I have an old air conditioner that I control via a ZigBee infrared sensor.
My most recent automation works with a scene button. Every time I click the button, it turns on or off a “timer” type helper entity.
When the “timer” entity turns on, the following commands are sent:
- turns on the air conditioner
- sets the cooling mode
- sets the temperature to 25C
When the timer’s timer turns off (or when I click the scene button again with the timer active), the timer ends (and this generates a command to turn off the device).
The problem arose when I decided to make this parameterizable. I don’t like these controls that, when clicked, open a “hidden card” with the parameterization. That’s when I discovered that there is no panel (not even customized) that represents the “timer” entity properly.
I had to create my own controls, automations and scripts to manage everything. In my case, I allow you to set the “duration” (between 1h and 4h) and an on/off button. The timer entity is at the top of the panel just to be able to follow the countdown.
It would be much more useful if there was a native “timer” type panel, where we could define the entity controls that would appear, similar to “tile” cards.
My panel:
“Tiler cards” that could be used as inspiration for a “Timer card” or “Timer panel”:
