I am sure there must be a simple solution to this problem. I would like a binary sensor that turns ON when some other entity has been in a particular state for longer than a predetermined time. For example, when there has been no motion in the house for 5 minutes, the timer_boolean sensor would come ON.
I could use a combination of the timer, a binary sensor and a couple of automations, but this feels like it should have a simple solution (I’d like to stick to native HA rather than head down the app daemon route please).
I’d imagine the solution would be configured like:
timer_boolean:
entity: sensor.motion_at_home
state: OFF
time_delta: 500 # seconds
For state checks, you can use the for: option to specify how many minutes it must have been in that state. You could use an input boolean to indicate whether there’s been motion/no motion and a pair of automations.
One turns the boolean off when there’s motion (and the boolean is on). The other waits for the motion sensors to be off for 5 minutes before turning the boolean on. You could probably put all the motion sensors in a group and monitor the group’s state to simplify that. Something like:
input_boolean:
house_idle:
name: No motion for at least 5 minutes
initial: off
icon: mdi:timer
automation:
- alias: house is idle
initial_state: on
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: group.motion_sensors
to: 'off'
for:
minutes: 5
action:
- service: input_boolean.turn_on
entity_id: input_boolean.house_idle
- alias: house has motion
initial_state: on
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: group.motion_sensors
to: 'on'
condition:
- condition: state
entity_id: input_boolean.house_idle
state: 'off'
action:
- service: input_boolean.turn_off
entity_id: input_boolean.house_idle
@Tinkerer thanks for your suggestion, I believe it will work, but I have hit a slight roadblock. I have my automations setup for use with the Automations editor, but this does not allow me to set the initial_state nor use for. Any suggestions? I have raises this as a feature request.
OK so although I can’t add the for in the automations editor, if I manually add the automation in automations.yaml the for rule it is displayed in the editor:
