Sensor for computer usage?

[harpdogg]

I just followed these steps provided by @ZzetT.

Sensor for computer usage?

I know this topic is already quite old, but I want to share a solution for Windows computers to detect if they are idle or not. I use this kind of information to turn the heating on when somebody works on the computer. The main idea is to send a heartbeat from the computer when it is active. Create a MQTT binary sensor: binary_sensor: - platform: mqtt name: "PC Activity" state_topic: "pc/activity/state" off_delay: 120 device_class: connectivity The hearbeat will be sent ev…

and

Sensor for computer usage?

This is how it looks for me (although I think I now named it “timingEvent”): [Bild_2020-12-16_122007] Yes, that’s much simpler. But I don’t want to have the heating on even if my PC is running and I’m not using it

[Maltavius]

I used this until 2 days ago when I suddenly started getting these responses:

SSLError: [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed (_ssl.c:590)

Anyone have any clues as to why this suddenly started happening?

[Michel]

Given the timing that might be related to the Lets Encrypt thingy (don’t know the proper term) expiring DST Root CA X3 Expiration (September 2021) - Let's Encrypt

[Maltavius]

Yeah that seems to be it…

[igorsantos07 (Igor Santos)]

The xprintidle solution from martokk is awesome, simple and very versatile… except for a tiny issue: getting SSH to run properly from the command_line integration seems to be a nightmare (sample complaint post from 2020).

• You obviously can’t pass a password via argument to ssh
• no clue if it’s ever possible to install sshpass in HA Core
• SSH keys seem to be wiped with Core updates (reply at the same post)
  • I mean, if you ever figure out how to add a working SSH key; the SSH add-on don’t run at the same container which the integration will execute (reply at the same post, integration docs “hint”), so testing from the add-on and seeing it working fine makes you feel like a

Other solutions I’m leaning towards:

• edit [THIS ONE WORKED!!!] installing some sort of HTTP server on my computer and make it spit out xprintidle whenever a given page is requested… so somehow HA can pick that up through, idk, curl? Nonetheless, that’s a lot of work which could be simply done via SSH lol
  1. I indeed installed Apache in my computer
  2. I added a cronjob to store xprintidle output in Apache’s folder: crontab -e; then add */1 * * * * DISPLAY=:0 xprintidle 2>&1 > /var/www/html/xprintidle.txt
     • 2-year later note: after reinstalling my OS, I lost the cronjob and tried to do it by hand, before finding this very own post. Turns out this can’t be done directly with PHP (e.g. <? passthru('xprintidle');) because that process won’t be executed by your actual user lol
  3. I added a command_line integration to HA which runs curl my-desktop-ip/xprintidle.txt Dirtiest solution possible, but… that’s what we have to put up with sometimes around Home Assistant “user-friendly” configurations? lol
• some indirect trick with System Bridge
• hope for something like HASS.Agent but for Linux lol

[ShellCode33]

To all my fellow Linux users ending up on this thread, I published a Python package to PyPI that allows you to report idleness to Home Assistant thanks to the HTTP integration.

I don’t like xprintidle for a very simple reason, I don’t want Home Assistant to think I’m idle while I’m watching videos (and therefore not using mouse or keyboard). My script is based on xidlehook which listens to PulseAudio events to make sure you’re not considered idle if your computer outputs audio.

Check it out : GitHub - ShellCode33/HASS-Desktop-Sensor: Desktop activity sensor for Home Assistant

[bobmorane (Bob)]

@ltoolio

I use IOT Link to monitor my son’s gaming PC.

Other user of IOT Link here. Very simple integration, I used the idle_time sensor to turn off my external audio amplifier after 10 min of inactivity. The automation would be better with a mmWave presence sensor like the Aquara FP1, but I’ve been spending too much on Home Assistant toys lately

Automation:

alias: SMSL off when PC idle 
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.my_computer_idle_time
    above: 600
action:
  - service: remote.send_command
    data:
      device: smsl_ad18
      command: power
    target:
      entity_id: remote.rm4c_mini_remote
mode: single

configuration.yaml:

mqtt:
  sensor:
    - name: "My Computer - Idle Time"
      state_topic: "iotlink/workgroup/silent-desktop/windows-monitor/stats/system/idle-time"
      unit_of_measurement: "seconds"
      icon: mdi:timer
      value_template: "{{ value }}"
      availability_topic: "iotlink/workgroup/silent-desktop/lwt"
      payload_available: "ON"
      payload_not_available: "OFF"
      qos: 1

[frostworx]

Sorry for the necrobump, but thank you very much for this clever and well documented solution!