I’m so new, I couldn’t figure out the best place to ask a few random questions, so here goes:
I don’t have many fun devices to play around with. I’d like to simulate some things. Is there a decent approach to doing so?
IOS/iPhone integration. I’ve installed and setup the app on my phone, and the web UI shows my phone’s battery status and whether it’s charging or not. That’s handy! At one point, it also showed a little user icon with my name, and that I was at “home”, but I’ve somehow lost that. That’s really all I care about. I’d like to do the same with my wife’s phone. I don’t care if HA knows where I am when I’m not home. What’s the best way to set that up?
I have a regular old thermostat but would like to replace it with something smarter. But not too smart. I’d like it to function like a regular old thermostat (I can adjust temperature by pushing it’s buttons) but also be able to control it with HA.
3a) Does anyone have a cheap, reliable thermostat that fits the bill?
3b) How would I automate this “rule”: if (anyoneIsHome && hour >= 7:00am && hour <= 9:00pm) {
set temperature to 68°F;
} else {
set temperature to 60°F;
}
I don’t have an Iphone but owntracks and ping can be used as device trackers - which are what tell HA when you are home, look up ping in components if all you want to know is when you are home.
I only have an electirc fire so can’t advise on theromstats but there are lots of discussions here about them, use the search button at the top of the page
3a) see 3
3b) Off the top of my head so syntax and other stuff could/will be wrong, something like this
condition:
- condition: state
entity_id: input_boolean.im_home <------ this is set by the device tracker in a separate automation
state: 'on'
trigger:
- platform: time
after: '07:00:00'
before: '21:00:00'
action
service: set_high_point_thermostat <----- not sure what this would be (probably device dependent) look up heaty on here or climate
entity_id: my_heating
to '68'
service: set_low_point_thermostat <----- not sure what this would be (probably device dependent) look up heaty on here or climate
entity_id: my_heating
to '60'
Hopefully that will point you in the right direction, please have a read of the docs wrt to yaml, automation, components, templates, groups and general configuration. There are lots of examples and many people have donated access to their config files, so don’t be afraid to have a root around
Any other questions (I’m sure there will be a few) just ask in here after doing some basic research and please paste any code you have been trying using the </> button after selecting in the edit box (helps with figuring out the formatting).
Thanks! I feel like I’m missing something fundamental. I’ll keep reading and playing around. The demo components look exactly like what I need to experiment.
For question 2 - I think I’ve figured out what’s wrong but don’t know how to fix. My phone was listed under known_devices, but I deleted it. Anyone have any idea how to get it back?
I have the router device tracker working but I don’t think the ios tracker is working. I have the ios: entry in configuration.yaml and the ios app says everything is installed. I would like to use a combination of both if possible.