Virtual sensors in Hass

Configuration
1

Hi
Been running an old version of Hassbian with home assistant but after getting a Pi4 I also upgraded the Home Assistant and is now running Hass.io v 0.103.0.
I’ve moved around my tradfri lights from tradfri bridge to hue, and all buttons, remotes etc to deconz.
So far all is ok, but when I tried to integrate my virtual sensors I used Before I can’t get them to work.
I have a bunch of input_select: boxes set for different light scenes and states for presence detections and corresponding virtual sensors checking the status of the input select boxes. By checking these sensors I could trigger automations depending on the the Choice of the input_selection box.
Now these sensors never show up.

examplke of the input_select, that actually works:

input_select:
  farstun_scene_status_dropdown:
    name: 'Farstuns Scener'
    options:
      - 'Dag'
      - 'Natt'
      - 'Av'
    initial: 'Av'

The status of the selection was detected by this:

sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
       farstun_scene_status:
        value_template: '{{ states.input_select.farstun_scene_status_dropdown.state }}'
        friendly_name: 'Scener i farstun'

Reading up on this I know it is better to format the template as states(…) but the problem is that I can’t get the system to add this sensor at all. Any Idea to how to solve this?

2

Why not use the input_select directly in the automation? That doesn’t make sense to create a sensor that reflects the state of an input select, just use the input_select directly. Or you have a specific reason to have a sensor?

However your template not working is strange, I tested it and it works without a problem.

3

I know, but there are several reasons.
Basically it is a way to get around limitations in the triggers setting the scenes as well as making it possible to let different units trigger next step in a sequence.
I used it initially for presence detections where I needed 4 states for a persons presence while NMAP only could give 2. This was to eliminate false triggers.
Since I had this working I thought it was irrtating that I couldn’t get it to work after the upgrade.
But You mean You got a sensor that detected the input selection with the code given?

4

peculiar, now it works…
Aint that typical, just need to cry help and the problem solved itself…
Thanks anyway :wink:

5

I don’t use a sensor for that, I use the input_select. None of your reasons justifies creating a sensor that reads the input_select in my opinion. Can you show me one of these automations or scripts or whatever?

6

I have a couple that do that. I didn’t want the option selectable on the frontend, so I use them just to display the state of that input

7

This sounds reasonable. But it didn’t sound to me like he set it up for this reason.

8

That were just some of the reasons, and there are probably better ways as well. However, the main problem, getting a binary trigger to trig multiple states and securing no mistriggers was the main reason and since rhis should work without the front-end that’s where I landed. The original idea came from someone else. Don’t think I have kept who that was.