Hi guys,
While I already had 1 Philips Hue Smart Plug, in preparation for the Holiday Season, I bought a few more (innr sp 220-2) to automatically turn on/off different lights around the house. At the same time, I didn’t want to limit the use of these smart plugs to the Holiday Season only, so I worked on a way to
- Tell HA what’s plugged into each smart plug
- Dynamically create some groups of smart plugs to enable automations that adapt to what’s plugged into each smart plug
- Ensure I can manually control the smart plugs from Lovelace UI
- Enable dynamic names and icons so the UI is user-friendly
The only tools I used are HA Core and card-mod.
Firstly, I’d be happy to learn from better programmers than myself, if there would’ve been better ways to do what I’ve done.
Second, I wanted to share what I’ve done, so someone else can benefit from what I’d think would be a more common use-case for smart plugs.
1. What’s Connected
For each smart plug, I’ve created a dropdown helper / Input Select [input_select.innr_smart_plug_#] from which to choose what’s plugged in.
If anyone has a suggestion on how to use 1 list of dropdown entries to use across all helpers, please do let me know!
1.1 Add dropdown helpers to a dashboard
To simplify how to tell HA what’s plugged into your smart plug, include the input_select entities in an entities card in your Lovelace dashboard. I’ve done it in a separate tab/view, where I do detailed settings, but don’t need go too often. This avoids cluttering your main tabs.
type: entities
entities:
- entity: input_select.hue_smart_plug
- entity: input_select.innr_smart_plug_1
- entity: input_select.innr_smart_plug_2
- entity: input_select.innr_smart_plug_3
- entity: input_select.innr_smart_plug_4
2. Create Groups
Depending on what’s connected, I want to include my smart plugs into automations (e.g. to turn on/off). Of course I could include every smart plug into every automation and check what’s plugged in (i.e. what’s selected for the relevant input_select. This would however become very redundant, an awful lot of work to do and maintain and also not very flexible to scale. So I auomated the creation of groups of smart plug(s), based on what’s plugged into them as soon as any of the input_select is changed:
alias: Groups Create
description: >-
Create groups for all Christmas lights (inlcuding Christmas tree) and/or WiFi
Extenders plugged into a Smart Plug (identified through 'input_select'
helpers)
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- input_select.hue_smart_plug
- input_select.innr_smart_plug_1
- input_select.innr_smart_plug_2
- input_select.innr_smart_plug_3
- input_select.innr_smart_plug_4
condition: []
action:
- service: group.remove
data:
object_id: kerstverlichting
- service: group.set
data:
name: Kerstverlichting
object_id: kerstverlichting
icon: mdi:string-lights
entities: >
{{ states.input_select | selectattr('state', 'search', 'Kerst') |
map(attribute='entity_id') | join(', ') | regex_replace('input_select',
'switch') }}
- service: group.remove
data:
object_id: wifi_boven
- service: group.set
data:
name: WiFi Boven
object_id: wifi_boven
icon: mdi:wifi-plus
entities: >
{{ states.input_select | selectattr('state', 'eq', 'WiFi Boven') |
map(attribute='entity_id') | join(', ') | regex_replace('input_select',
'switch') }}
mode: single
3. Control from Lovelace
3.1 Create dynamic Buttons
To enable
- Switching individual smart plugs on/off from the HA UI / Lovelace
- Icons that match the device plugged into a smart plug AND
- A name that helps clarify which device you’re switching on/off
I’ve created template sensors/buttons:
# Smart Plug Buttons with dynamic name and icon, depending on what's plugged in
- button:
- unique_id: "45DC43"
press:
- service: switch.toggle
entity_id: "switch.hue_smart_plug"
name: >
{% if is_state('input_select.hue_smart_plug','WiFi Beneden') %}Beneden
{% elif is_state('input_select.hue_smart_plug','WiFi Boven') %}Boven
{% else %}Hue
{% endif %}
icon: >
{% if is_state('input_select.hue_smart_plug','Kerstverlichting') %} mdi:string-lights
{% elif is_state('input_select.hue_smart_plug','Kerstboom') %} mdi:pine-tree
