in the past before the GUI editor was introduced?

12

any update in this component and lack of function?