Stopwatch Helper

Feature Requests
1

This would be the opposite of the Timer helper which counts down.

The Stopwatch helper would count up.

2

Maybe you find this useful. Itā€™s a sensor, not a helper, but just in case:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/stopwatch-with-start-stop-resume-lap-and-reset/443994

3

Hi, Thanks for your reply. This is helpful.

I still think my request is valid tho. While I agree a stopwatch feature might not be super helpful for automations, there are community users that want to have full control of their smart home products in home assistant.

The use case for me is a wireless food thermometer. The manufacturers app it comes with provides a stop watch just to keep track of the length of cook.

I was able to implement all of the features from the manufacturers app fairly easily except for stop watch.

Being that HA already has a count down timer, I figured adding a count up stop watch would be pretty simple. Then the feature is available, whether most users use it or not.

Just a suggestion though. If I need to build my own stopwatch with a little help from my friends, so be it.

Thanks!

4

I wish for one too since I want to measure time between the use of a device.

1 Like
5

I completely agree. One is needed. Want to track how long devices are on over 24 hour period (will start/stop throughout the day) - like track how long my air conditioners are on. Very important in southwest Florida. Right now I am using the current timer and it does it backwards which is silly, but at least something.

So, maybe, one timer helper which does both increment and decrement?

1 Like
6

Another vote for a helper stopwatch, as in has the opposite to the timer helper, counting the time from a set event - would be very useful

7

I would love this feature!

8

Also would love to see this. Could use such a helper for my pool filter automation.

9

Kinda surprised it doesnā€™t still exist as a built-in helper ! Would be greatly appreciated !
Vote, vote, vote ! :slight_smile:

10

Another vote here - I presumed it would be built in but I misunderstood what the ā€˜timerā€™ feature was for.

My use case is to start a timer i.e. a stopwatch, which begins when power of a device goes above a certain wattage. When the wattage drops below a certain wattage the timer (stopwatch) stops, and if it has been stopped for a period of 5 minutes then it resets back to 0.

11

I bellieve the History Stats integration is what most of you are looking for.

1 Like
12

As @Ruggi suggested, for your usecase, Iā€™ve had success with History Stats, using the type: time mode. You can set it up under Settings > Devices > Helpers:

Open your Home Assistant instance and show your helper entities.

You can use a template like {{ today_at("00:00") }} in the ā€œstartā€ field and {{ now() }} in the ā€œendā€ field to get the stats for today.

I think this feature request is more about having native frontend support for counting upwards based on a timestamp (similar to how timers count down to a given timestamp).

13

Yes, this is rediculousā€¦ :slight_smile: There are so much advanced helpers, but not that one?

I simply want to track the runtime (single-run, not total) of some of my appliances (washing machine, tumble dryer, oven, etc.) and display them in a template card. Whatā€™s the best way to achieve that? Iā€™ve been trying for the last hour, with no resultā€¦ :confused:

14

A simple helper for stop watch timer. All we want to do is to count up rather than count down. Seems to simple. Use cases:

  • stop watch/timer for how long each of my air conditioners have been on today.
  • Stop watch/timer for how long the pool pump has been on.
  • Etc etc etc

Calculations in hours/minutes/seconds is fine. No need for sub-second time.

I am so surprised that Home Assistant can not do this built in. Not that I am saying that HA isnā€™t a great platform because of the lack of this, itā€™s just that it can do so many amazing things - but this is missing and quite a few people are wanting thisā€¦ Itā€™s mind boggling. I am over simplifying this, but take the code of the existing timer and change it from counting down to counting up from 00:00:00 and add it as another helper.

Thank you in advanceā€¦

15

@Ruggi and others that have mentioned the history stats. First - Thank you - second, yeah, it does seem to work as desired. Only thing is the presentation of the wording of time, but I am sure that there are ways to reformat from ā€œ0h 1mā€ to something that I at first was thinking - like ā€œ00:00:01ā€.

So for those of you that are seeking stopwatch type of features I also recommend that you look at the history stats. At the end of the day it is the same result just I guess packaged differently,

Thank you!!