Noob, how to, tried Youtube - want a drop-down list

Hey there folks,

I have been with HA for a few years, but each time I start to tinker, I usually give up, because the learning-curve, the terminology, just too much too-muchness. I don’t blame HA, I just mean that for me, it becomes too much effort to get the simple thing done that I want done, so I just give up and do it manually each day by walking over to it and pressing the physical button :smiley:

Also, I am a musician, so I will use a music analogy: often when I ask something here, I get a few answers, but they look like this:

Hey folks, what should I do to get that fast, “many notes” sound on my piano. (NOW - from a musician’s there could be 4 to 6 answers to this, but, because the question is from a position of lack of knowledge, I use the words “many notes” to describe the thing that I think I 'm hearing, and want to recreate)

Then, the community will kindly answer something like:

Answer 1
Oh, I think what you’re describing is a major or minor scale played in semi-quavers at a speed of roughly 144, making crochets the count-value on the metronome.

Answer 2
I’m unsure what to say, bud, as it may be a scale you’re hearing, but it could also be an arpeggio. So, it could be that you should set your metronome to about 160, using semi-quavers again, which crotches are the main count, and try playing an arpeggio, hands together, from the top down, but play it as a set of broken chords, thus moving one chord-note down each repetition, and adapting the finger-use to said change each time.

Answer 3
It may be that you’re hearing a chromatic scale, or even a glissando. Chromatic scales are a little tricky, but once you master them, they just use two fingers, with a third alternating ever 4th or 3rd time, and, if you play them in major or minor 6ths, they’ll sound incredible. If, on the other hand, you are hearing a glissando, that’s relatively easy: just swipe your hand either from the top down, or from the bottom up over the keyboard, using your nails to hit the notes (so that your hand does not stick, but glides over the notes). Top down, use thumb-nail, bottom up, use middle-finger nail. IN ALL CASES, BE VERY CAREFULL NOT TO HIT SKIN, because you will bleed all over your piano, and hurt for a few days if you do.

Thanks to those who have made it this far, but this is the only way I can really try to explain what it feels like when asking questions here. It’s not that people are unhelpful. It’s that things are SO FOREIGN, and terminology is such a barrier, that it’s almost like speaking different languages :smiley:

So, I will include some screenshots to clarify (hopefully), my issue.

So, I have two inverters working in sync on my solar system, supplying power to my home. From time-to-time, for whatever reason, I may wish to switch from using solar-only to charge, to using solar-and-utility to charge (like maybe on a rainy day). That is a single drop-down in my solar app. But, there are two inverters, so I have to go to the app, find the setting one tab over, one page deep, and then select it. Then wait 10 seconds. Then do the same for the second inverter.

I would prefer to have ONE drop-down on my home assistant dashboard, which auto-opens when I go to HA (thus, one click so far, with one “selection” click). Yet, I do not seem to have the knowledge to figure this out.

At present, I have two “things” (I don’t know what you call them) on my dashboard, and, when I click any one of them, a new dialogue box opens up. On that dialogue box is the drop-down list that I ACTUALLY want to show on the dashboard. Here is a picture of the two things (buttons? links?).

So, that’s what shows on my dashboard, and, from the little icon, one would assume that if you click it, it will show you a drop-down list…but no, it doesn’t it opens the new dialogue box. Here is the picture of the dialogue box that opens when I click on the left of these two “buttons”:

Please note the icon in the first image, and the icon in the second image - identical…they “imply” drop-down lists to my poor and limited knowledge. You can see on the second image that both icons show, one in the foreground and one in the background. Now, to me, this is helluva confusing, because I would assume these icons represent the same thing…but, apparently they don’t. :slight_smile:

Now, I can click on this new “button” again (which, this time, is a “real” drop-down list). And, I include the image below of what this looks like.

So, once I click one of those options, the change occurs…BUT, as you see in the names/titles of these buttons/drop-down lists, this is (as in the solar’s app) just for the one inverter. I have to do the same for the second one using that second button.

I do understand that I will need to create “my own” drop-down list, and have it show up on my dashboard, and that this drop-down list that I create will need to have links/code/instructions/automation or whatever it may be called, to run the multiple steps needed.

So, that is where I am stuck. How do I get a single drop-down list here, that “automates” the multiple click process I have just described above?

I know this was a novel that I wrote folks, and I appreciate all who actually got to the end :smiley: Please, any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

As ever try the docs :slight_smile:

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Thanks bud. I appreciate.

But…Info overload :hot_face:. B flat minor seven flat five with d flat bass.

So, from only the first paragraph, I am drowning. As I understand…I need to install the INPUT SELECT integration, right? Integrations are the things you install to make something work?

But, then again, paragraph three gives me the impressions I have to make a “helper” thingy that will “help” ? :slight_smile:
Gonna try and muddle through this, let’s see what gives…

No

the second paragraph says this

The preferred way to configure an input select is via the user interface at Settings > Devices & services > Helpers . Click the add button and then choose the Dropdown option.

Read it all before even thinking about what you need to do, just like they always said in your school exams, read all the questions before starting as the last bit may just say only answer one question.

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this list can often help, but only if you know what HA wants to call stuff.

https://jackjourneyman.github.io/homeassistantindex/index.html

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Let me attempt a music analogy to help you understand.
That icon is like the bars on the cover of a music book. When you look at it, you know you’re expecting some notes - it doesn’t show you which notes you have to play until you actually open it.

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If you use the entities card instead of the entity card it will show the choices on the first click, I find this far more uasable.

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Wait, let me be sure I am clear…entities vs entity, right?

Woah! Yeas, this makes a HUGE difference. It does exactly what I was hoping for :slight_smile:

Now, if I wish to have both toggle with one switch, I believe I should create a helper. This I have done, but, the helper “does” nothing. I am going to read that page you referred me to again, to see if I can figure out how to “connect” the helper to the activities/functions I want to have happen.

Check out Automations and Scripts

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Back up a minute. Your first post mentioned you wanted to change the source priority of both inverters with a slight delay in between.

That’s all perfectly achievable with scripts or automations, but I imagine at a certain point you want to switch them back to their original state at a certain point.

I strongly suggest you think of all the use cases & combinations you would need in your dashboard. List them here, as clearly as possible, and we’ll walk you through setting them up.

Thanks folks ( @Arh @LiQuid_cOOled and @ShadowFist ) for the inputs thus far, much appreciated! Between your help, and a little GPT (who you can never trust, cause they lie half the time), I was able to get the following:

I have a single dropdown on my dashboard. When I click on it, I see the four different options, and I can select one. When I select one, that option is applied to both inverters, and Bob’s my uncle!

I have a helper, that is “watched” by an automation. The automation obviously “runs the show” and triggers the changes. On the dashboard I have the “entities” card, which shows the helper’s options.

May I also just say, that this is a MAJOR breakthrough for me! MAJOR! Obviously in the process, I got to grips a bit more with the whole relationship between helpers and automations. I also got to use the “blocks” thingy, which is a MASSIVELY powerful tweak of an “IF” statement. This is HUGE to me. It may seem like something simple and silly to the readers, but, to me, it’s a LOT! Thanks folks.

@ShadowFist - relating to the delay…that was only because in the actual Solar App that comes with the inverters, I needed to wait 10 seconds for the app to “update” it’s state and communicate. In reality, I do not need to wait 10 seconds, the application can take place simultaneously :slight_smile:

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