Possible bug in Daikin Integration - HVAC mode not working in automation

I think I might have discovered a possible bug in the Daikin integration.

Below is the YAML for the automation (I removed some device_id’s just to make it a bit easier to read):

alias: Climate - Turn Living Room AC - Heat
description: Turns off AC after a period of inactivity
trigger:
  - type: no_motion
    platform: device
    entity_id: binary_sensor.living_room_motion_sensor
    domain: binary_sensor
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 15
      seconds: 0
      milliseconds: 0
condition:
  - condition: device
    type: is_off
    entity_id: remote.my_condo
    domain: remote
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 10
      seconds: 0
      milliseconds: 0
  - condition: device
    domain: climate
    entity_id: climate.living_room_ac
    type: is_hvac_mode
    hvac_mode: heat
action:
    domain: climate
    entity_id: climate.living_room_ac
    type: set_hvac_mode
    hvac_mode: 'off'
 mode: single

Explanation of the automation and desired result:
When my Daikin AC unit is heating, and there has been a period of inactivity by both my Harmony hub (My condo) and no motion by the motion sensor, turn off the AC unit.

I’ve troubleshoot (troubleshot?) this by lowering the period of inactivity to 5 seconds and removing the conditions of the Harmony hub, and AC unit altogether and the automation worked. It turned off exactly as expected.

The problem
This Daikin AC unit is both a heater and a traditional AC unit that blows cold air. Its also a fan and I believe a dehumidifier. So the state or condition of what mode the unit is in is important. I would like a similar automation to work during the summer when the unit’s HVAC mode is set to ‘cool’.

I’ve checked the state of the AC unit via the developer tools when its set to heat and it shows up as ‘heat’. See below:

Screenshot 2021-03-05 095645

However it doesn’t seem to work within the automation. I’ve tried both using the ‘State’ as a condition in regard to its HVAC Mode:

condition: state
entity_id: climate.living_room_ac
state: heat
attribute: hvac_modes

and ‘Device’:

condition: state
entity_id: climate.living_room_ac
state: heat
attribute: hvac_modes

neither worked.

SUCCESS?!
However, after several different tweaks to the automation, I got it to work using this Condition:

condition: state
entity_id: climate.living_room_ac
state: heat

I had to remove HVAC mode as an attribute. Which I found a bit counter-intuitive and without a doubt the source of my frustration over the past few days for me. And using ‘Device’ as a condition I believe you have to using some underlying mode or preset. (I could be wrong in this regard. After I got it working with the ‘State’ without an HVAC mode, I didn’t test ‘Device’ without any preset selected.)

Am I reading the developer tools wrong? Can someone explain what exactly is going on here? Is this a bug or something else?

I hope this is helpful for someone and thanks in advance.

1 Like

Thanks for this, was driving me crazy!