(Newbie problem!) Switch light on at sunset and off at 11PM (23:00)

jimford · June 19, 2020, 2:28pm

This has got to be so trivial - but the light stubbornly remains off:

Using the Automations UI:

Trigger set to sunset.
Condition - Time set to before 23:00
Action - switch light on.
This renders in YAML to:

- id: '1592063073391'
  alias: Fireside Light On at Sunset
  description: ''
  trigger:
  - event: sunset
    platform: sun
  condition:
  - before: '23:00'
    condition: time
  action:
  - data:
      effect: colorjump
    entity_id: light.d8f15bb1d0be_192_168_1_19olo
    service: light.turn_on

(I’ve set the bulb IP address as static in my router)
I’d be grateful for some help, please?
Jim

tom_l · June 19, 2020, 5:04pm

Is the automation enabled (on). Check the developer tools / states menu.

petro · June 19, 2020, 5:07pm

Are you aware that this will only turn on at sunset? It will not turn on ANY other time? For some reason, I get the impression that you expect it to turn on anytime between sunset and 11pm.

finity · June 19, 2020, 5:48pm

To add to what Petro said…

It also won’t switch back off at 23:00 either. You will need either another automation to do that or some “fancy” coding to get it done in one automation.

Just to keep it simple I would go the two automation route until you get more experience.

jimford · June 19, 2020, 5:54pm

I was expecting the light to go on at sunset and turn off at 23:00.

I see now that I need another automation to turn off the light.

I may have been able to do some “fancy” coding in ‘C’ or Perl, but I’m finding YAML particularly opaque!

Many thanks for the replies.
Jim

finity · June 19, 2020, 6:06pm

Right. that’s because of the way the trigger in the automation works.

the automation “listens” for the trigger state to be satisfied then it runs the actions as long as the condition(s) is/are met. the trigger only happens at one instant in time. It doesn’t wait around for the conditions to be true to run the actions. If the conditions aren’t true at the instance the trigger becomes true then the actions won’t be run.

It really isn’t bad at all once you get a bit of experience, especially if you have experience coding in other languages.

jimford · June 19, 2020, 6:41pm

I assumed that the automation conditions would be periodically polled.
Jim

tom_l · June 19, 2020, 7:02pm

No they are only evaluated after a trigger event.