Why doesn't this automation work?

Configuration
1

Hi all, I have the following set up:

configuration.yaml (snippet)

group: !include groups.yaml
automation: !include automations/automations.yaml

groups.yaml (snippet)

Adults:
   - sensor.julie
   - sensor.james

automations.yaml

- id: heatingoffaway
  alias: 'Heating off away trigger'
  initial_state: true
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: group.adults
      from: 'Home'
  condition:
    - condition: state
      entity_id: climate.thermostat
      state: heat
  action:
    - service: climate.set_temperature
      data:
        entity_id: climate.thermostat
        temperature: 40
        operation_mode: heat

This is what group.adults shows in the HA web interface:

image
image911Ă—145 8.34 KB

Both of the devices report the location correctly i.e. street addresses and when they are in a pre-defined location “work”, etc, however as far as I can see the state of group.adult does not change from “unknown”. and therefore the automation doesn’t trigger.

Note: I’m using the custom GPS to street address component

2

The above snippet doesn’t look correct to me…

  adults:              <-------------- Group entity id
    name: Adults       <-------------- friendly name
    entities:          <-------------- entities
      - sensor.julie
      - sensor.james
1 Like
3

Thanks, I changed groups.yaml to what you suggested, however it’s still showing like the following

image
image847Ă—589 18.6 KB

4

The group was fine how you had it, but the lower two lines need to be one space back (hyphen under the U in adults).

Home should have a lowercase h.

Heat needs quotes around it in both places.

1 Like
5

According to the doc’s entities is required :stuck_out_tongue: and you can’t have a capital A in the group entity id

Configuration variables:

view (Optional): If yes then the entry will be shown as a view (tab) at the top. Groups that are set to view: yes cannot be used as entities in other views.
name (Optional): Name of the group.
icon (Optional): If the group is a view, this icon will show at the top in the frontend instead of the name. If the group is a view and both name and icon have been specified, the icon will appear at the top of the frontend and the name will be displayed as the mouse-over text. If it’s not a view, then the icon shows when this group is used in another group.
control (Optional): Set value to hidden. If hidden then the group switch will be hidden.
entities (Required): array or comma delimited string, list of entities to group.
6

Did you restart or reload, reload I think doesn’t always seem to work, I always restart after changes?

7

Then the docs are wrong, it works fine, I have lots of groups like this in my setup.

You only need entities if you’re using the other configuration options for a group (like hidden, view or name), if you’re not using it as a front end card then these options are surplus to requirements and putting it as the OP did works perfectly.

See the groups in this package:

link removed

2 are groups of entities for backend purposes, the other two are cards on the interface.

8

ok, figured it out (I think) - it’s good that I learnt all that about formatting of yaml (I’ve changed my groups.yaml and automations.yaml now to reflect the correct spacing and quotes), but I think the problem was that I was using sensor.julie and sensor.james instead of device_tracker. The sensors are used for reporting the street address, but the device_tracker shows the home or not home state.

I will update when we leave the house next time!

1 Like
9

OK, it might work but it’s not consistent and very confusing for new people I think, for instance …

group:
Phone trackers: <---------- Uppercase and space and no entities:
- device_tracker.forthygpixel
- device_tracker.lauras_iphone
- device_tracker.courtney_iphone

Adults:
- device_tracker.forthygpixel
- device_tracker.lauras_iphone

occupancy_modes:
name: Occupancy
control: hidden
entities: <------- entites:
- group.phone_trackers <---------lowercase and underscore
- alarm_control_panel.alarm
- sensor.home_status
- input_boolean.guest_mode
- input_boolean.holiday_mode

Just makes yaml even more confusing, perhaps the docs need changing. I don’t know :stuck_out_tongue:

10

That’s the fun part, isn’t it? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

11

@rsachoc I think you are on the right lines with using device_tracker rather than sensor in your groups. It’s how I have it set up and it works. Sensor groups always show “unknown”.

1 Like