I have a couple of automations that have a tendency to quick fire 10 times in 10 seconds (exaggeration but to make a point). Specifically snapshots from cameras based on motion sometimes go haywire.
So far the only way I found to prevent it is to create another automation that turns the first one off after firing and then switches it back on after a delay.
Surely there must be a better/easier way - any thoughts?
If throttling the repeat rate of the automation is your only concern, you could simply add a condition that checks the current time compared to when the automation was last triggered and enforce some suitable minimum time between each run.
conditions:
- "{{ now() - state_attr(this.entity_id, 'last_triggered') > timedelta(seconds=5) }}"
Assuming it’s in single mode you can also add a delay as the last step, and that’ll stop further runs from happening during that delay.
love this one, thanks a lot. Added already, will see how it goes
the one from Mayhem is a more elegant one but also a good and simple shout
Do note that while this should work fine for existing automations, it will break for new automations (and thus is not immediately suitable for blueprints) as the last_triggered attribute will initially be null / none. Also not sure whether it is preserved between server restarts? So just to be safe, you may want to add an additional default safeguard:
conditions:
- "{{ now() - (state_attr(this.entity_id, 'last_triggered') or as_datetime(0)) > timedelta(seconds=5) }}"
@WaldB I’m in the same situation but the solution here doesn’t seem to work with blueprints. Will you share your delay automation?
It does/should work, as long as you add the default safeguard I explained just above.
@Mayhem_SWE
Thanks. I can’t get it to work. Adding this to the blueprint breaks it; adding to the automation doesn’t work for me.
Okay I’ve had another look at this. I really thought the default filter would kick in on none (which is what state_attr() returns for a non-existent entity_id and/or attribute), but I guess it only does on undefined? My bad… Try this instead:
conditions:
- "{{ now() - (state_attr(this.entity_id, 'last_triggered') or as_datetime(0)) > timedelta(seconds=5) }}"