Value template not working for binary sensor

Configuration Zigbee
, ,
1

I have a Aqara door & window contact sensor (Xiaomi MCCGQ11LM), connected via zigbee2mqtt to Home Assistant.

I’d like to map the values open/closed values to custom values, but I cant get it working.

What I did was this this template here:

Option (1):

template:
  - sensor:
      - name: "Door Status"
        state: "{% if is_state('binary_sensor.door_sensor_shed_contact', 'true')-%}OPEN{%-else-%}CLOSED{%-endif%}"

But its always showing me “CLOSED” (which is not correct, it should be “OPEN”).

When I look at the raw MQTT message it says "contact: true", hence should map to “OPEN”:

{
	"battery":100,
	"contact":true,
	"device_temperature":3,
	"last_seen":"2023-04-04T10:43:54+02:00",
	"linkquality":40,
	"power_outage_count":19,
	"voltage":3225
}

For testing, I added this to my mqtt section - and this works. But this is only plan B!

Option (2):

mqtt:
  ...
  sensor:
    - name: "shed.closed"
      unique_id: "shed.closed"
      state_topic: "zigbee2mqtt/door_sensor_shed"
      value_template: "{%if (value_json.contact == true)-%}OPEN{%-else-%}CLOSED{%-endif%}"

Question: Why is Option (1) - the template approach - not working?

2

State should be 'on' not 'true':

        state: >
          {% if is_state('binary_sensor.door_sensor_shed_contact', 'on') %}
            OPEN
          {% else %}
            CLOSED
          {% endif %}

Look in Developer Tools / States to see the real state of an entity.

3

This is also not working. I tried:

state: "{% if is_state('binary_sensor.door_sensor_shed_contact', 'on')-%}OPEN{%-else-%}CLOSED{%-endif%}"

4

Paste a screenshot like this but for your binary_sensor.door_sensor_shed_contact:

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image931×396 21 KB

5

And use the developer / template editor to test :wink:

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image794×403 5.99 KB

6

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image1131×314 21.5 KB

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image1097×452 26.2 KB

7

That’s chickens rather than shed. You have to get the entity ID correct in the template, obviously…

8

I renamed “shed” to “chickens” :see_no_evil:, so that shouldn’t be the problem.

I just noticed that, while MQTT says "contact": true, HA says State = off. Shouldn’t this be the other way round?

image

9

OK, so now show us the sensor code that matches your current entity naming, that still isn’t working. By the way, you don’t need to be so concerned about spacing in templates: the result is trimmed of leading and trailing whitespace.

Convention that a door sensor goes 'on' when the door opens. See door under device_class here: Binary sensor - Home Assistant

10

:see_no_evil:
That was the issue! Thanks a lot!

I assumed that

  • "contact" = true would result in binary_sensor.door_sensor_chickens_contact = on
    and
  • "contact" = false would result in binary_sensor.door_sensor_chickens_contact = off

But it’s the other way round.

Not really intuitive (at least not for me). Do you know why they’ve made it this way?

11

A door sensor, by convention, goes on when the door is opened. The actual mechanics of your sensor are a contact (probably magnet and reed switch) that is closed when the door is closed.

12

Can I change this device_class for that sensor/entity in the UI - without adding code to configuration.yaml?

13

Depends on how the entity is set up. Settings > Devices and Services > Entities > click it. Then if “Show As” is visible, you can change it:

image

1 Like
14

Thanks! Now I understand a little bit more about HA :slight_smile:

Have a nice day.

1 Like
15

@JackX Please mark as solved (set ’ solution’ on the post that solved it for you :wink: )