Avoid esp home sensor displaying status "unavailable"

[lethuer]

I created a sensor like this:

dallas:
  - pin: D1 #GPIO5 
    update_interval: 5s

sensor:
- platform: dallas
  index: 0
  name: "Dallas Temperature"
  id: dallas_temperature

Sometimes the sensor returns “unavailable” for one cycle what I want to prevent.
For a Home Assistant sensor I found a solution like this:

Sensor - display last known value instead of 'unavailable'

Here’s a better way to show the last known value of a sensor: Create a Trigger-based Template Sensor (the NOTE section of this post)

For Esp Home I found this discussion:

Avoiding 'unavailable' in sensor templating

not numeric means unavailable or generally not usable as numeric? in the first case you can limit yourself by comparing the state to unavailable (and maybe unknown?) but as you’ll need to convert it to a float anyway, maybe it’s possible to use float’s default set to some “impossible” value like this: {% set invalid_value = -48 %} {% set resut = states('sensor.brightfactor') | float(invalid_value) %} {% if result != invalid_value %} # do your maths and return a new value {% else %} {{ stat…

So, how I can create a trigger based sensor directly in esp home which get’s only updated if the new value of original sensor isn’t “unavailable” or “unknown” ?

[lethuer]

My idea is to create an additional template sensor and only return a new value if the original sensor isn’t “unknown” or “unavailable”:

But the syntax seems to be wrong… Can anybody help how I can check the status for “unknown” and “unavailable” ?

- platform: template
  id: dallas_temperature_helper
  name: "Dallas Temperature Helper"
  unit_of_measurement: '°C'
  icon: mdi:thermometer
  lambda: |-
    if (id(dallas_temperature).state == 'unknown')
    {
      return {};
    } 
    else 
    {
      return id(dallas_temperature).state;
    }

To get the new value from my temperature sensor I updatet this sensor like this:

- platform: dallas
  index: 0
  name: "Dallas Temperature"
  id: dallas_temperature
  on_value:
    - sensor.template.publish:
          id: dallas_temperature_helper
          state: !lambda 'return id(dallas_temperature).state;'

[lethuer]

This is a working solution for me, so now I provide the temperature to my additional sensor only if the original sensor is in a range.

- platform: dallas
  index: 0
  name: "Dallas Temperature"
  id: dallas_temperature
  on_value:
    - if:
        condition:
          - sensor.in_range: #avoid "unavailable" / "unknown" status
              id: dallas_temperature
              above: -100
              below: 100
        then:
          - sensor.template.publish:
              id: dallas_temperature_helper
              state: !lambda 'return id(dallas_temperature).state;'

- platform: template
  id: dallas_temperature_helper
  name: "Dallas Temperature Helper"
  unit_of_measurement: '°C'
  icon: mdi:thermometer
  on_value:
    ## do something

Anyhow, I would like to check for “unknown” and “unavailable”, does anybody know how to check for this ?

[zenzay42]

You should be able to use isnan() in a lambda function. I haven’t tested this, but off the top of my head it would go something like this:

- platform: dallas
  index: 0
  name: "Dallas Temperature"
  id: dallas_temperature 
  on_value:
    lambda: |-
      if (!(isnan(x))) {
        id(dallas_temperature_helper).publish_state(x);
      }

The x variable contains the current value of the sensor.

[lethuer]

Thanks

sensor:
- platform: dallas
  index: 0
  name: "Dallas Temperature"
  id: dallas_temperature
  unit_of_measurement: '°C'
  icon: mdi:thermometer
  accuracy_decimals: 1
  on_value:
    - lambda: |-
        if (!(isnan(id(dallas_temperature).state))) 
        {
          return id(dallas_temperature_helper).publish_state(id(dallas_temperature).state);
        }
- platform: template
  id: dallas_temperature_helper
  name: "Dallas Temperature Helper"
  unit_of_measurement: '°C'
  icon: mdi:thermometer
  on_value:
    ## do something