Up Time Sensor for Pi (hello world example)

Configuration
1

I have some command_line/template questions.
To learn, I am creating this sensor (UpTime). It is a hello world as I am learning ‘command_line’ and template.

pi@hassbian:/home/homeassistant/.homeassistant $ uptime
22:18:04 up 1 day, 4:18, 1 user, load average: 0.29, 0.20, 0.18

This is my sensor yaml

  • platform: command_line
    name: UpTime
    command: “uptime”
    unit_of_measurement: “time”
    value_template: >
    {%set list1 = value.split(’ ')%}
    {{ list1[0] }}
scan_interval: 1

I have this in my group yaml

default_view:
view: yes
entities:
- sensor.pws_alerts
- sensor.CPU_Temperature
- sensor.UpTime

How would I customize the sensor so I can see the all of it. Right now the circle is cutting off part of it.

2

If you want to see the entire string including time, users and load then you can simplify your sensors.yaml as that is the default behaviour for this sensor:

- platform: command_line
  name: UpTime
  command: "uptime"
  scan_interval: 1

I use the “uptime -p” command to just get server uptime and ignore the other fields. This command returns a string of the format “up 1 day, 1 hour, 42 minutes”. I then use the value_template to strip off the "up " from the beginning of the line by ignoring the first three characters. I also set scan_interval to 1 minute to cut down unnecessary updates. So in my sensor.yaml I have:

- platform: command_line
  name: Hassbian Uptime
  command: "uptime -p"
  value_template: "{{ value[3:] }}"
  scan_interval: 60

and this in customise.yaml to give it a nice icon:

sensor.hassbian_uptime:
  friendly_name: Hassbian Uptime
  icon: mdi:clock
3

Thanks @PeteB for the tip .
This started as a "hello world " learning opportunity, but might become useful .
So how does unit_of_measure affect output and where is there a list? Without UOM when I clicked on the icon it had a red error . Not sure how that all fits to the front end .

4

Good question, I’ve been looking at that lately as well. In this case “uptime” would arguably be a timedelta rather than time uom. I have seen HA UI use uom in three ways: 1) append a postfix, 2) decide type of history graph (i.e. one vs two dimensional, and, 3) consolidate history 2d graphs for values using same uom. There is also the units_system attribute that seems to help select (coerce ?) values into the desired uom.

I’d be interested to learn of other uses if others have more insight?

5

And get a list of supported ones. :slight_smile: