Automation with timing reset

Configuration
1

Hi guys,

I’m new to automations in home assistant.

I’m working on a garage door opener. I want to send out a notification when the garage has been open for 5, 10, 30, and 60 minutes. So far this is working. However, I also want to stop notifications if the garage door closes. This last piece is what I’m struggling with. Is there a way to reset timing in an automation? I tried creating another automation to turn off the first, but that doesn’t work as the timer continues to work in the background.

I feel like there is a better way of doing this. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

Below is my automation config (I’m using seconds instead of minutes to test):

- action:
  - data:
      message: Garage is open
    service: notify.telegram
  - delay: 00:00:05
  - condition: state
    entity_id: sensor.garage_status
    state: Door Open
  - service: notify.telegram
    data:
      message: Garage has been open for 5 minutes now
  - delay: 00:00:05
  - condition: state
    entity_id: sensor.garage_status
    state: Door Open
  - service: notify.telegram
    data:
      message: Garage has been open for 10 minutes now
  - delay: 00:00:20
  - condition: state
    entity_id: sensor.garage_status
    state: Door Open
  - service: notify.telegram
    data:
      message: Garage has been open for 30 minutes now
  - delay: 00:00:30
  - condition: state
    entity_id: sensor.garage_status
    state: Door Open
  - service: notify.telegram
    data:
      message: Garage has been open for 1 hour now
  alias: Garage door is open
  condition: []
  id: '1515877828496'
  trigger:
  - entity_id: sensor.garage_status
    platform: state
    to: Door Open
2

Rather than set that up as one action with delays, set it up as a single automation with multiple triggers. Use the “for” attribute of the state platform. Have it trigger if door has been opened for 5 min, 10, 20…

3

As an example, here’s an automation I use to auto-lock my front door, but only if the door is closed. It’ll repeat a few times.

- alias: Auto Lock Front Door
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: lock.front_door_deadbolt_134
      to: 'unlocked'
      for:
        minutes: 5
    - platform: state
      entity_id: lock.front_door_deadbolt_134
      to: 'unlocked'
      for:
        minutes: 10
    - platform: state
      entity_id: lock.front_door_deadbolt_134
      to: 'unlocked'
      for:
        minutes: 15
  condition:
    condition: and
    conditions:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.front_door
        state: 'off'
      - condition: state
        entity_id: input_boolean.house_guest
        state: 'off'
  action:
    - service: lock.lock
      entity_id: lock.front_door_deadbolt_134
1 Like
4

thanks a lot @ih8gates that solved my problem. I broke it up into 4 different automations so I can send 4 different notifications. Is there a smarter way of doing this in one automation maybe?

- alias: Notifications Garage Door is Open for 5 mins
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: sensor.garage_status
      to: Door Open
      for:
        minutes: 5
  action:
    - service: notify.telegram
      data:
        message: Garage has been open for 5 minutes

- alias: Notifications Garage Door is Open for 10 mins
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: sensor.garage_status
      to: Door Open
      for:
        minutes: 10
  action:
    - service: notify.telegram
      data:
        message: Garage has been open for 10 minutes

- alias: Notifications Garage Door is Open for 30 mins
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: sensor.garage_status
      to: Door Open
      for:
        minutes: 30
  action:
    - service: notify.telegram
      data:
        message: Garage has been open for 30 minutes

- alias: Notifications Garage Door is Open for 1 hour
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: sensor.garage_status
      to: Door Open
      for:
        minutes: 60
  action:
    - service: notify.telegram
      data:
        message: Garage has been open for 1 hour
5

You could probably combine things and use a template to generate the number for how long the door has been open. But then you’ll need to figure out how to do math with timestamps. Advanced stuff!

6

yeah, this should be good enough then…thanks again!

7

You can try this for a repeating 5 minute template trigger. It essentially test if 300 seconds is evenly divisible by the time since triggered / changed in seconds.

{{  (as_timestamp(now()) | int -  (as_timestamp(states.script.chime.attributes.last_triggered ) | int )) / 300 ==  ((as_timestamp(now()) | int -  (as_timestamp(states.script.chime.attributes.last_triggered ) | int )) / 300) | int }}
8

I know this is a marked as ‘Solved’, but how about simply using the Alert component - isn’t that exactly what it’s for?

2 Likes
9

Good call. I always forget about the alert component!

10

I didn’t know about that. I’ll give it a try, thank you!

11

Just FYI - this is the setup I’m using (it’s in the configuration.yaml, though, not in my automations):

# Alert for Garage Door having been open for 5 minutes
alert:
  garage_door_open_long:
    name: Garage Door is still open!
    entity_id: binary_sensor.garage_door_sensor
    state: 'off'   # Optional, 'on' is the default value
    repeat: 5
#      - 10
#      - 30
#      - 60
    can_acknowledge: true  # Optional, default is true
    skip_first: true  # Optional, false is the default
    notifiers:
      - mypushbullet
      - emailfrommailgun

I’ve not played with the values I commented out - a reminder every 5min is good for me.
What I like particularly is that I can turn off the alerts when I know my garage door is open and don’t need to be reminded every 5min.

1 Like
12

Thanks a lot, will try it out!