Motion activated lights automation problem after HA reboot

[dumbdevice]

Almost every time I restart or reboot HA I have a problem with my Motion activated lights automation. Usually lamp is always on after reboot and automation no longer works.

To fix it I have to disable and enable automation, sometime several times. Or physically turn off/on lamp.

I have aqara zigbee motion sensor and aqara zigbee lamp.
The automation looks like this:

1. When motion sensor started detecting motion
2. Then do

• activate lamp scene (turn on lamp)
• wait for 1 trigger: When motion-sensor changes from any state to Clear for 30 seconds

3. Turn off lamp

Maybe it’s happening because automation was running when HA was restarted?
Any way to fix it?

[francisp (Francis)]

Different ways to fix it.

• condition not to run if HA just started
• don’t trigger if State goes from unavailable to on
  You need both

[woempiej]

Hi,

Please post the automation .yaml

[dumbdevice]

alias: Aqara-motion-sensor automation
description: ""
triggers:
  - type: motion
    device_id: <id>
    entity_id: binary_sensor.lumi_lumi_sensor_motion_aq2_motion
    domain: binary_sensor
    trigger: device
conditions: []
actions:
  - target:
      entity_id: scene.aqara_lamp_25_cool
    metadata: {}
    action: scene.turn_on
    data: {}
  - wait_for_trigger:
      - entity_id:
          - binary_sensor.lumi_lumi_sensor_motion_aq2_motion
        to: "off"
        for:
          hours: 0
          minutes: 0
          seconds: 30
        trigger: state
        from: null
    enabled: true
    continue_on_timeout: false
  - type: turn_off
    device_id: <id>
    entity_id: light.lumi_lumi_light_aqcn02_light
    domain: light
    enabled: true
mode: single

[Sir_Goodenough ((SG) WhatAreWeFixing.Today)]

Hello dumbdevice,

Device triggers are awful. Try an entity state trigger using

trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - sensor.some_sensor
    not_from: ["unavailable", "unknown"]
    not_to: ["unavailable", "unknown"]

[dumbdevice]

@francisp

Different ways to fix it.

• condition not to run if HA just started
• don’t trigger if State goes from unavailable to on
  You need both

How to add these 2 conditions in visual UI?

[dumbdevice]

@Sir_Goodenough

Device triggers are awful. Try an entity state trigger using

Hi! Where I should put it? Below trigger: state in my automation?

here I guess:

triggers:
  - type: motion
    device_id: <id>
    entity_id: binary_sensor.lumi_lumi_sensor_motion_aq2_motion
    domain: binary_sensor
    trigger: device

[woempiej]

Yes, its a trigger

[dumbdevice]

ok I changed first trigger to:

Visual editor is not happy, but looks like automation still works!
I would never figure out to add not from and not to there.
It’s only possible in yaml mode?

[dumbdevice]

I rebooted HA when automation was running and lamp was on and never goes off. I activated automation with motion sensor and it’s still running.

It stuck at waiting for 1 trigger:

  - wait_for_trigger:
      - entity_id:
          - binary_sensor.lumi_lumi_sensor_motion_aq2_motion
        to: "off"
        for:
          hours: 0
          minutes: 0
          seconds: 30
        trigger: state
        from: null

update: after some time it recovered itself

---

I wonder what if create 2 automations: first automation to turn lamp on trigger and second automation to turn off lamp

I see the problem is aqara motion sensor, it stuck in Motion: Detected state after HA restart for about 10 minutes that’s why my automation doesn’t work.

I did another test, I rebooted HA when state was Motion: Clear and after reboot it worked right away!

Is there a way to set or reset item state on boot maybe?

---

Update 2: I set python_script integration and now can set state for motion sensor when HA starts.

How to manually set state/value of sensor?

Is it possible to manually set the state of a binary sensor or any sensor as part of an action in automation, i.e. trigger: platform: homeassistant event: start action: "Set binary_sensor.sensor1 to state "ON"" "Set sensor.sensor2 to value "12.5""

I also now have two automations: first automation to turn lamp on trigger and second automation to turn off lamp.

The reason I need a second automation because I need to constantly monitor duration of Clear state, without dealing with states transition (from detected to clear).

alias: turn off lamp
description: ""
triggers:
  - type: no_motion
    device_id: <id_here>
    entity_id: <id_here>
    domain: binary_sensor
    trigger: device
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 10
conditions: []
actions:
  - type: turn_off
    device_id: <id_here>
    entity_id: <id_here>
    domain: light
    enabled: true
mode: single

This trigger type: no_motion should turn off lamp after HA restart if its on.
In my testing trigger based on state changes doesn’t work for some reason.

---

Update 3: I rebooted HA and lamp was on and sensor state was clear. My automation failed.

I guess I need to create automation to turn off lamp when HA starts and go back to my original automation…

[aceindy]

Had a look at the cookbook?

triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.lumi_lumi_sensor_motion_aq2_motion
    to: 'on'
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.lumi_lumi_sensor_motion_aq2_motion
    to: 'off'
    for:
      seconds: 30
actions:
  - action: "light.turn_{{ trigger.to_state.state }}"
    target:
      entity_id: light.your_light_here # change this

Motion activated lights automation - Community Guides - Home Assistant Community

And also:
Why and how to avoid device_ids in automations and scripts - Community Guides - Home Assistant Community

If you require a scene, you could use the ‘choose’ funtion to differentiate between on/off trgiggers In the end it would look something like this:

description: "Aqara-motion-sensor automation"
mode: single
triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id:
      -  binary_sensor.lumi_lumi_sensor_motion_aq2_motion
    from: "off"
    to: "on"
    id: "On"
  - trigger: state
    entity_id:
      -  binary_sensor.lumi_lumi_sensor_motion_aq2_motion
    from: "on"
    to: "off"
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 30
    id: "Off"
conditions: []
actions:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - "On"
        sequence:
          - action: scene.turn_on
            metadata: {}
            data: {}
            target:
              entity_id: scene.aqara_lamp_25_cool
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - "Off"
        sequence:
          - action: light.turn_off
            metadata: {}
            data: {}
            target:
              entity_id: light.lumi_lumi_light_aqcn02_light

[dumbdevice]

thanks for the examples! I will check cookbook.

I tested example with ‘choose’ function and it works, thanks.
But it feels a bit complex with all On/Off ids. I guess you can’t create it using visual editor only.

---

Regarding initial problem, I have now automation that sets state to “off” (clear) for motion-sensor when HA starts and also turns off aqara lamp. And it worked in my testing.

[aceindy]

@dumbdevice

bit complex with all On/Off ids

You can name them as you like.

@dumbdevice

I guess you can’t create it using visual editor only.

Yes you can (and I did)