Friendly Name and automations

MediaCowboy · January 22, 2018, 11:04pm

I have moved all my lights over to a HUSBZb-1 and am waiting on 28 more lights to arrive. What I would like to do is put a friendly name on each light and then off the friendly name do my automations. Thinking is if a light goes out or bad I can then add a new one, change the friendly name to point to new light, and everything continues to work. Is this even possible?

keithh666 · January 23, 2018, 2:25am

In a word No, you have to use the entity_id’s in automations the friendly name is just for the frontend display.

walt · January 23, 2018, 4:15am

Not exactly what you are asking but I use this custom multi light component to create frienfly names for rooms like kitchen, family_room that have several bulbs. It lets you control everything like one entity and set dim levels (which you can’t do in a group).

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/jjensn/83dd60d96330bbf66e58dfae336187bf

grouped_light.py

import logging

# Import the device class from the component that you want to support
from homeassistant.components import light
from homeassistant.const import (STATE_OFF, STATE_ON, SERVICE_TURN_ON,
                                 SERVICE_TURN_OFF, ATTR_ENTITY_ID)
from homeassistant.components.light import (SUPPORT_BRIGHTNESS,
                                            SUPPORT_RGB_COLOR,
                                            SUPPORT_COLOR_TEMP,
                                            SUPPORT_TRANSITION)

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If you wanted to abstract your entity names there is no reason you couldn’t have multi light groups of a single bulb.

namadori · January 23, 2018, 7:36am

+1 for @MediaCowboy request, as I’m juggling a bunch of different Sonoffs that would have been a very useful feature.
Another workaround is to create a template light for every light, but each workaround means a proliferation of entities that add complexity everywhere.

MediaCowboy · January 23, 2018, 3:46pm

Thanks for this info. I a was afraid of that because I have to create a slider for eaach lamp and 2 automation for the slider. I plan on grouping most of the lights so I can do 2 automations and a slider for each group. Just trying to add an easier way if a light goes out.

anderson110 · January 23, 2018, 4:08pm

Are they zwave devices? If so, you can rename the node, and the entity ID is derived from that. So you can replace nodes without making any textual changes in your automations.

MediaCowboy · January 23, 2018, 4:09pm

Right now all zigbee

n0ir · February 13, 2018, 10:18pm

I really would like this feature. I’m thinking about my devices as specific functions. It would be nice to just change the device name or something when I replace a device instead of going through all automations etc.

MediaCowboy · February 14, 2018, 11:19pm

I’m going to move this as a feature request.

alfredofenoglio · October 24, 2018, 8:44pm

Just to know, what zigbee devices are you using?

MediaCowboy · October 24, 2018, 9:09pm

@alfredofenoglio, Right now just lights.

1 philips Hue color
5 philips hue white
25 sengled white