Struggling to understand basic light control on first bulb in system

Configuration
1

I setup my first haasio hub last night and got the bulb added to the dashboard around 2am but after some 4 hours of looking at this I still can’t figure out how to add a timer to the bulb. All the examples I find are way too complicated to unpick and get working.

I’ve tried adding this separately to both the configuration and automation files then rebooting the HAAS system but nothing happens apart from getting an error on the dash about the file.

automation:
trigger:
platform: time
at: “00:13:00”
action:
service: light.turn_off
entity_id: zwave.dining_room_light

The bulb was renamed and I’m pretty sure that worked because if I go into services and put this then call the service it does indeed turn it on/off:

light.turn_off
light.level_3
{
“entity_id”: “light.level_3”
}

I don’t want to be handheld but could someone show me just the most basic how to put this on a timer to turn on or off at a given time please?

2

ok marginally further I think after seeing the duplicate automation line. Now I have this in the automation.yaml file:

trigger:
platform: time
at: “00:43:00”
action:
service: light.turn_on
entity_id: zwave.dining_room_light

Which gives me a box on the dashboard and in the log is says it was triggered but the light doesn’t come on still.

3

Hi @Cashflow !

What is the box that appears on your Dash ?
Can you post errors from your homeassistant.log that you think may be important to this issue.

And when you post code in the forum’s please highlight your code and press the ‘preformatted text’ </> button at the top of the text entry window to preserve formatting.

Correct formatting is critical in yaml :slight_smile:

4

If you renamed it to level_3 why are you trying to turn it on and off with dining_room_light?

trigger:
  platform: time
  at: "00:43:00"
action:
  service: light.turn_on
  entity_id: light.level_3

Check the states table under developer tools - the <> icon for the proper entity_id
The entity_id zwave usually relates to the controller name for the command interface for the individual switches/lights/devices, so can’t be used to turn on/off a device

5

Thanks for the replies, now I understand a bit more. I’ll try and get everything in the correct format too, hopefully this is a bit more useful.

I have it working now with this code in automation.yaml

  trigger:
    platform: time
    at: "08:18:00"
  action:
    service: light.turn_on
    entity_id: light.level_3

After Keith’s comment I think either I still don’t understand the naming OR I’ve renamed the wrong part of the node if that’s possible as there’s no errors in the log now.

I’ve saved a few screenshots to help explain what I can see where here.

When I originally renamed it I went to the Node Management and changed it from some a long manufacturers name to “Dining Room Light” but I think this might have been the wrong place to do that because now although I see the new name I can’t actually use it when controlling the lights.

Below are the three entries under state relating to the light:

zwave.dining_room_light ready node_id: 4
node_name: Dining Room Light
manufacturer_name: Domitech
product_name: Smart LED Light Bulb ZB22UK
old_entity_id: zwave.dining_room_light_4
new_entity_id: zwave.dining_room_light
query_stage: Complete
is_awake: true
is_ready: true
is_failed: false
is_info_received: true
max_baud_rate: 40000
is_zwave_plus: true
capabilities: beaming,routing,listening
neighbors: 1
sentCnt: 8
sentFailed: 0
retries: 0
receivedCnt: 5
receivedDups: 0
receivedUnsolicited: 0
sentTS: 2018-02-18 08:18:00:653
receivedTS: 2018-02-18 08:18:00:688
lastRequestRTT: 24
averageRequestRTT: 26
lastResponseRTT: 35
averageResponseRTT: 36
friendly_name: Dining Room Light

group.all_lights on entity_id: light.level_3
order: 1
auto: true
friendly_name: all lights
hidden: true

light.level_3 on brightness: 85
min_mireds: 154
max_mireds: 500
node_id: 4
value_index: 0
value_instance: 1
value_id: 72057594123753697
old_entity_id: light.dining_room_light_level_4_0
new_entity_id: light.dining_room_light_level
friendly_name: Dining Room Light Level
supported_features: 1

So my question after all of that is should I be able to reference the friendly name "Dining Room Light " in the code to change the light status or by using the entity name within “Services”?

6

You never ref the friendly name as that’s only there for the frontend display and is not used for anything else. This is what you ref new_entity_id: light.dining_room_light_level

The above statement is not strictly true as you can ref the friendly name but only to include in notify messages and the like. You can’t use it in any service calls.

7

Thanks Keith, that makes a lot of sense when I think about it!