How to handle "seasonal" devices?

[paoloantinori]

Hi all, I need some generic help on what’s the best way to handle devices that are not always available.

For example I have a Xiao Mi Smart Fan that I used only during summer time.

It’s correctly configured in HA, but when I turn it off in autumn, my logs starts filling in with such errors:

2021-10-06 18:35:37 ERROR (MainThread) [custom_components.xiaomi_miio_fan.fan] XiaomiFanMiot Got exception while fetching the state: Unable to discover the device 192.168.5.109 , _retry=92

what’s the strategy for situations similar to this? Do I have a way to disable the device from within the UI? Or with an automation?

[Burningstone]

You can disable entities in the UI. Go to Configuration → Entities → Click on the entity you wish to disable → Toggle “Enable Entity”

[paoloantinori]

Thank you but this is what I see when I go there:

The checkbox is disabled

[brg468 (Brian)]

The check box doesn’t indicate enabled/disabled. Check the box then click disable.

[koying (Chris B)]

Or just click on the entity and turn off the “Enable entity” switch

[Burningstone]

As I said, click on the entity and then toggle the switch that @koying shows in his screenshot.

[paoloantinori]

Thank you but something seems to be lost in translation here:

The checkbox is not unchecked, it’s disabled. It cannot be clicked.

If I click on the entity this is what I see:

[Burningstone]

The entity doesn’t have a unique_id, so it can’t be disabled. You’d need to ask the developer of the custom component that he adds unique_id to the entities, otherwise you’re out of luck.

[paoloantinori]

oh, I see. Thank you!

[nickrout]

Leave it on, but ensure whatever automation turns it on and off only does so when you want it to be active, possibly using the season sensor Season - Home Assistant

[Burningstone]

I think his issue is more that the logs are filled with errors not because of an automation not working, but because the device can’t be found.

[paoloantinori]

I think it’s an issue with a component that is polling when it should not, since the device will never eventually reply.

[Burningstone]

Yes, but if you are able to disable the entity, it will no longer try to poll the state.

[kenwiens]

I thought I would use this existing (older) thread rather than starting a new one that is almost identical. If I should have started a new thread - I’d appreciate a moderator letting me know and I’ll move it and do better next time.

I have the same issue, but unfortunately the suggested solution has its own list of implications in my use case.

I’ll use an example of a zigbee soil-moisture monitor. This device pretends (but that’s another story!) to send you soil moisture levels and soil temperatures. In the winter when temperatures drop here to -20C and below, I remove the device and bring it inside. I also remove the batteries so they don’t leak while in storage.

a) With the batteries out, the HA log gets significant errors (90% of my log entries appear to be related to this) - about 2-5 entries per second, each entry 5 lines long).

b) With the device “disabled”, all of my dashboards that display information from this device show errors (battery level, moisture level, temp, etc) - not a clean look.

c) I could create a user setable helper toggle called “Soil Monitor Removed for Winter” (for example), and use this as a condition in some of my dashboards - but not all (I cannot conditionally display items in some cards) .

d) right now, the only thing I can think of is to leave the batteries in - and in dashboards where I can put a condition, test that if the soil moisture level = 0%, assume the device is disabled and display a message as such. This isn’t ideal either as in the summer - if my soil actually was super-dry - I wouldn’t get alerted.

I might have to use a combination of C&D above - but before I do, I’m very curious as to what other users have done to handle seasonal devices.