Make switch status, follow sensor status

Configuration
1

Hi, I’m new to home assistant. Coming from openhab and liking it so far.
I’m struggling with the following.

I have a PLC where real switches and lights are connected to.
The PLC is master so everything works even when hass is down.
To control a light I have 2 variables on modbus:

  • Status: actual state of light (on/off) = binary sensor in hass
  • Control: to toggle the state = switch in hass

The switch always has to follow the state of the binary sensor.
I only want to put the switch on the dashboard, and the switch should always be the actual state of the binary sensor.

Example:
Light is off, i switch on light via switch in the wall, the binary sensor changes to on, the switch in hass also has to change to on.

I made an automation for this:

- id: "1630416937680"
  alias: spotjestv
  description: ""
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.wago_sensor5
  condition: []
  action:
    - choose:
        - conditions:
            - condition: state
              entity_id: binary_sensor.wago_sensor5
              state: "off"
          sequence:
            - service: switch.turn_off
              target:
                entity_id: switch.wago_switch1
        - conditions:
            - condition: state
              entity_id: binary_sensor.wago_sensor5
              state: "on"
          sequence:
            - service: switch.turn_on
              target:
                entity_id: switch.wago_switch1
      default: []
  mode: single

It works perfectly, but I have about 50 lights so it’s many lines for something simple.
Is there a way to make this a bit more compact and cleaner?

I also can’t figure out how I can put it all in code, I made this in the UI but would like to put it all in a seperate yaml file.
I looked up this link: Automation YAML - Home Assistant
But I can’t get it to work…
Piece of the example below:

# Example of entry in configuration.yaml
automation my_lights:
  # Turns on lights 1 hour before sunset if people are home
  # and if people get home between 16:00-23:00
  - alias: "Rule 1 Light on in the evening"
    trigger:

It complains that I can’t use my_lights… Can someone point out why?

Thanks for the support already!

2

This should get your code working, but I think it is not really what you want because it stays in a single file.

# This is very important and I'm not sure if you have this in your configuration.yaml file too.
automation: !include automations.yaml

# Labeled automation block
automation kitchen:
  - trigger:
      - platform: ...

This could be your file structure:
when you’re using automation: !include_dir_list ./automations in your configuration.yaml

config
|--automations
|   |--automation1.yaml
|   |--automation2.yaml
|--configuration.yaml
3

Another alternative for your automation that is a bit more compact-

trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.wago_sensor5
action:
  - service: >-
      switch.turn_{{ trigger.to_state.state }}
    target:
      entity_id: switch.wago_switch1

Edit: applied suggestion by Taras - resulting in a more compact automation.

4

Thanks! This made me able to put the automations in different files, which gives a lot more structure.

5

Thanks! Worked perfect and much cleaner.

6

You can replace this:

      switch.turn_{{'on' if trigger.to_state.state == 'on' else 'off' }}

with this:

      switch.turn_{{ trigger.to_state.state}}

The State Trigger is listening to a binary_sensor so the values will be on/off.

1 Like
7

Do you also have an example of multiple automations in 1 file?
I have been fiddling with it for an hour with name and alias properties but I can’t get it to work.

I now have this:

trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.wago_sensor5
action:
  - service: >-
      switch.turn_{{ trigger.to_state.state}}
    target:
      entity_id: switch.wago_switch1

But I would like this piece of code multiple times in the same file… Really can’t get it to work…

Also another question, is it possible to make this like a kind of function I could call and just pass parameters?
Like: modbusSwitch:=updateSwitch(modbusSensor) or updateSwitch(modbusSensor,modbusSwitch)?

8

This will work only if the last character in the binary_sensor’s name corresponds to the last character of the corresponding switch’s name. In other words, if binary_sensor.wago_sensor3 corresponds to switch.wago_switch3.

alias: example 567
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
    - binary_sensor.wago_sensor1
    - binary_sensor.wago_sensor2
    - binary_sensor.wago_sensor3
    - binary_sensor.wago_sensor4
    - binary_sensor.wago_sensor5
action:
  - service: "switch.turn_{{ trigger.to_state.state}}"
    target:
      entity_id: "switch.wago_switch{{ trigger.to_state.object_id[-1] }}"