Template sensor value unknown

Configuration
1

I’m trying to create a tempate sensor so i can show the value on a markdown card.

My Configurtation.yaml (part of it):

sensor: !include sensors.yaml

My Sensor.yaml

- platform: template
  sensors:
    not_there:
      value_template: "{{ (( as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(strptime('06.07.2018', '%d.%m.%Y')) ) / 0 ) | round(2) }}"
      entity_id: sensor.date
      friendly_name: 'Not there'
      unit_of_measurement: "Days"

ui-lovelace.yaml:

views:
  - title: Home
    cards:
    - type: markdown
      content: >
        {{ states('sensor.not_there') }}

Whatever I do, even after restart, the card displays ‘Unknown’. What am I doing wrong?

2

Are you trying to get the number of days counted? This worked for me in the template editor.

{{ (((as_timestamp(now())) - (as_timestamp(strptime('06.07.2018', '%d.%m.%Y')))) / 86400 ) | int }}
3

I tried it and in the log:

ZeroDivisionError: float division by zero

Not sure why you’re trying to divide by zero, works when you remove that

4

There went something wron with copy paste of my code…

- platform: template
  sensors:
    not_there:
      value_template: "{{ (( as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(strptime('06.07.2018', '%d.%m.%Y')) ) / 86400 ) | round(2) }}"
      entity_id: sensor.date
      friendly_name: 'Not there'
      unit_of_measurement: "Days"

This is my code in sensor.ymal, but still Unknown on my card.

There is no problem with how I set this up? because I use different files, and with include sensor.yaml etc.?
I have another type of sensor in the same sensor.yaml file, a command line, and that works fine. I can show that value on a card.

5

It’ll be unknown until the code executes, which is midnight. Also, this template won’t work in 0.115. Best to make that change now.

Also, as a side note, wouldn’t you always want this to floor? If your time was after 12pm, you’d have an extra false day added on.

- platform: template
  sensors:
    not_there:
      value_template: "{{ (( as_timestamp(strptime(states('sensor.date'))) - as_timestamp(strptime('06.07.2018', '%d.%m.%Y')) ) / 86400 ) | round(2) }}"
      friendly_name: 'Not there'
      unit_of_measurement: "Days"
6

Okay, maybe i used the wrong code for the sensor, I took it from the documentation:

I added a new sensor to my sensor.yaml.

- platform: template
  sensors:
    test:
      value_template: >-
        "testing 1 2 3"
      friendly_name: 'test'

To my knowledge, this sensor should just retun ‘testing 1 2 3’.

in my ui-lovelace.yaml i use

{{ states('sensor.test') }}

But still it displays ‘Unknown’

7

what does sensor.test show in dev tools states page ?

8

it shows “testing 1 2 3”…

And… I just updated the hassio os, and it did reboot. And now I see the right value on my card. That raises a next question, do i need to reboot / restart before sensor.yaml does it’s job?

And is it possible to refresh a sensor.yaml with ‘platform: template’ with an interval like:

- platform: template
  scan_interval:
    minutes: 1
  sensors:
    test:
      value_template: >-
        "testing 1 2 3"
      friendly_name: 'test'

N.B. i know refreshing a static value does not make sense, but I want to do some things with date and time in the template.

9

you always have to restart when adding sensors to sensors.yaml. In version 0.115 you can reload the sensors file without restarting.