Trying to make a continuous (conditional) loop

Configuration
1

I’ve done some research and coded what I feel should be a valid way for a continuous loop to happen in my system. Every time it runs it checks the condition of whether a particular sensor is “on”. See below:

reminder_babygate:
  sequence:
    - condition: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.baby_gate_102
      state: 'on'
    - service: tts.google_say
      data:
        entity_id: group.google_home
        message: baby gate open
    - service: script.delay_babygate
delay_babygate:
  sequence:
    - delay:
        seconds: 10
    - service: script.reminder_babygate

As you can see, it’s actually 2 scripts running together, since it’s my understanding that you can no longer have a script call itself.

What actually happens here is the reminder_baby script gate only gets called up to 2 times, then terminates, even if the senor continues in the “on” state. Any ideas why this is happening here?

2

I imagine you are running into the reason that scripts can’t call themselves, you’ve just found a way to do it that isn’t being trapped. I can think of some ways to do it with an input boolean an three automations and a script. Or I can think of a quick and easy way to do it in appdaemon.

3

Yeah, I’d totally accept that explanation if it weren’t for other examples such as (How can repeat this automation?) where people claim to have it working. Am I doing anything different than the example there that could be throwing mine off?

So just to be clear, there isn’t any supported/official method to simulate a while loop in HA/yaml?

I might have to look into AppDaemon you speak of…

4

Well, just an FYI, I was able to accomplish something similar by using a single periodically-triggered automation:

    alias: Baby Gate Reminder
  trigger:
    platform: time
    seconds: '/30'
  condition:
    condition: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.baby_gate_102
    state: 'on'
    for:
      seconds: 20
  action:
    service: tts.google_say
    data:
      entity_id: group.google_home
      message: baby gate open
5

I know it could be a little late but i was trying to do something similar.
If you check your logs you will have an entry like delay_babygate is already running.
The answer is to put a delay in reminder_babygate before calling the delay script so you end up with this…

reminder_babygate:
  sequence:
    - condition: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.baby_gate_102
      state: 'on'
    - service: tts.google_say
      data:
        entity_id: group.google_home
        message: baby gate open
    - delay:
        seconds: 5
    - service: script.delay_babygate
delay_babygate:
  sequence:
    - delay:
        seconds: 10
    - service: script.reminder_babygate
6

Hey,

How often you need to call the script? One alternative is to create a automation with a time trigger (https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/automation/trigger/).