I have a home assistant setup at a site with google home displays. HA casts a dashboard to the screens based on an automation triggered by a timer. On that dashboard is a button to open the garage door. The button is a control in an esphome device.
The garage door opened when no one was home. The logbook shows the button was pushed by “Home Assistant Cast.” The logbook shows no other messages about interactions or unavailabilities within half an hour of the door triggering. Are there any other logs or methods to trace back what caused the button push?
thanks!
I was curious so I looked up what you might be talking about. I found this, which sounds plausible.
https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/120yhzm/introducing_continuously_casting_dashboards_a/
You have provided very little to go, so it is likely this answer will be little better than asking AI.
You probably don’t have logging set to a level that captures everything. The log you have says someone/thing pressed the button on the dashboard. Perhaps you need to call Ghost Busters?
If I was trying to solve this mystery, I would start by trying to reproduce the problem. What logging do you get when someone presses the button?
Traces in automation
Unless I’m missing something, this doesn’t seem to apply since the button press is not an automation. But, I’m hoping there is a log somewhere with this level of detail that i just don’t know about.
you say “HA casts a dashboard to the screens based on an automation triggered by a timer.”
currently we are guessing what is happening and in that world anything is possible.
Provide too much information and then we can provide better guesses.
I dont know what the automation that shows the button is doing and do know what the esphome yaml looks like so here is what I am thinking
Is it possible the dashboard was sent to cast device >> someone was using device >> message popped up and they accidentally opened door ? Don’t know cuz I do really know what the automation is doing.
OR
Was the automation to show the button cast at the time the door was opened? If yes, maybe this is related and relevant but if not maybe it is not but really curious about that.
We have little to go on other than “my door opened and I dont know why, how can I figure out what opened it?”.
Answer: Traces for automation and logs for anything else.
I’m using an automation to cast the dashboard to the google display. Google Cast - Home Assistant
I’ve tested that pushing a button on the cast device does indeed show in the logbook as Home Assistant Cast user. The cast device in HA does not log the interaction, though. I’ve enable debug logging on the cast integration, but that only helps with events going forward. I’m hoping to find out there is a complete log of interactions with the cast devices somewhere that I have not yet been able to locate.
thanks!
no. not one that is historical that youll be able to go back an reference
What happens if you just leave the screen up 30 minutes, 1hr, longer. Basically what will happen if dashboard shows and noone interacts with it? How do you clear the dashboard if you do not want it? any possibility of accidental press.
I get what automation does but I think it would have been good to look if it had triggered around the time. I believe everything is relevant until proved irrelevant when dealing with unknown.
Gotcha. The automation to cast the dashboard runs every 6 hours. It takes a lovelace dashboard and sends it to the google display device. A user can then interact with the dashboard on that device. On that display is a button:
cards:
- type: entity
entity: cover.ratgdov25i_ab674d_door
name: Door status - show_name: true
show_icon: true
type: button
tap_action:
action: toggle
entity: button.ratgdov25i_ab674d_toggle_door
name: Door button
Per the logbook, the someone pressed the button on the cast display. I’m trying to find more info because there was supposedly no one there to push said button.
Yep, it is a good thought. I’ll try to see when the dashboard last cast before the button trigger. This setup has been working for months, so I don’t think it is a HA problem. I was concerned the ESP device was the issue until i noticed the HA Cast user in the log. I’ve got debug enabled on the integration, so if it happens again, hopefully i can catch which device it is coming from. In the meantime, I’ll focus on getting logs out of the google device.
thanks for your help!
is phantom press possible?
water on screen at time button came up and it selected.
Carplay is a little crazy for me. It doesnt press the button but definetley jumps between buttons. Only with HA.
Why every 6hrs? is that just to refresh display?
Interesting! I had not considered water on the screen. One of them is in a bathroom.
Yes, the every 6 hours is just to refresh the screen. I have not yet figured out how to ask google to pull up the dashboard on demand.
So, if water is on the screen and the refresh pops up the dashboard, i guess it could trigger. I’ll try to test this! thanks!!
why do you need this button to always show?
I use ipad and skip the dashboard.
Instead a notification pops up when its relevant (doorbell or motion) OR if I expect guess I can open up dashboard for the purpose of seeing camera and watching but still use notificaiton for open.
I had big concern of young kids opening for strangers or accidentally if always available. huge security risk for convenience.
You can add a confirmation to any button on the dashboard. This may reduce risk and encourage thought when using
I didn’t know about the confirmation option. This is great! I’ll have to try that out. Thanks!