Reversing Boolean

Configuration
1

I could use some help on the following requirement. I have an API on my oven which returns a “true” / “false” value, depending on the state of the oven. I would like to reverse that value, so a “true” becomes a boolean “false”.

This is my sensor:

sensor:
 - platform: rest
   resource: http://xx.xx.xx.xx/ai?command=getDeviceStatus
   name: 'Oven Inactive'
   value_template: '{{ value_json.Inactive}}'

My final aim is to display the oven as a switch or a light on lovelace, so that the light or switch is “on” when the oven is running.

2 
value_template: '{{ not value_json.Inactive }}'
2 Likes
3

That works! Many thanks for your help, @anon43302295 :grinning:

1 Like
4

An additional question, if I may: Currently I am now getting “true” or “false” in lovelace. What would the correct and elegant way be to replace “true” with a mdi-lightbulb-on and a “false” with mdi-lightbulb for example? I looked into this, but am currently still missing too much background to understand how to implement.

5

Yeah, so what you would do is create a template binary sensor and display that on your frontend rather than the rest sensor.

binary_sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      oven:
        friendly_name: Oven
        value_template: "{{ states('sensor.oven_inactive') }}" 
        icon_template: >
           {% if is_state('sensor.oven_inactive', 'on') %} mdi-lightbulb-on
           {% else %} mdi-light bulb {% endif %}
6

That worked great, many thanks again for your help! Through your input, I learned about template sensors now :grinning:. The only small change I made was mdi:lightbulb-on instead of mdi-lightbulb-on.

The problem I am battling with now is that the sensor values are not updating, also not the rest platform ones. Would this be the reason and right path to pursue?

1 Like
7

The template sensor will update when the rest sensor does. You can use the solution to update the rest sensor at an interval of your choosing I believe.

8

This apparently only works if the value is boolean, which it is not in this case (value_json.Inactive returns a string). So I would first need to convert the value_json.Inactive from string to boolean. Can you give me any insight into how I can do this, so your solution would work in my case? This btw was the reason why my values were not updating, because the not always returned false…

9

What are the actual value_json.Inactive outputs? (and which one do you want the template to evaluate to ‘true’ on)

10

This is an example output from the oven api, which I was tinkering around with in the template editor, in an attempt to find a solution:

{## Imitate available variables: ##}
{% set my_test_json = {"DeviceName":"","Serial":"23072 000554","Inactive":"false","Program":" Ober-/Unterhitze,  200","Status":"Heizt auf\n","ProgramEnd":{"End":"","EndType":"0"},"deviceUuid":"0000764132"} %}

{{ my_test_json.Inactive }}
11

So basically it returns the string ‘false’ if the oven is on?

If so

value_template: "{{ value_json.Inactive == 'false' }}"

Will return true if the oven is on, and false if any other string is present there.

1 Like
12

Yes, as dumb as this may sound :slight_smile:
Many thanks, very elegant solution, I was looking at much-too-comlicated ones :wink:

PS: The oven make is a VZUG, in case anyone is looking to integrate theirs, and searching for this term.

1 Like
13

Your solution worked fine in the template editor. Why, when implemented in the HASS editor, is it throwing an error?

sensor:
 - platform: rest
   scan_interval: 5
   resource: http://172.22.1.106/ai?command=getDeviceStatus
   name: 'Oven Active'
   value_template: '{{ value_json.Inactive == 'false' }}'

can not read an implicit mapping pair; a colon is missed at line 35, column 58:
     ... lue_json.Inactive == 'false' }}'
                                         ^
14

Because you’re using single quotes inside and outside of the template.

See my example - double quotes outside, single inside :slightly_smiling_face:

15

Ugh, it looks like it’s bed time for me :sleeping:
The REST part is working now, but it looks like I still need to do some work on the template sensor. In any case, I learned a lot today, many thanks to you for that! :grinning:

1 Like