Customise entity with attribute

[antlane]

I have a number of generic thermostats defined and I was hoping to be able to add an attribute that would be editable and would persist on a reset.

I added the following to my configuration.yaml>

customize_glob:
         "climate.*_room_heating_thermostat":
              can_call_for_heat: false

After restarting HA, all the generic thermostats that matched the glob got the attribute as designed. I changed one to true but when I restarted HA, it had reverted to false.

Is there a way I can persist changes to this customised attribute? I’m trying to avoid adding another helper if possible.

Thanks for any advice.

[PeteRage]

No.

You will need to customize them one by one and set the attributes how you want.

If you want to change them at runtime in home assistant, use an input_boolean instead.

[petro]

That should work after changing it. Are you sure you saved the glob? Also, is it in the home assistant section?

homeassistant:
    customize_glob:
        "climate.*_room_heating_thermostat":
            can_call_for_heat: true

@PeteRage

No.

You will need to customize them one by one and set the attributes how you want.

That’s not true, customize_glob has existed for many many years now.

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/homeassistant/#customize_glob

[PeteRage]

My understanding is he wanted to change the attribute for one of the entities not all, hence the glob won’t work since if he changes it at runtime then it will revert back on restart.

[antlane]

I wanted to initially have them all the same but then I need the ability to change them within the UI and for that change to stick. I tried this (just using dev tools) but the change I made to one reverted when I restarted HA.

Not sure if that helps clarify my aim?

[PeteRage]

It’ll always revert to the customize value on restart. Use an input boolean helper?

[antlane]

I was hoping I could avoid creating another helper but seems like that won’t be possible. Having a custom attribute would also help with filtering down lists based on the the value of the attribute. Using a separate helper will mean filtering down a list and then iterating through the list to check the associated helper. Not a big deal but I’m just trying to simplify things as much as possible.

[antlane]

I’ve managed to avoid creating an extra helper by using a label instead. Not quite as user-friendly as having a toggle but guess I could always set up a helper to make assigning the label foolproof.

Looks like there’s already a feature request for what I was looking for:

Extend/customize devices

I’d like the ability to extend or combine devices by adding entities. Rather than have an independent helper, an entity could be added that contains a helper construct (text, number, etc.). Possible use cases: some door locks include a contact sensor to detect when a door is open or closed. It would be handy to be able to add entities from an independent sensor into the door lock device. If you have an esphome device that needs to be calibrated, you might pass the calibration data throug…

[justone]

Perhaps you might have a look at “device tools” to be found in HACS.

[antlane]

Thanks. I did see that although it hasn’t been updated for over a year so just in case it doesn’t work in the future, I’ll use the label workaround.

[uSlackr (Greg Martin)]

device-tools just updated to v2.0.0!