I’m trying to create a way when I come home and my “Away” mode is turned off that my lights will come on automatically, but to different scenes depending on the time of day.
Ideally I’d like to set it up so the lights will turn on a “High” scene if it’s 45 minutes after Sunrise or 45 minutes before Sunset. Otherwise, I want it to turn on my low, or “Main”, scene.
What I’ve got so far is this, which (I think) is saying turn on “high” if it’s 45 mins (or 2700 seconds) before sunset, but I’m stuck on how to add in the additional piece to say between xyz offset from sunrise and abc offset from sunset.
Any guidance?
- alias: Lights On When Away Mode Turned Off
trigger:
platform: state
entity_id: switch.mech_room_away
to: 'off'
action:
- service_template: >-
{{ as_timestamp(states.sun.sun.attributes.next_setting) - as_timestamp(now()) > 2700 }}
scene.mech_room_phantom_keypad_1_high
{% else %}
scene.mech_room_phantom_keypad_1_main
{% endif %}
@tom_l, I should give you credit for what I currently have because I took it from this thread. Any advice on how to modify it to meet the criteria above would be greatly appreciated!
@finity thank you! I was just trying to test it out using a few test input booleans, but I’m new to service templates so I’m getting an error in my config. Here’s what I have (under automations)…is this the right gist or am I way off base here?
- alias: Away Mode Off Test
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: input_boolean.awaytestswitch
to: 'off'
action:
- service_template: >-
{{ (as_timestamp(states.sun.sun.attributes.next_setting) - as_timestamp(now())) | int > 2700 and (as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(states.sensor.sunrise.state)) | int > 2700 }}
input_boolean.turn_on
data:
entity_id: input_boolean.awaytestdayon
{% else %}
input_boolean.turn_on
data:
entity_id: input_boolean.awaytestnighton
{% endif %}
- alias: Away Mode Off Test
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: input_boolean.awaytestswitch
to: 'off'
action:
- service: input_boolean.turn_on
data_template: >
{{ (as_timestamp(states.sun.sun.attributes.next_setting) - as_timestamp(now())) | int > 2700 and (as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(states.sensor.sunrise.state)) | int > 2700 }}
entity_id: input_boolean.awaytestdayon
{% else %}
entity_id: input_boolean.awaytestnighton
{% endif %}
the thing you are templating is the entity_id of the input boolean you want to turn on. you aren’t templating which service call you want to use because in both instances you are turning on the boolean. the difference is which boolean gets turned on.
Ok gotcha - unfortunately I’m still getting a config error:
Invalid config for [automation]: invalid template (TemplateSyntaxError: Encountered unknown tag ‘else’.) for dictionary value @ data[‘action’][0][‘data_template’][‘entity_id’]. Got None. (See /config/configuration.yaml, line 398). Please check the docs at https://home-assistant.io/components/automation/
I also tried this variation, but same error:
- alias: Away Mode Off Test
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: input_boolean.awaytestswitch
to: 'off'
action:
- service: input_boolean.turn_on
data_template:
entity_id: >
{{ (as_timestamp(states.sun.sun.attributes.next_setting) - as_timestamp(now())) | int > 2700 and (as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(states.sensor.sunrise.state)) | int > 2700 }}
input_boolean.awaytestdayon
{% else %}
input_boolean.awaytestnighton
{% endif %}
Hmmm no, good point. Is there a way to grab the value of today’s sunrise from the sun entity? In “States” I can only see next_rising as an attribute.
As a hack I tried to see if I could take the “next_rising” attribute and subtract 24 hours (86400 seconds), but that didn’t seem to work either (of course I may be doing it wrong):
action:
- service: input_boolean.turn_on
data_template:
entity_id: >
{% if (as_timestamp(states.sun.sun.attributes.next_setting) - as_timestamp(now())) | int > 2700 and (as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp((states.sun.sun.attributes.next_rising) - 86400)) | int > 2700 %}
input_boolean.awaytestdayscene
{% else %}
input_boolean.awaytestnightscene
{% endif %}
I forgot I’m using the enhanced sun component by @pnbruckner and I had just worked on helping someone else with a sunrise/Sunset calculation and they used that component too.
You can either install that custom component or I can help figuring out another way to do what you want. I recommend the former because it adds a lot more flexibility by providing a bunch more information.
the reason next_rising - 86400 won’t work is because as soon as it’s after sunrise for today then the attribute changes to be tomorrows sunrise and the calculation resets.
that’s the problem with the standard sun component but using phil’s component fixes that and gives you a “today’s sunrise” sensor that won’t change until “tomorrow” (probably midnight is when the reset occurs but I’m not 100% sure of that).
No worries at all, I just appreciate the help! Gotcha - all things being equal if there’s a way to do it without a custom component I’d rather do that (I just say that because in the past I’ve had trouble with custom components and updates). I did actually come up with a really inelegant solution just using an input boolean as a trigger:
- alias: Away Daytime Boolean On
trigger:
- platform: sun
event: sunrise
offset: "00:45:00"
action:
service: input_boolean.turn_on
entity_id:
- input_boolean.daytime
- alias: Away Daytime Boolean Off
trigger:
- platform: sun
event: sunset
offset: "-00:45:00"
action:
service: input_boolean.turn_off
entity_id:
- input_boolean.daytime
- alias: Away Off Lights On Day
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: input_boolean.awaytestswitch
to: 'off'
condition:
- condition: state
entity_id: input_boolean.daytime
state: 'on'
action:
service: input_boolean.turn_on
entity_id:
- input_boolean.awaytestdayon
- alias: Away Off Lights On Night
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: input_boolean.awaytestswitch
to: 'off'
condition:
- condition: state
entity_id: input_boolean.daytime
state: 'off'
action:
service: input_boolean.turn_on
entity_id:
- input_boolean.awaytestnighton
If there’s a way to do it cleaner than that I’d love to, but this does appear to work without the need for the custom component.
I really wouldn’t go this route.
If you want your lights to have different levels then put them into groups having the same levels for the same parts of the day.
Then when ANY light switches on the group automation sets the light to the group level for that segment of the day (so you don’t have to run any fancy checks)
The levels change throughout the day and the lights take on those new levels
Thus they become independant of each other and easier to run
there may be better ways to do it but as long as it works for you and you understand it then I think that’s the way you should do it.
As far as custom components, I don’t think you should limit yourself with a bit of a bad experience. you will potentially lose out on many functionalities that you will never get from the built-in components.
And if it’s installation/updates that are the issue then consider looking into the HACS custom component. It pretty much streamlines installation and updates and is (almost…) foolproof.
) foolproof.