With all the advanced features HA have we all love, I think features like these are what makes it less accessible to newer folks. Why can’t I, in a very simple UI, just connect a light, light group or room to a remote or a button, connecting the button functionality to the toggling of the light? I now have to make two automations, one that is triggered by the ‘turn_on’ button press to turn on the lights, save it, give it a name and organise it, and then create a second automation for the same functionality but to turn the light off.
Would it not be amazing if there’s a different kind of automation or UI where you can just intelligently ‘link’ devices together? Like a device with a button or buttons, where you can connect it to any other device or entity which has an on and off state. In the future with some more work, you could probably add dimming etc to this.
Thanks for all the hard work everyone keeps putting into HA! I have tried several times to start developing myself but I just keep not knowing what to do after I setup my environment and my ADHD can’t cope with the (probably high quality) but also thick documentation to read trough. With kind regards
I agree entirely with the base sentiment of this WTH. There should be some very straightforward and simple basic automations that are really easy to set up.
That said, the specific scenario you described needs only one automation. One trigger for a button press, one action to toggle the lights.
If your targeted button has two states or more than one button then you can add both as triggers and use the 3 dot menu to set a Trigger ID, and then use a Choose or If-Then to determine what action happens.
I have 6 zigbee smart lights and a zigbee switch (Converted to Light entity) and grouped them together. I am not using an automation and they are working without an automation. When I use the switch the lights go on/off and when I use the app or voice then the lights and switch turn on/off. Or am I not understanding your proposal?
I think Blueprints were intended to bridge this gap. By having prebuilt automations where you just plug in your entities and done.
For example when you create a new automation there is the option to select the “Motion activated light” blueprint and then you just need to select the motion sensor and lights you want to control.
There could also be a blueprint for “Button activated light”.
There are community blueprints on the Blueprints Exchange but it seems a bit like a mess at first glance.
I think the Blueprints are a nice idea, but hard to understand and use in its current form.
