I’m looking to deploy a light at a friends house, they want this light to come on at certain times and go off at certain times as a driveway light. As the seasons change they just want to be able to bring up the WebUI and change when that on / off time is.
Right now I’ve got:
wifi:
ap:
ssid: "DrivewayLEDs
captive_portal:
web_server:
port: 80
output:
- platform: ledc
pin: 22
frequency: 850 hz
id: pwm_output1
inverted: false
- platform: ledc
pin: 21
frequency: 850 hz
id: pwm_output2
inverted: false
light:
- platform: monochromatic
output: pwm_output1
gamma_correct: 1.0
name: "DrivewayLED1"
id: "DrivewayLED1
- platform: monochromatic
output: pwm_output2
gamma_correct: 1.0
name: "DrivewayLED2"
id: "DrivewayLED2"
time:
- platform: sntp
id: sntp_time
They’re less technical so the idea is that I can flash an M5Stack Atom Lite, and then send it across the country to them.
We know it’ll work with the ledc like this, hooked into their LED driver, but I just ideally wanna now give them a way to set:
And have it do the same every single day without fail, 365 days a year.
Then, 2-3x a year they can log in to the WebUI of it and change it from, say, lights turning on at 1800 to make them come on at like 2100 in the summer.
What’s the best way to make this work all self-contained on the unit itself?
This is not something I’ve tried so I don’t know if the value can be edited from the ESPhome web UI of the device but how about trying a number as the hour value for ‘turn on light’ and another for the hour value of ‘turn off light’.
You will need to create the automations in ESPhome to grab those ‘hour’ values and use them to control the light.
Yeah that was what I wasn’t sure about, but it’s nifty being able to adjust the LED brightness… Now to just have a timer that’s easily adjustable 
I just did a quick test and the number can be edited from the ESPhome web UI.
Code:
number:
- platform: template
name: "Template number"
optimistic: true
min_value: 16
max_value: 23
step: 1
Using the above you could create an ESPhome automation to use that number value in place of the hour value of the light.turn_on.
See if you can create a lambda for the hour section in the below, to use the above number entity.
When I used:
time:
- platform: sntp
id: sntp_time
- platform: sntp
on_time:
- seconds: 0
minutes: 00
hours: 19
then:
- light.turn_on: DrivewayLED1
- seconds: 0
minutes: 0
hours: id.time_off()
then:
- light.turn_off: DrivewayLED1
It’s just complaining with:
I’m not familiar enough with lambdas or global variables to make that last aspect work sorry 
Any help would be greatly appreciated
I’m not experienced with lambda’s either unfortunately.
Try creating the time value like:
number:
- platform: template
name: "Template number"
id: ontimehour
optimistic: true
min_value: 16
max_value: 23
step: 1
The have an automation something like:
time:
- platform: sntp
on_time:
- seconds: 0
minutes: 0
hours: !lambda |-
return id(ontimehour)
then:
- switch.turn_on: DrivewayLED1
Then a similar setup for the ‘off time’
OK. So we need to tackle it a little differently.
automation:
- alias: "Turn on Light at Specific Time"
trigger:
# Trigger every minute to check the time
platform: time
minutes: "/1" # Every minute
action:
# Check if the current hour matches the number value
- condition:
lambda: |-
return id(ontimehour).state == id(sntp_time).now()
- light.turn_on:
id: DrivewayLED1
Oohhhhhh very cool, thanks @sparkydave ! I’ve had to head out of the house for a bit, but I’ll give that a try upon my return.
Very grateful, thankyou 
No worries mate. I’m keen to hear how it pans out as it’s the kind of thing I might do for a project of my own.
OK so I tried:
time:
- platform: sntp
id: sntp_time
interval:
- interval: 1min
then:
- if:
condition:
lambda: |-
'return id(time_on_hour).state == id(sntp_time).now()'
'return id(time_on_mins).state == id(sntp_time).now()'
then:
- light.turn_on:
id: DrivewayLED1
But unfortunately it didn’t like that when compiling:
/config/esphome/m5stack-poesp32-3.yaml:95:7: warning: character constant too long for its type
'return id(time_on_hour).state == id(sntp_time).now()'
^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/config/esphome/m5stack-poesp32-3.yaml:96:7: warning: character constant too long for its type
'return id(time_on_mins).state == id(sntp_time).now()'
^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/config/esphome/m5stack-poesp32-3.yaml: In lambda function:
/config/esphome/m5stack-poesp32-3.yaml:95:55: error: expected ';' before '\x6f772829'
'return id(time_on_hour).state == id(sntp_time).now()'
^
;
'return id(time_on_mins).state == id(sntp_time).now()'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/config/esphome/m5stack-poesp32-3.yaml:97:3: warning: no return statement in function returning non-void [-Wreturn-type]
then:
^
*** [/data/m5stack-poesp32-3/.pioenvs/m5stack-poesp32-3/src/main.cpp.o] Error 1
I think I need to adjust the id(sntp_time).now() to be either minutes, or hours using strftime:
As I couldn’t get the “automation:” to work as that seemed more like HA YAML for putting into configuration.yaml than for use in esphome?
Yeah sorry. I was running that without too much thought (supposed to be working!) so got the two switched up.
Again, this bit is something I’m not confident with, but maybe something like:
interval:
- interval: 1min
then:
- if:
condition:
lambda: |-
'return id(time_on_hour).state == id(sntp_time).now.hour()'
'return id(time_on_mins).state == id(sntp_time).now.minute()'
then:
- light.turn_on:
id: DrivewayLED1
Gave that a shot but it’s still complaining about the lambda unfortunately Even adding the semicolon it wants
Maybe try:
interval:
- interval: 1min
then:
- if:
condition:
lambda: |-
if id(time_on_hour).state == id(sntp_time).now.hour()
then:
- light.turn_on:
id: DrivewayLED1
I’ve simplified it to just the hour for now until we get it working, then we try adding in the minute section. I figure ‘small steps’!
Unfortunately no joy still
Appreciate your patience and continued attempts though
Hopefully someone else with better ESPhome lambda experience can chime in for us.
1 Like
Thought I’d bump this thread up and see if anybody else has any ideas. I’d kinda put it on hold for the last 6 weeks but got reminded that it was still a thing
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
