If I have a binary sensor and I open the entity dialogue, I get a nice list of when the sensor has gone on and when it has gone off. That’s great, and I use it a lot. But when I have a sensor without pre-defined states, I only see a colourful line where each state has a different colour. No history list. For that, I need to go to the logbook, and that’s really annoying. Why couldn’t this be in the entity dialogue? Maybe this could be turned on on a per-sensor basis? (So the history is not flooded by a temperature change every 2 seconds.)
An example of why this would be useful: I have a template sensor that shows the last movement in the house. Now I only see the actual last movement and no history unless I randomly tap on the colourful bar or go to the logbook.
From the dashboard if I click on a lock, a cover, or a binary sensor, or many other entities I see a logbook as well as the history graph.
But if I do the same on a sensor entity, all I get is the history graph.
Seems ridiculous that a binary sensor that can only have two possible positions, and therefore is easy to parse on the graph gets this feature, while actual sensor entities that can have an unlimited number of possible states, and is therefore very hard to look at on the graph, does not.
Hover over the points, you’ll see the date and the time (or tap with your finger on mobile)
FYI sensors are excluded from event tables because they are so chatty. Logbook is built off the event tables. If this were to be added, your database would likely double or triple in size. It’s unlikely for this to change
I 100% agree, and this has been bugging me for ages!
The logbook section of the details card is missing for all sensor entities, only showing a graph. Whereas there is a logbook section on most other entity types such as binary sensors, locks, lights, switches, etc.
What’s incredibly frustrating is that most of those entities only have two states anyway, so it’s easy to see what they were in the graph, whereas for sensor entities that can have an unlimited number of states, it’s a royal pain to dig through them on the graph! Graph! And a logbook is so much more appropriate.
Hovering over the bar is impractical if you have a large number of state changes in a small period of time, especially on mobile, where you’re trying to do it with your finger.
As for being too chatty, there is no reason to assume that a sensor is any more chatty than a binary sensor, it all depends what they are sensing. If we think it is useful for every other device class, there is no reason to avoid it for sensors. The only possible exception would be numeric sensors where the existing graph is quite useful, but for anything with text base, we really need that logbook.
And it isn’t like home assistant isn’t storing that information, the information is there if you go to the logbook, there’s just no logbook section on the details card like there is on every other class of device.
To pile on, I keep seeing this excuse (too chatty) being made for the current implementation, but that’s not what we’re asking for. The (“chatty”) data is already in the logbook - we just want it displayed in the entity popup if it’s there.