Continuously increase brightness on long press

Configuration Zigbee
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1

Hello,

I’m new to Home assistant and am struggling with my Ikea switches and Zigbee Lights. I’m sorry if this seems pretty basic, but I’ve looked for a few solutions online, and so far I’ve been unable to achieve this behaviour.

What I want to achieve:
On a long press, I want my light to continuously increase brightness until I release the button (let’s say 10% every 500ms).

What happens at a Zigbee level when I press the button:

# Start long-pressing the button
brightness_move_up
# Stop long-pressing the button
brightness_stop

Here’s what I currently have:
Increase brightness once on a long press (no repeat):

alias: test_ikea_bureau
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: device
    domain: mqtt
    device_id: 10c9b509fa5983eef495510c6e3eaf02
    type: action
    subtype: brightness_move_up
    discovery_id: 0x04cd15fffe31b5f5 action_brightness_move_up
condition: []
action:
  - device_id: 297000be31fa34f82b4a3526cd04f32d
    domain: light
    entity_id: light.plafonnier_bureau
    type: brightness_increase
mode: single

And this is what I’d like to achieve:

alias: test_ikea_bureau
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: device
    domain: mqtt
    device_id: 10c9b509fa5983eef495510c6e3eaf02
    type: action
    subtype: brightness_move_up
    discovery_id: 0x04cd15fffe31b5f5 action_brightness_move_up
condition: []
action:
  - repeat:
      until:
        - platform: device
          domain: mqtt
          device_id: 10c9b509fa5983eef495510c6e3eaf02
          type: action
          subtype: brightness_stop
          discovery_id: 0x04cd15fffe31b5f5 action_brightness_stop
      sequence:
        - device_id: 297000be31fa34f82b4a3526cd04f32d
          domain: light
          entity_id: light.plafonnier_bureau
          type: brightness_increase
mode: single

Upon trying to save this last block, I get the following error:

Message malformed: Unexpected value for condition: ‘None’. Expected and, device, not, numeric_state, or, state, sun, template, time, trigger, zone @ data[‘action’][0][‘repeat’][‘until’][0]

Is there a way to provide a Device Action as a stop condition on an Until loop ? If not, is there another way to implement this automation?

Thanks!

2

I will reply to my own thread, but I have found a solution! It’s probably not the best implementation, but it works and uses no pluggin or extension.

What we will use:

  • A “toggle” helper (Boolean variable)
  • An automation that start the brightness_up loop
  • An automation that start the brightness_down loop
  • An automation that stop any running brightness loop

The logic:

# Initial situation
Our Boolean Variable is set to False.
# Long press brightness_up
Our brightness_up loop starts. Every 1 second, the brightness is increased, until our Boolean Variable is set to false.
# Stop pressing brightness_up
A brightness_stop signal is sent. This brightness_stop automation starts, sets our Boolean Variable to false.
The brightness_up loop stops.

The exact same logic applies to the brightness_down loop.

How-to implement:
Start by creating a Helper (Settings > Devices and Services > Helpers). Chose type “Toggle” and name it (I named mine “test_ikea_bureau_helper”).

Create the 3 following automations (Replace my devices IDs and helper with yours):

Brightness_up automation:

alias: test_ikea_bureau_up
description: This automation starts the "Brightness Up" loop
trigger:
  - platform: device
    domain: mqtt
    device_id: 10c9b509fa5983eef495510c6e3eaf02
    type: action
    subtype: brightness_move_up
    discovery_id: 0x04cd15fffe31b5f5 action_brightness_move_up
    id: brightness_up
condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: input_boolean.test_ikea_bureau
    state: "off"
action:
  - service: input_boolean.turn_on
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: input_boolean.test_ikea_bureau
  - repeat:
      while:
        - condition: state
          entity_id: input_boolean.test_ikea_bureau
          state: "on"
      sequence:
        - device_id: 297000be31fa34f82b4a3526cd04f32d
          domain: light
          entity_id: light.plafonnier_bureau
          type: brightness_increase
        - delay:
            hours: 0
            minutes: 0
            seconds: 1
            milliseconds: 0
  - service: input_boolean.turn_off
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: input_boolean.test_ikea_bureau
mode: single

Brightness_down automation:

alias: test_ikea_bureau_down
description: This automation starts the "Brightness Down" loop
trigger:
  - platform: device
    domain: mqtt
    device_id: 10c9b509fa5983eef495510c6e3eaf02
    type: action
    subtype: brightness_move_down
    discovery_id: 0x04cd15fffe31b5f5 action_brightness_move_down
    id: brightness_down
condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: input_boolean.test_ikea_bureau
    state: "off"
action:
  - service: input_boolean.turn_on
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: input_boolean.test_ikea_bureau
  - repeat:
      while:
        - condition: state
          entity_id: input_boolean.test_ikea_bureau
          state: "on"
      sequence:
        - device_id: 297000be31fa34f82b4a3526cd04f32d
          domain: light
          entity_id: light.plafonnier_bureau
          type: brightness_decrease
        - delay:
            hours: 0
            minutes: 0
            seconds: 1
            milliseconds: 0
  - service: input_boolean.turn_off
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: input_boolean.test_ikea_bureau
mode: single

Brightness_stop automation:

alias: test_ikea_bureau_stop
description: This automation stops any "Brightness" loop
trigger:
  - platform: device
    domain: mqtt
    device_id: 10c9b509fa5983eef495510c6e3eaf02
    type: action
    subtype: brightness_stop
    discovery_id: 0x04cd15fffe31b5f5 action_brightness_stop
condition: []
action:
  - service: input_boolean.turn_off
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: input_boolean.test_ikea_bureau
mode: single

I’m still open to better implementations of this, but it does the job for now.

1 Like
3

Tried this one?

1 Like
4

Just wanted to say thanks for that solution! Tried it and it worked great!

5

Thanks for the solution - one question, what should I change the discovery ID to?
The automation is not working for me and i suspect I need to change that

6

Hi Mark, thanks for your post but it doesn’t work yet for me. What is the “discovery_id” and what does the parameters refer to ?
Thanks