Need super basic (KISS) turn on light example

Configuration
1

I have looked at many youtube examples and written instructions on how to code an automation setup, but they always have way to much other details that muddy up the water.

I just need the most basic snipped of code to show me how to turn on a light (configured as a sonoff switch) that will activate at a given time. I am a experience programmer, but just need the basics here to get me started in the right direction.

Thank You.

P.S. After modifying the automation.yalm file, do I need to restart any services?

2

I hope this is KISS enough :wink:

automation:
  - alias: Turn on wake-up light on workdays
    id: 'towulow'
    trigger:
      platform: time
      at: '06:35:00'
    condition:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: 'binary_sensor.workday_sensor'
        state: 'on'
    action:
      - service: light.turn_on
        entity_id: light.nightstand
        data:
          transition: 900 # 900 seconds = 15 minutes
          brightness: 254

Remove the condition block if not required.

Don’t forget to add the time sensor:

sensor:
  - platform: time_date
    display_options:
      - 'time'

You need to restart Home Assistant when editing these files.

3

Thank you Florian for your responds, for it is very much appreciated.

I have added this stripped down version of your code to my configuration.yalm file:

#####################
sensor:
- platform: yr
- platform: time_date
display_options:
- ‘time’
####################

And this is what my automations.yalm consists of:
######################

  - alias: Turn on Main Light
    id: 'towulow'
    trigger:
      platform: time
      at: '13:17:00'
    action:
      - service: light.turn_on
        entity_id: switch.main_switch

#########################.

But it does not work.

I do notice here is that I have the time_zone set up to my correct region in the config.yalm file. And my Raspberry shows the correct time, but the the time shows a +9 hr difference on the main Hassio panel. But even when I change the time in the code to turn on the light to reflect this it still does not work

4

FYI, you don’t need the time sensor just to get an automation to trigger at a specific time.

Your issue is you’re using the light.turn_on service with a switch. You either need to use the switch.turn_on service (preferable), or you could use the homeassistant.turn_on service. FYI, the latter can turn on any type of entity.

1 Like
5

Sorry, I assumed you’ve configured your Sonoff switch as a mqtt light.

Let’s update the automation to use switch.turn_on and fix the indentation (shift everything 2 spaces to the left):

- alias: Turn on Main Light
  id: 'toml'
  trigger:
    platform: time
    at: '13:17:00'
  action:
    - service: switch.turn_on
      entity_id: switch.main_switch

Regarding the incorrect time:
Did you configure time_zone using one of these values listed in the column tz?

6

Thanks pnbruckner!

Switching from light.turn_on to switch.turn_on (since I was using a Sonoff switch) resulted in making this automation finally work.

But I had to add +9 hr to the time so it would coincide with what the time was showing up on the main Hasio page.

Florian:
I have the configuration.yalm file set to:
time_zone: America/Los_Angeles

But I know know why there is a time difference. I am using another raspberry pi to display the AppDaemon on a touch screen panel. And this time is set correctly. But now I just need now to change the correct time on the Hassio raspberry pi to also reflect the correct time.

Thanks all for your help. I am now literally out from the darkness with my switch.main_switch being able to turn on.

2 Likes
7

One addition to the question: “After modifying the automation.yalm file, do I need to restart any services?”

This isn’t the only way. When modifying the automations you can just use the “Reload automations” under Configuration/Configuration reloading.

8

chrio
that is differently a time saver. Thank you for that great tip!

9

Also if you have a .yalm file you are doing it wrong. It is .yaml