How to change the state names on a z wave device

Configuration
1

I’m using a Zwave binary title sensor to monitor if my garage is open or closed. The sensor state is “on” when open and “off” when closed. How can I change those states to show “open” and “close” instead of “on” and “off”. I know I an do it with a boolean, but I’d rather not go that route if I don’t have to.

2

Try
Configuration - Customizations find the device, and change the device class to garage

3

See the docs for the device classes you can use with a binary_sensor.

Setting one of these will change both the strings used in the UI (but not the actual state of the sensor) and the icon. These are purely visual changes, the actual entity will still be on or off.

4

I still don’t get it. I can’t find it. The reply above says something about customizations under configuration? Not there. I have a binary flood sensor and all I want to do is have it say dry instead of off. And garage switches that say closed instead of 254. Why is this so hard? My Z-Wave devices have countless entities that aren’t even clear what they are AND if there is an description, it’s at the end and cut off! They all read the same. I have no clue how to do this and I don’t know why this is so hard. There’s a picture entity card that can change the state to a different picture. Why is there no card for this?

5

Customizations was removed in 2021.12.

You need to do it in yaml now.

6

oh good. they made it even harder. where exactly would I find this in yaml?

7

See here.

You can also change the name and icon directly in any card.

8

I have no problem changing the name. I want to change the STATES. Example: A binary flood detector or motion sensor that says ON and OFF as default states to say DRY and FLOOD. Or MOTION and CLEAR instead of ON OFF.

9

In the second post in this thread it is mentioned to change the device_class.
The link Tinkerer posted has a part about device_class:

Customizing entities - Home Assistant (home-assistant.io)

Clicking on binary_sensor there gives you the options of device_classes for binary_sensors:
Binary Sensor - Home Assistant (home-assistant.io)

Going back to the link Tinkerer posted, there is a part of manual configuration. Here you see the markup of the code and in the binary_sensor link you see what device class name to use.

1 Like
10

yeah, did you read the part where I said “I can’t find it”? My config .yaml is practically blank. What do I do? I expected something to be there to modify. I mean, these device classes must be “somewhere”?? Look, this may all make sense to you guys but I have read the docs post by Tinkerer over and over, and it makes absolutely no sense. Am I modifying something or writing .yaml code?

11

You have to add it. That’s often the case with YAML - you have to add the whole thing.

homeassistant:
  customize:
    # Add an entry for each entity that you want to overwrite.
    binary_sensor.whale:
      device_class: safety
    binary_sensor.petunia:
      device_class: moisture
12

You said you can’t find it basing it on the customize menu that was previously in the configuration.
That has been removed. So naturally you can’t find it.

You have nowhere said your config is “blank”.

I was going to add an example here but Tinkerer was faster.

13

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I’ll play around with this when I have more time but this is exactly why I thought I couldn’t find it, and I’ll restate what I said in my original post: this is too hard. I have a dozen Z-wave devices each with half a dozen entities, and this is what I have to do to change OFF to DRY? But there’s an entity card where I can use pictures to display states? Don’t get me wrong. I admire the effort everyone puts into this project and for the most part I have HA working great. Just a little annoying as beautiful as the dashboard is, I have to jump through such hoops to change a state.

14

Unfortunately until 2021.12 you could have done that in the UI, and in 2021.12 it was removed as doing that is “advanced”. See here for more.