Motion-triggered Lights with Timer Blueprint

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This blueprint automatically turns lights on/off based on motion, with the ability to easily disable auto-on or auto-off with helpers.

Open your Home Assistant instance and show the blueprint import dialog with a specific blueprint pre-filled.

Installation

Helpers

You will need to set up two input_boolean helpers and a timer helper:

  1. Auto On Controller Entity: controls whether the lights will be turned on automatically when motion is detected (e.g. input_boolean.deck_lights_auto_on_controller)
  2. Auto Off Controller Entity: controls whether the lights are turned off when the timer ends (e.g. input_boolean.deck_lights_auto_off_controller)
  3. Timer: a timer entity (timer), making sure that you set the delay amount in the timer itself

Entities

You will also need the following entities as inputs:

  1. Motion Sensor: a motion sensor entity (binary_sensor domain)
  2. Light: a light entity (a light group works for multiple lights) (light domain)

Variables

  1. Auto On Only When Sun is Down: Enable to only turn on lights when motion is detected when the sun is down (according to the sun integration). Disable to turn on lights any time motion is detected.

Details

The logic for the blueprint is pretty straightforward, but tedious to set up.

  • If the Auto On Controller is enabled, the light will turn on when motion is detected (depending on the Auto On Only When Sun is Down setting).
  • If the Auto Off Controller is enabled, when the light is turned on (whether it was turned on automatically or manually), a timer will start.
  • If Auto On Controller is on, then any time motion is detected the timer will restart. Once the timer is finished, the light will turn off.
  • Disabling the Auto Off Controller while the light is on will cancel the timer, and enabling it while a light is on will start the timer.

You could certainly do this without a timer (and just use the built-in delay action), but if Home Assistant were to restart during this period, the lights would never turn off (without a separate automation or different logic).

I added the complexity of the Auto On/Off Controllers, because I found that sometimes I don’t want motion to turn on the lights (maybe the motion sensor is being too sensitive and lights are turning on too often) or I want to leave the lights on regardless of time or motion (for example, if I have friends over and want to leave the deck lights on while we sit at the table).

Link to the Github Gist

blueprint:
  name: Motion-triggered Lights with Timer
  description: >
    Automatically turns lights on/off based on motion, light state, timers, and conditions. 
    Requires a motion sensor entity, a light entity (a light group works for multiple lights), a timer 
    entity (with the time set in its configuration), and two input_boolean helpers that you must create - 
    one that controls whether the lights will be turned on automatically when motion is detected 
    (e.g. input_boolean.deck_lights_auto_on_controller) and one to control whether the lights are 
    turned off when the timer ends (e.g. input_boolean.deck_lights_auto_off_controller).
  domain: automation
  author: Scott Menzer
  input:
    motion_sensor:
      name: Motion Sensor
      description: "The motion sensor that triggers the lights."
      selector:
        entity:
          filter:
            domain: binary_sensor
    light_target:
      name: Light
      description: "The light entity to control."
      selector:
        entity:
          filter:
            domain: light
    auto_on_controller:
      name: Auto On Controller Entity
      description: "Boolean to enable/disable automatic turning on of the lights."
      selector:
        entity:
          filter:
            domain: input_boolean
    only_when_sun_is_down:
      name: Auto On Only When Sun is Down
      description: "Enable to only turn on lights when motion is detected when the sun is down (according to sun integration). Disable to turn on lights any time motion is detected."
      selector:
        boolean:
      default: true
    auto_off_controller:
      name: Auto Off Controller Entity
      description: "Boolean to enable/disable automatic turning off of the lights."
      selector:
        entity:
          filter:
            domain: input_boolean
    auto_off_timer:
      name: Timer
      description: "Timer entity to delay turning off the lights."
      selector:
        entity:
          filter:
            domain: timer

variables:
  only_when_sun_is_down: !input only_when_sun_is_down

triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: !input motion_sensor
    to: "on"
    id: motion
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: !input light_target
    to: "on"
    id: lighton
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: !input light_target
    to: "off"
    from: "on"
    id: lightoff
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: !input auto_off_controller
    to: "on"
    id: autooffenabled
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: !input auto_off_controller
    to: "off"
    id: autooffdisabled
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: !input auto_off_timer
    to: idle
    from: active
    id: timer
conditions: []
actions:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - motion
        sequence:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: !input auto_on_controller
            state: "on"
          - condition: or
            conditions:
              - condition: sun
                before: sunrise
                after: sunset
              - condition: template
                value_template: >
                  {{ only_when_sun_is_down == false }}
          - action: light.turn_on
            metadata: {}
            data: {}
            target:
              entity_id: !input light_target
          - action: timer.start
            metadata: {}
            data: {}
            target:
              entity_id:
                - !input auto_off_timer
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - lighton
        sequence:
          - action: timer.start
            metadata: {}
            data: {}
            target:
              entity_id:
                - !input auto_off_timer
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - lightoff
              - autooffdisabled
        sequence:
          - action: timer.cancel
            metadata: {}
            data: {}
            target:
              entity_id: !input auto_off_timer
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - autooffenabled
        sequence:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: !input light_target
            state: "on"
          - action: timer.start
            metadata: {}
            data: {}
            target:
              entity_id: !input auto_off_timer
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - timer
        sequence:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: !input light_target
            state: "on"
          - if:
              - condition: state
                entity_id: !input motion_sensor
                state: "on"
              - condition: state
                entity_id: input_boolean.deck_lights_auto_on_controller
                state: "on"
            then:
              - action: timer.start
                metadata: {}
                data: {}
                target:
                  entity_id: !input auto_off_timer
            else:
              - action: light.turn_off
                metadata: {}
                data: {}
                target:
                  entity_id: !input light_target

mode: restart
max_exceeded: silent
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