Notify when any sensor is unavailable / offline

Configuration
1

Hello, my first topic here.

Is there a way to send a notification when any sensor (15+ sensors, mostly Xiaomi) goes ‘unavailable’ or ‘unknown’, that is for whichever reason it goes offline, without writing automations for each individual sensor?

I searched the forum and tried to find a solution with for loops in template sensor, but I didn’t really get anywhere.

Any help appreciated.

1 Like
2

Probably not the slickest way to do it, but here is how I am notified when a device goes offline.

#########################################################
#                                                       #
#             NOTIFY IF YEELIGHT OFFLINE                #
#                                                       #
#########################################################

- alias: "Light Offline"
  id: 98cad77f-83a0-4b95-b45b-fddec6342025
  trigger:
    - platform: state 
      entity_id:
        - light.yeelight1
        - light.yeelight2
        - light.yeelight3
        - light.yeelight_4
        - light.yeelight_5
        - light.anthom1
        - light.wled
        - light.notification_light
      to: 'unavailable'
      for:
        seconds: 180
  action:
    service: notify.home_assistant
    data_template:
      title: "A Light is Offline"
      message: "{{ trigger.to_state.attributes.friendly_name }} is offline"
3 Likes
3

Thanks for the link, that looks good, I now understand I would probably need only a couple of automations.
I think Xiaomi sensors go ‘unavailable’, but my MQTT sensors go ‘unknown’ for example.
And do binary sensors also have an ‘unavailable’ state?

It would still be good to have a general way to do it, so when I add a new sensor I don’t need to remember to add it to the automation list.

Something like this pseudocode:

for sensor in sensors:
  if sensor.state == 'unavailable' or sensor.state == 'unknown':
    notify sensor.name 'is' sensor.state
4

did you ever get further with this?

I’ve just noticed that one of my two xiaomi hubs has been offline for a day.

I’m using the nmap device tracker to track various devices, but the downside with that is it only checks every 10 minutes. And I can’t find a state for the actual hub integration itself…

5

I’ve setup a ping binary sensor for my two xiaomi hubs to check on them every 30 seconds.

An example of one in my binary_sensors.yaml file:

- platform: ping
  host: 192.168.1.30
  name: xiaomi_gateway
  count: 2
  scan_interval: 30

This appears as binary_sensor.xiaomi_gateway in Home Assistant and you can create automations to check if they’re online or not (state is either ‘on’ or ‘off’). Or just check the UI periodically.

6

not sure why I didnt’ think of this.

moved it over - will be faster. And hopefully less false positives

7

For anyone using appdaemon, I made this script for the same purpose:

I haven’t had any devices run out of power yet, but I tested it with a light, and it seems to work as intended.

All the self.battery_levels are template sensors (search for “# Sensor Batteries” in my sensors.yaml file if you want to copy those) getting the battery state of the corresponding entity in self.battery_powered_devices.

I have it create a sensor (sensor.unavailable_devices) where the state shows if any on that list are unavailable/unknown, and puts a list of all in the attribute “devices” (if there’re a lot, it’s probably some other issue; they are unlikely to all run dry at the same time). You could use that sensor in the frontend if you want. I also have it send a notification.

9

Would it be possible to re-host this? Showing a 404 unavialable.

10

Fixed. Thanks for the heads up.