{% elif states.input_select.hue_smart_plug.state is search('WiFi') %} mdi:wifi-plus
{% else %} mdi:connection
{% endif %}
- unique_id: "innr1"
press:
- service: switch.toggle
entity_id: "switch.innr_smart_plug_1"
name: >
{% if is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_1','WiFi Beneden') %}Beneden
{% elif is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_1','WiFi Boven') %}Boven
{% else %}innr1
{% endif %}
icon: >
{% if is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_1','Kerstverlichting') %} mdi:string-lights
{% elif is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_1','Kerstboom') %} mdi:pine-tree
{% elif states.input_select.innr_smart_plug_1.state is search('WiFi') %} mdi:wifi-plus
{% else %} mdi:connection
{% endif %}
- unique_id: "innr2"
press:
- service: switch.toggle
entity_id: "switch.innr_smart_plug_2"
name: >
{% if is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_2','WiFi Beneden') %}Beneden
{% elif is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_2','WiFi Boven') %}Boven
{% else %}innr2
{% endif %}
icon: >
{% if is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_2','Kerstverlichting') %} mdi:string-lights
{% elif is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_2','Kerstboom') %} mdi:pine-tree
{% elif states.input_select.innr_smart_plug_2.state is search('WiFi') %} mdi:wifi-plus
{% else %} mdi:connection
{% endif %}
- unique_id: "innr3"
press:
- service: switch.toggle
entity_id: "switch.innr_smart_plug_3"
name: >
{% if is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_3','WiFi Beneden') %}Beneden
{% elif is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_3','WiFi Boven') %}Boven
{% else %}innr3
{% endif %}
icon: >
{% if is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_3','Kerstverlichting') %} mdi:string-lights
{% elif is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_3','Kerstboom') %} mdi:pine-tree
{% elif states.input_select.innr_smart_plug_3.state is search('WiFi') %} mdi:wifi-plus
{% else %} mdi:connection
{% endif %}
- unique_id: "innr4"
press:
- service: switch.toggle
entity_id: "switch.innr_smart_plug_4"
name: >
{% if is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_4','WiFi Beneden') %}Beneden
{% elif is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_4','WiFi Boven') %}Boven
{% else %}innr4
{% endif %}
icon: >
{% if is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_4','Kerstverlichting') %} mdi:string-lights
{% elif is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_4','Kerstboom') %} mdi:pine-tree
{% elif states.input_select.innr_smart_plug_4.state is search('WiFi') %} mdi:wifi-plus
{% else %} mdi:connection
{% endif %}
After you’ve created the buttons, they’ll adopt an entity_id based on their initial ‘name’, which is driven by the template. To harmonize their entity_id's and simplify the next step (customizing button format), make sure to edit the button’s entity_id's from the UI!
Don’t forget to assign a unique_id to every button. Otherwise you will not be able to edit the entity_id!
3.2 Customize button format
Unfortunately buttons are stateless, which doesn’t stop the button from toggling on/off, but it does stop Lovelace from showing the current state (on/off/unavailable). To correct this in the UI, I’ve used card-mod in the implementation of the buttons on my dashboard (example for 1 button):
type: button
entity: button.innr_smart_plug_1
tap_action:
action: toggle
icon_height: 50px
style: |
ha-card {
font-size: 1rem !important;
--paper-item-icon-color:
{% if is_state('switch.innr_smart_plug_1','unavailable') %} var(--state-unavailable-color)
{% elif is_state('switch.innr_smart_plug_1','on') %} var(--state-icon-active-color)
{% elif is_state('input_select.innr_smart_plug_1','Kerstboom') %} darkgreen
{% else %} var(--paper-item-icon-color)
{% endif %}
;
}
4. Include the group(s) in your automations
Voila… you can now:
- Use the drop-down helpers to tell HA what you’ve plugged into your smart plug
- Control them through dynamic buttons with a helpful icon & name
- Include the dynamic device groups in your automations to control the devices plugged into your smart plugs, depending on what device is plugged in