Error starting timer with button with duration set from input_number using template

Configuration Frontend
1

Hello,

I am an experienced software developer but still a beginner with HA (started just a few weeks ago). I am trying to control the duration of a timer with a variable (the bigger picture is I want to create an oscillator to control a heater’s duty cycle).

I am using a recent version: 2023.10.5

I have defined two entities:

  • timer.pwm_timer
  • input_number.pwm_timer_duration

I have defined two cards:

type: entities
entities:
  - entity: input_number.pwm_timer_duration
  - entity: timer.pwm_timer
    secondary_info: none

type: button
show_name: true
show_icon: true
entity: timer.pwm_timer
tap_action:
  action: call-service
  service: timer.start
  target:
    entity_id: timer.pwm_timer
  data:
    duration: >-
      {{states('input_number.pwm_timer_duration')|int|timestamp_custom("%X",false)}}
hold_action:
  action: none
icon_height: 32px

image
image904×428 7.57 KB

The following returns the expected values in Developer Tools > Template Editor:

{{states('input_number.pwm_timer_duration')}}
{{states('input_number.pwm_timer_duration')|int|timestamp_custom("%X",false)}}

Shows

50.0
00:00:50

But when I click the button, I get the following error:

New Note
New Note2576×112 43.4 KB

Where is the mistake?

1 Like
2

Your assumption that templates are allowed in actions.

The error message is complaining that your template as a string (not its output) does not conform to the timestamp options.

Really well-asked question, by the way: correctly formatted with all the information needed. :+1: