Customizing entities - changing friendly names

Configuration
1

Hi Folks,
I am sure someone on these forums has an answer for me as I have been completely unable to change the name of an entity after scouring this forum and following the instructions @ https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/configuration/customizing-devices/.
My situation: I am trying to change the name of the SleepNumber bed occupancy sensor & icon.

I have tried the following situations from docs linked above:

  1. Go to Configuration > Entities > and locate sensor “binary_sensor.sleepnumber_firmness_control_sleepiq_dual_boxed_XXXX_is_in_bed” and there is a no edit pencil icon on the right of the list. Clicking on the entity brings up the settings dialog box for entity. Click the filter icon top right opens a second dialog box where I click on the wheel/cog which takes me back to the previous dialog box.
  2. Customization: I have enabled Advanced Mode for my profile and chosen the binary sensor and Choose “Pick an attribute to override”. I chose “other” and entered “friendly_name” and entered a shorter name. Hit save. Reload core and then just for kicks, restart HA.
  3. I created a file customize.yaml and entered the following in it:
homeassistant:
  name: Home
  # etc

  customize:
    binary_sensor.sleepnumber_firmness_control_sleepiq_dual_boxed_XXXX_is_in_bed:
      friendly_name: XXXX in Bed

and I entered the following in my configuration.yaml file:

customize: !include customize.yaml

but every time I start HA and go to run the config validation it gives me an error “Configuration invalid”

I have even tried just taking the customize portion from the customize.yaml file and pasting it directly in my configuration.yaml file.
I cannot figure out how to get this changed.
The last thing I have done is go to Developer Tools > States and choose binary_sensor.sleepnumber_firmness_control_sleepiq_dual_boxed_XXXX_is_in_bed and entered the code and hit save state.

friendly_name: 'SleepNumber Firmness Control, SleepIQ, Dual,Boxed Adam Is In Bed'
device_class: occupancy

None of the above items have worked so far.
Can anyone please help me out here and let me figure this out as it displays the entire sensor entity on the Lovelace card instead of a simple friendly name.
Many many thanks.

2

This in configuration.yaml:

homeassistant:
  # other stuff may be here
  customize: !include customize.yaml

This in customize.yaml:

binary_sensor.sleepnumber_firmness_control_sleepiq_dual_boxed_XXXX_is_in_bed:
  friendly_name: 'XXXX in Bed'
1 Like
3

OMG. Thank you so much my friend.

One other quick question… is there a way to change the appearance of the icon based on the value that is sent from the sensor? i.e. one icon when the bed is occupied and one when it is unoccupied?

Thank you again so much. Simple thing for an expert but this newbie was stumped.
Many thanks.

4

Only with if you make a template binary sensor. It supports icon templates:

Customize only supports ‘icon’ not ‘icon_template’.

1 Like
5

Thank you so much. You are awesome!

6

Hello. How do I change the display name of these sensors? I tried adding “name: test” after the sensor entity id with two spaces indentation and it failed to update using lovelace UI.

type: entities
entities:
  - sensor.mysensor_abs_pressure
  - sensor.mysensor_daily_rain
  - sensor.mysensor_dew_point
  - sensor.mysensor_event_rain
  - sensor.mysensor_feels_like
  - sensor.mysensor_hourly_rain_rate
  - sensor.mysensor_humidity
  - sensor.mysensor_humidity_in
  - sensor.mysensor_inside_temp
  - sensor.mysensor_last_rain
  - sensor.mysensor_lifetime_rain
  - sensor.mysensor_max_gust
  - sensor.mysensor_monthly_rain
  - sensor.mysensor_rel_pressure
  - sensor.mysensor_solar_rad
  - sensor.mysensor_solar_rad_lx
  - sensor.mysensor_temp
  - sensor.mysensor_uv_index
  - sensor.mysensor_weekly_rain
  - sensor.mysensor_wind_dir
  - sensor.mysensor_wind_gust
  - sensor.mysensor_wind_speed
title: Current Conditions
7

This works for me:

type: entities
entities:
  - entity: sensor.hall_bath_humidity_sensor_humidity
    name: Hall Bath Humidity
  - entity: switch.shelly_hall_bath_fan
    name: Hall Bath Fan
  - type: weblink
    name: Hall Bath Fan - http://192.168.5.65
    url: http://192.168.5.65
    icon: mdi:fan
1 Like
8

This worked, thank you!