Gradually open shades before alarm

Configuration
1

I am really lost with this automation I am trying to set up:

I want my shades to start tilting 30 minutes before my alarm (represented by sensor.next_alarm_time) goes off.

E.g. the shutters would tilt to 80% 30 mins before alarm, 60% 20 mins before, 40% 10 mins before. The automation should also check if the shutters are not tilted already, so that it does not close them instead.

How do I do that in a single automatiion, so I do not have to create 4 of them for every change? There are 4 shutters i’d like to automate this way and creating 16 separate automations seems overkill.

I have checked out this template, but besides being a bit overwhelming it does not seem to cover this scenario

So far I can’t even get the automation to trigger, what makes me seriously question myself as a HA user for the last 5 years:

 value_template: {{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states("input_datetime.shutter_alarm_test")) - 1800 )}}

(i have used a helper here that i can set manually, so i do not need to change my alarm time for testing purposes)

Any help in this is extremely appreciated.

2

isn’t your value_template currently being interpreted as a string?

shouldn’t it be:
value_template: "{{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states('input_datetime.shutter_alarm_test')) - 1800 )}}"

?

or i personally prefer:

value_template: >
  {{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states('input_datetime.shutter_alarm_test')) - 1800 )}}

hopefully that gets you unstuck :slight_smile:
if you still are stuck, perhaps post the automation that you’ve already written? prob better to tweak what you’ve got rather than recreate what you’ve already done.

but in terms of how to do it in one automation, i’d do something like this (obviously can optimize, but leaving pedantic for clarity purpose):

trigger:
  - platform: template
    value_template: "  {{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states('input_datetime.shutter_alarm_test')) - 1800 )}}"
    id: "80"

  - platform: template
    value_template: "  {{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states('input_datetime.shutter_alarm_test')) - 1200 )}}"
    id: "60"

  - platform: template
    value_template: "  {{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states('input_datetime.shutter_alarm_test')) - 600 )}}"
    id: "40"
    
condition: []
action: []

then you can use trigger.id as the value to set the shade tilt to… and just check to see if the tilt % is beyond what the current tilt is.

1 Like
3

of course i have tested that template in the Templates section under developer tools and it evaluated correctly to true/false

image
image1319Ă—445 33.4 KB

yet the automation has no trace

4

but when you put it in the value_template, you need to instruct homeassistant whether to interpret the string vs accept the string litterally

5

ok, missed that. i suppose its done by the quotation marks, heh?

still it does not trigger the automation

value_template: >
  "{{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states('input_datetime.shutter_alarm_test')) - 1800 )}}"

too bad there is not a simple offset option for time related triggers in HA…

6

take a look at what i posted… do either of the two i posted… you did both.

either:

value_template: "{{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states('input_datetime.shutter_alarm_test')) - 1800 )}}"

or

value_template: >
  {{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states('input_datetime.shutter_alarm_test')) - 1800 )}}

not both combined:

value_template: >
  "{{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states('input_datetime.shutter_alarm_test')) - 1800 )}}"
7

in terms of “simpler” offsets, i personally like:

{{ now() >= states('input_datetime.shutter_alarm_test') - timedelta(minutes=30) }}

i find that easier to grock.

8

ok, i thought the > is just a line break and has no impact on the template interpretation

finally got it working:

alias: Open bedroom shutters in the morning
description: ""
trigger:
  - alias: 30 mins before garmin alarm
    platform: template
    value_template: >
      {{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states('sensor.next_alarm_time')) -
      1800 )}}
    id: 30min
  - alias: 20 mins before garmin alarm
    platform: template
    value_template: >
      {{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states('sensor.next_alarm_time')) -
      1200 )}}
    id: 20min
  - alias: 10 mins before garmin alarm
    platform: template
    value_template: >
      {{as_timestamp(now()) >= (as_timestamp(states('sensor.next_alarm_time')) -
      600 )}}
    id: 10min
condition:
  - condition: and
    conditions:
      - condition: time
        weekday:
          - mon
          - tue
          - wed
          - thu
          - fri
      - condition: template
        value_template: >-
          value_template: "{{ state_attr('cover.bedroom_blinds',
          'current_tilt_position') == 100 or state_attr('cover.bedroom_blinds',
          'current_tilt_position') is none }}"
    enabled: false
action:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - 30min
        sequence:
          - if:
              - condition: numeric_state
                entity_id: cover.bedroom_blinds
                attribute: current_tilt_position
                below: 50
            then:
              - service: cover.set_cover_tilt_position
                target:
                  entity_id:
                    - cover.bedroom_blinds
                data:
                  tilt_position: 50
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - 20min
        sequence:
          - if:
              - condition: numeric_state
                entity_id: cover.bedroom_blinds
                attribute: current_tilt_position
                below: 100
            then:
              - service: cover.set_cover_tilt_position
                target:
                  entity_id:
                    - cover.bedroom_blinds
                data:
                  tilt_position: 100
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - 10min
        sequence:
          - if:
              - condition: numeric_state
                entity_id: cover.bedroom_blinds
                attribute: current_position
                below: 1
            then:
              - service: cover.set_cover_position
                target:
                  entity_id:
                    - cover.bedroom_blinds
                data:
                  position: 1
mode: single