I have a strange problem. I would really like the “person” object to be able to take input_booleans or binary sensor as part of presence decision, but that is seemingly not possible for some moronic reason. It only can only take device_trackers.
To be able to bypass that problem, I’ve instead created a group for each person in the household, and when one (or more) of the group members is on, the person is home.
The group consist of two device_trackers and one input boolean
When I hit “Reload groups” in “configuration”, this group is either Home or Away. However, when I restart Home Assistant, this group change to be either On or Off. If I “Reload groups” again, it changes to Home or Away.
What is the reason for this?
Also another maybe unrelated problem; the group behavior is really strange, as the input_boolean in the group is the only one making changes to the group itself. The device trackers’ status does not impact the group state at all. Anyone got a clue?
I think the problem come from the use of two different device classes.
device_trackers are either home or not_home while input_booleans are either on or off.
Can I ask what the reason for the input_boolean is? When would you use it?
The answer is to use something like an MQTT device tracker that you update with an automation (and templates) or two (no templates). This is exactly how I do it.
Based upon that inflammatory statement I’m expecting then that you’ve got a PR being worked on to address this?
You can still use the input boolean, but have it set a ‘fake’ device tracker which you can then use in your group using the device_tracker.see service.