Ignoring empty or null sensors

Configuration
1

Hi guys,

I’m still slowly getting my head around home assistant and feel like i’m almost there, but as soon as i understand a little more - it gives me more ideas!

Anyway - i’m stuck on a notification automation at the moment.

automation:

- id: vacuum_complete_ios_notification
  alias: Vacuum Complete
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.vacuum_cleaning_count
  condition:
     - condition: template
       value_template: '{{ trigger.from_state.state != none }}'
  action:
    service: notify.ios_steves_iphone
    data:
      title: "Home Assistant"
      message: "Jeeves has finished cleaning."
      data:
        push:
          thread-id: "home-assistant-vacuum"

Occasionally the sensor.vacuum_cleaning_count value goes to nothing and triggers the automation.

I’ve tried a handful of different entries in the value_template: ‘{{ trigger.from_state.state != none }}’ line but none of them seem to help.

The log shows:

Line 15: 2019-01-23 14:32:04 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling <Event state_changed[L]: entity_id=sensor.vacuum_cleaning_count, old_state=<state sensor.vacuum_cleaning_count=; friendly_name=vacuum_cleaning_count @ 2019-01-23T14:29:18.645057+11:00>, new_state=<state sensor.vacuum_cleaning_count=57; friendly_name=vacuum_cleaning_count @ 2019-01-23T14:32:04.127175+11:00>>

So I’m just not sure how to ignore based on old_state=<state sensor.vacuum_cleaning_count=;

I went down the path of trying to only have it trigger on an integer increase but unfortunately got nowhere. Just wondering if anyone has any advice?

Thanks!

2

you can try something like this for the conditions:

condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: '{{states.sensor.vacuum_cleaning_count.state | int > 0}}'
  - condition: template
    value_template: '{{ trigger.to_state.state|int > trigger.from_state.state|int }}'

But what might be better is to fix your sensor to not give you null values in the first place.

is you sensor a template sensor that you created? if so then post your sensor config.

and what is the state of the sensor when it’s “nothing”? is the state blank or something else?

1 Like
3

Thanks for the reply @finity!

Guilty as charged - I used a template platform sensor which just uses an attribute from the xiaomi_miio vacuum entry.

sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      vacuum_cleaning_count:            
        value_template: "{{ states.vacuum.xiaomi_vacuum_cleaner.attributes.cleaning_count }}"

This was before I worked out that I can actually use the attributes within a trigger but I’ve just left it for now as your code suggestions worked perfectly.

So thanks again :slight_smile: