How to stop execution of a python script on state change?

Development
1

Hi All,

Sorry for cross-posting, but I hope here I can get answer to this question I asked on another sub-forum.

In essence, I need to stop a python script I ran earlier from HA (via service: python_script.script_name) if one of entities changes state.
I tried calling service: python_script.turn_off and service: homeassistant.turn_off, but it does not work.

2

I’m not sure that’s possible, and it woudn’t be very reliable (not sure where the script would stop).

What is you script doing?
Maybe change it so that home-assistant run it every x minutes/seconds via an automation, and when you don’t need the script to run, disable the automation on state change.

3

Here is the code that runs in a while loop:
hass.services.call(‘homeassistant’, ‘turn_on’, {‘entity_id’: entity_id})
time.sleep(on_time)
hass.services.call(‘homeassistant’, ‘turn_off’, {‘entity_id’: entity_id})

If I knew how to check state of an entity from the python script, I would be able to end it from within…

4

You could do that with an automation entirely in hass. Any reason you went with a python script?

5

Well, I don’t know how to do the following in hass (did not see any loop statements):
If there is time T and and an entity that cannot be ON for longer than L and requires D seconds to rest.
Can you show me how to do that?

6

Perfect use case for AppDaemon!

7

ok, will give it a go.
Have no idea about it apart from name though :slight_smile:

8

If your comfortable with Python, I think you’ll really (really!) like it. For me, so much more intuitive than yaml!

9

Well, Python is not my language and I’m still learning, but being able to write a proper function is easier for me than trying to create something out of a limited set of in-built commands.
Yaml is good for its goals too (most of the time) if one uses a proper editor, otherwise it’s a nightmare… :
Anyway, thanks for the tip :wink:
Now I have a reason to learn one more concept.

10

You’ll thank me once you get past the learning curve!

11

FWIW you can get the state of an entity in a Python script with hass.states.get(entity_id).state. Also I think you loop in a YAML script by having it call itself. But I’m new, so…

12

Not sure what you meant by “if there is time T” ?

This will turn off light1 if it was on for 10 minutes, and then turn it back on after 2 minutes.

automation:
  - alias: Rest light after 10 minutes
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: light.light1
        to: on
        for:
          minutes: 10
    action:
      - service: timer.start
        entity_id: timer.timer_rest
      - service: light.turn_off
        entity_id: light.light1
  - alias: Turn on light after 2 minutes rest
    trigger:
      - platform: event
        event_type: timer.finished
        event_data:
          entity_id: timer.timer_rest
    action:
      - service: light.turn_on
        entity_id: light.light1

timer:
  timer_rest
    duration: '00:02:00'

In case you need to check the state of another entity before executing an automation, you can add a state condition in the automation.

13

thanks for the tip, it does the trick!

According to this pots, it’s not possible, but one can overcome that restriction by having 2 scripts :wink:

1 Like
14

sorry, it means “T is the total amount of time I need the entity to be turned on”

I need it during execution as an indicator that it’s time to stop the script.
Already did that by passing appropriate entity_id and desired state to the script.

Thanks for the example.
Will have a thought about it as the concept is slightly different from straightforward scripting :wink:

15

That’s interesting. I’ll have to read through that post. Honestly I never tried it. I just remembered seeing it done on this page:

https://www.home-assistant.io/cookbook/automation_flashing_lights/

See the last script shown named flash_room1.

16

LOL, that post starts by quoting the same example from the docs. Wow, what does it take to get that fixed? How long has it been leading people astray I wonder.

17

It should take exactly one pull request :wink:

~Cheers

Edit: I just went ahead and made a PR to get this changed…

1 Like
18

Thanks! I would have been happy to do that myself, but I’m not set up to do that yet, although I hope to get there at some point.

19

Sorry guys, what change are you talking about?

20

The “Examples for flashing lights” docs page that I (and others) referenced shows a script turning itself on at the end in order to implement a looping technique, but that doesn’t work (or at least, doesn’t work anymore since that was written.) @PhyberApex was nice enough to submit a fix to that doc page.