What kind of sensor can help me with this?

Configuration
1

So I have what I think is called a template value sensor in configuration.yaml:

# TOD@Home - Time Of Day
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      time_of_day:
        friendly_name: TOD@Home
        value_template: >
            {% set t = now() %}
            {% if (as_timestamp(t) - state_attr('input_datetime.offset_time', 'timestamp')) | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') < as_timestamp(states.sensor.date.state ~ " 06:30:00") | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') %} Night
            {% elif (as_timestamp(t) - state_attr('input_datetime.offset_time', 'timestamp')) | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') < as_timestamp(states.sensor.date.state ~ " 07:30:00") | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') %} Early Morning
            {% elif (as_timestamp(t) - state_attr('input_datetime.offset_time', 'timestamp')) | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') < as_timestamp(states.sensor.date.state ~ " 09:30:00") | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') %} Morning
            {% elif (as_timestamp(t) - state_attr('input_datetime.offset_time', 'timestamp')) | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') < as_timestamp(states.sensor.date.state ~ " 16:15:00") | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') %} Day
            {% elif (as_timestamp(t) - state_attr('input_datetime.offset_time', 'timestamp')) | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') < as_timestamp(states.sensor.date.state ~ " 17:45:00") | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') %} Afternoon
            {% elif (as_timestamp(t) - state_attr('input_datetime.offset_time', 'timestamp')) | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') < as_timestamp(states.sensor.date.state ~ " 19:15:00") | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') %} Dinner
            {% elif (as_timestamp(t) - state_attr('input_datetime.offset_time', 'timestamp')) | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') < as_timestamp(states.sensor.date.state ~ " 21:30:00") | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm')  %} Evening
            {% elif (as_timestamp(t) - state_attr('input_datetime.offset_time', 'timestamp')) | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') < as_timestamp(states.sun.sun.attributes.next_setting) | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm')  %} Evening
            {% elif (as_timestamp(t) - state_attr('input_datetime.offset_time', 'timestamp')) | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm') < as_timestamp(states.sensor.date.state ~ " 23:00:00") | timestamp_custom('%Hh:%Mm')  %} Turn Down
            {% else %} Night
            {% endif %}

Now this works just perfect, except one minor thing… When I create an automation, and I would test the value of the TOD@Home, I can not get it to create a drop down list of possible choices, I just seem to get a free text field. This I think is due to me not getting a correct understanding of how all this template sensor works. Now I know there is the “helpers” (under integration) , so I tried that but no difference, so it is clear for me I don’t understand this, or it is not supported?

How can I change the above to enable only the valid “text” (Day, Night and so on in this case) to be availabel when triggering an automation?

2

You want the sensor to be a “select” entity in order to have the possible states be predefined and known to HA. I believe your choices are (a) an input_select helper, which needs to be updated by an automation triggered, in your case, at certain times of the day, or (b) the somewhat more complicated Template Select, which until recently was somewhat under-documented, but now has a community guide which might help.

3

Thanks for Your tips and suggestion - I’ll look into them both, and lets see where i end up :slight_smile: