Trigger automation if numeric_state increases (+1)

Configuration
1

OK, this is such a simple usecase. Don´t laugh at me folks :grin:

I have one automation:

trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.problems_any
    from: '0'
    for: '00:00:05'
    id: neu
action:
  - service: notify.all_devices
mode: single

Currently it triggers only once: when sensor value goes > 0.

:question::question::question: How to trigger the automation also, when the value is increased, doesn´t matter what it was before :question::question::question:

Example: sensor value is 18. If it wents up to 19 (or more), please trigger.

I thought bout adding this as additional trigger and adding the general condition:

  - platform: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.problems_any
    id: mehr
    above: '0'
    for: '00:00:05'

condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: '{{ (trigger.to_state.state - trigger.from_state.state) > 1 }}'

Unfortunately, this doesn´t work (the automation still does not trigger when sensor value increases). It is such a simple usecase… makes me angry still not learning that language -.-

Ideas warmly welcome!

2

Don’t use a from or a to, so that the automation triggers whenever the number changes.
Add a condition to prevent the automation running if the state decreases:

{{ trigger.from_state.state|int < trigger.to_state.state|int }}

Note your condition template would probably work too, if you changed it to =1 instead of >1 because it will only be over 1, if the number it has changed to is 2 or more than the previous state.

3 Likes
3

Interesting approach! But will it also trigger if the sensor value is not numeric (e. g. none or more likely unavailable e. g. during sensor initialization/HA restart etc.)? I don´t want those cases to fire my automation.

4

I don´t think so: value before = 10, value now = 20 → difference is not 1 :wink: But I try to stick to your idea, I´m testing it now.

5 
{{ (trigger.from_state.state|int(0) < trigger.to_state.state|int(0)) and (trigger.from_state.state != 'unavailable' and trigger.to_state.state != 'none') and (trigger.to_state.state != 'unavailable' and trigger.from_state.state != 'none') }}

Edit:
Yes but your template would still have worked, you were limiting the automation by having from:0 which will only ever fire once when the state changes from 0 and won’t fire again until the state has gone back to zero and then over it again.

6

Thanks!

  1. your previous condition template worked :white_check_mark: Didn´t know it´s possible to not set a ‘from’ or ‘to’ in a state trigger. Probably mixed it with the mandatory ‘above’ or ‘below’ in numeric_state trigger.

  2. Seems to get quite complicated when there are 3 states I try to avoid: unavailable’,‘unknown’,‘none’, maybe there´s a smarter solution? Hopefully piping to int or even int(0) catches those states, doesn´t it?

  3. How can I use the difference (“new number of problematic entities”) in the action part (notification)? Can I use this to calculate?

{{ states('sensor.problems_any') }} problematic entities detected. {{ trigger.to_state.state|int(0) - trigger.from_state.state|int(0) }} new entities detected.
7

Yes, The best way to catch all the errors is to set the default to a minus number that you would normall never see - something like this:

{% set t_new = trigger.to_state.state|int(-99) %}
{% set t_from = trigger.from_state.state|int(-99) %}
{{ t_from < t_new and (t_from > -99 and t_new > -99) }}

That ensures that if either the from or to states could not be converted to an int, then they become -99, which we can easily check, and stop the automation going any further.

As for your number 3, yes - that looks good to me.

1 Like
8

Currently I use

trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.problems_any
    for: '00:00:05'
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: '{{ trigger.from_state.state|int(0) < trigger.to_state.state|int(0) }}'
action:
  - service: notify.all_devices

and it works great so far. I´m gonna test HA restarts etc. and if there´s a need for excluding unwanted states I´m probably gonna implement your suggestion Trigger automation if numeric_state increases (+1) - #7 by mobile.andrew.jones.

Thanks a lot mate!

P.S.: Only downside I could find so far is: the “last_triggered” for that automation of course now doesn´t mean there actually was a problem, because we gonna monitor ANY sensor value change now. Not nice, but still a quite small trade-in for the benefit of getting a notification for every increase of that sensor value.

3 Likes
9

No problem, glad to help :slight_smile:

1 Like
10

Good day. I See this thread is from some time ago. It is exactly what I am trying to do. In my case water flow. I want to start an automation when water starts flowing for 5 seconds.

My issue is that I want to execute another automation of water stops flowing for 5 seconds.

How will I do that?

Some help code will be much appreciated

11

Post a new thread, and you can provide a link to this thread if you think it is relevant. In your new thread, you’d want to post some information about the relevant sensors you have in HA: Do you already have a sensor that reports flow? Does it measure flow and report a value, or is it a binary sensor that turns on when flow is detected?

Have you tried to create an affirmation yet? Can you post the yaml code from something you have tried?