Garage Door not opening with automation

Configuration
1

Sorry for the noob question
Device: iPhone w\HA app
-I get notification that I have entered the home zone however, the garage door does not open. What am I missing. Should be simple but to a noob I feel hopeless… neighbors must think I am crazy that I keep driving back and forth. I have attached a sample of what I placed in the automation.yaml file. Any help will be greatly appreciated, this is my first attempt at automation.

- id: '1565377968013'
  alias: 'Open Sesame '
  trigger:
  - event: enter
    platform: geo_location
    source: device_tracker.kevins_iphone
    zone: zone.home
  condition: []
  action:
  - service: cover.open_door
2

The automation’s action is missing the entity_id.

Basically it’s saying to open a cover but failing to indicate which cover.

3

Sorry I am confused, wha exactly is the automation’s action ID?

4

There’s no such thing as an “action ID”. What your automation’s action section is missing is an entity_id. It currently contains this:

  action:
  - service: cover.open_cover

and what it is missing is an entity_id:

  action:
  - service: cover.open_cover
    entity_id: cover.my_garage

where cover.my_garage ought to be replaced by whatever you are using as the entity_id for your garage door.

5

Thanks for all the help, I finally figured it out… time to test this puppy.

- id: '1565387314898'
  alias: Open Sesame
  trigger:
  - entity_id: device_tracker.kevins_iphone
    event: enter
    platform: zone
    zone: zone.home
  condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: cover.garage_door
    state: close
  action:
  - data:
      entity_id: cover.garage_door
    service: cover.open_cover
6

Thanks I will try that…

7

Because you introduced a condition section that is incorrectly indented.

Try this:

- id: '1565377968013'
  alias: 'Open Sesame '
  trigger:
    event: enter
    platform: zone
    source: device_tracker.kevins_iphone
    zone: zone.home
  condition:
    condition: state
    entity_id: cover.garage_door
    state: close
  action:
    service: cover.open_cover
    entity_id: cover.garage_door

What kind of editor are you using (that fails to warn you about indentation errors)?

8

Thanks for the timely response… I just figured it out.

- id: '1565387314898'
  alias: Open Sesame
  trigger:
  - entity_id: device_tracker.kevins_iphone
    event: enter
    platform: zone
    zone: zone.home
  condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: cover.garage_door
    state: closed
  action:
  - data:
      entity_id: cover.garage_door
    service: cover.open_cover
  - data:
      message: ' Garage door open'
    service: notify.notify

Now if I can figure out how to get the notification to work.
-Next step.

9

My guess is you’re using Home Assistant’s Automation Editor?

That’s the only editor that sorts all of the options alphabetically (which deserves an Ignoble Prize).

1 Like
10

I am it has been a learning curve, but I starting to get the hang of it.

now I have to figure out how to create a smart automation instead of having two automation (one to close, and one to open) any help will be greatly appreciated on how to combined these two automations.

- id: '1565387314898'
  alias: Open Sesame
  trigger:
  - entity_id: device_tracker.kevins_iphone
    event: enter
    platform: zone
    zone: zone.home
  condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: cover.garage_door
    state: closed
  action:
  - data:
      entity_id: cover.garage_door
    service: cover.open_cover
  - data:
      message: Open
      title: 'Garage door:'
    service: notify.notify
- id: '1565395102670'
  alias: Close Sesame
  trigger:
  - entity_id: device_tracker.kevins_iphone
    event: leave
    platform: zone
    zone: zone.home
  condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: cover.garage_door
    state: open
  action:
  - data:
      entity_id: cover.garage_door
    service: cover.close_cover
  - data:
      message: Closed
      title: 'Garage door:'
    service: notify.notify
11

Why?

In this particular case, it would only be because you want to do it as an intellectual challenge and not because the resulting single automation would be more compact/elegant/efficient etc. The trigger’s events (enter/leave) aren’t reusable in the action (where the services are open/close) so it will require ‘if this else that’ in the template which streamlines nothing. Then there’s the issue of handling the conditions which look for opposite cover states (depending on the event).

Leave the two automations as is.

12

Thanks for the sound advice.
I will leave it to be for now, I will focus now on how to set my eco bee thermostat to away or off once the garage is closed via automation tomorrow.