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1

I need some help with an automation. My elderly mother lives across the street. She has dementia and Parkinson’s and is not able to use a phone to contact me. I made a call button (using esphome) where she can press it and it will send me a notification. The problem is she will keep pressing it until I respond. I am trying to figure out how to have the system notify me of the first press and wait a delayed amount until the next notification. While in the delay period, pressing the button will not send any notifications until after the time expires, then if the button is pressed again, it will notify me and start the process all over again. The button is illuminated with an RGB LED (the addressable ones). While in the delay period, I would like to have it flash. At the end of the period, it would just turn off.

I have spent many hours trying to search and figure out how to accomplish this with no luck. Any guidance would be very much appreciated.

2

Start a timer when the button is pressed. Then check for a running timer (condition) in the automation.

3

Ok, thanks for the idea. I will work on it.

4

I put a: -delay: 00:02:00 at the end of my mailbox vibration sensor automation to keep it quiet for 2 minutes after the mailman first opens the lid.

5

A delay as the last action in the automation could work too, but then you also need to set the automation’s mode to single. This is perhaps simpler than starting a timer, but a little but less robust (it won’t survive restarts or reloads).