Help with an action delay

Configuration
1

My daughter tends to get up in the middle of the night and go downstairs. She turns on all the lights, including the outside (wemo) light. When she goes back upstairs she turns off all the lights but forgets the outside light. So, I’m trying to write a rule that turns off the outside light after 10 minutes between the hours of 1am and 6am. Everything works except the 10 minute delay. Here’s what I have (using Automation Editor):

Trigger:
State:
Entity: switch.front_outside_lights
From: Off
To: On

Condition:
Time:
From: 01:00:00
To: 06:00:00

Action Type:
Call Service:
Service: Switch.Turn_Off
Service data:
{
“delay”: “00:10:00”,
“entity_id”: “switch.front_outside_lights”
}

The rule works until I add the “delay”. Then the light never turns off. I also tried “delay minutes”:“10”. What am I doing wrong?

2

Add

for: '00:10:00'

to your trigger instead of the service and it will do exactly what you are trying to do now.

Also, I don’t think service like switch.turn_on support delays. There is a delay service, but it is separate from the switch.turn_on service.

3

It doesn’t look like there’s a way to add that on the Automation Editor.

4

Well, the automation editor should never have been released in my opinion since it lacks fairly basic functionality. Learn the YAML or use node-red or AppDeamon and you’ll get more out of HA and have an easier time achieving what you want.

5

I agree. I feel somewhat deceived by the automation editor. It doesn’t do enough and there is ZERO documentation on it. The sad part is, the “average” user looking for a good home automation system wants/needs a nice GUI. They would never go for editing files so this product will remain a niche of the more technical.