WTH can't I tell if a device is rechargeable vs needs a replacement battery? (Add notes/set properties on entities/devices)

[RosemaryJayne]

I want to know if a device needs to be recharged, vs the battery being replaced. And ideally, for those which need replacing, I want to know what kind of battery this is.

I’d like to see the ability to add properties to battery devices:

• rechargeable boolean: If the battery can be recharged
• type string: USB-C/Micro USB/CR2032/AA/[battery kind].

This could later be extended to more properties on entities.

[123 (Taras)]

@RosemaryJayne

ability to add properties to battery devices:

I use Manual Customization to add whatever attributes I want to any entity. In fact, I use it for the exact same thing you described: battery attributes.

Recommended ways to manage devices and entities names

I’m not an advocate of using an entity’s name to store metadata. In other words, I don’t recommend creating an entity name packed with its characteristics. sensor.manufacturer_model_identifier_color_size_location_bla_bla_etc When the time comes to select entities based on their characteristics, the resulting template can become quite messy. What I suggest is to add metadata as custom attributes to an entity. Simple add them to customize.yaml or via Configuration > Customizations. For example…

[RosemaryJayne]

Manual customisation is ok, but I can imagine there are a number of things like this which could be very useful to users—hence wanting to see it as part of core.

But I’ll look at using this in the mean time!

[123 (Taras)]

Manual Customization is part of core.

If you mean you want to be able to do it via the UI, it’s unlikely to be implemented. In the past, there used to be limited UI support for customization but then it was removed.