Hi,
Just after some assistance with my obvious loack of coding knowledge.
I have a shelly uni connected to a water level sensor. This is all run by a 12v car battery that is toppped up with a solar panel.
The device during cloudy days sucks the battery too low and then powers off making the shelly uni become unavailable as a sensor.
I had thought that I could create a ‘dummy’ retained sensor in my config and then have an automation running that would keep reading valid outputs and keep a retained value. The goal is to to use this dummy sensor to ensure that I can clearly display the last known value on a dashboard. The following is the two bits of yaml I have.
In my config is the ‘dummy’ sensor.
- platform: template
sensors:
retained_sensor_value:
value_template: "{{ states('sensor.top_tank_water_level_adc') }}"
friendly_name: "Retained top tank voltage"
In my automations I have built this
alias: update water tank sensor
description: ""
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- sensor.top_tank_water_level_adc
condition:
- condition: template
value_template: "{{ is_number(state_attr('sensor.top_tank_water_level_adc', 'state')) }}"
action:
- service: homeassistant.update_entity
data: {}
target:
entity_id: sensor.retained_sensor_value
mode: single
I’m obviously doing something wrong because the ‘dummy’ sensor doesn’t retain the last valid value.
Pat
Your automation is ok but your retained sensor is the issue. That sensor will keep updating its value when the top_tank_water_level_adc updates due to the value_template and as such, effectively be identical to the water level adc sensor.
I would use a number helper entity and change your automation to set that to the valid tank water level values as this will only then update from your automation.
You’ve got a couple issues, likely stemming from a misunderstanding of how template sensors work. First, there is no need for an automation to update a template sensor, a state-based template sensor like yours updates every time the entities referenced in the template update. Your automation really isn’t doing anything.
To get a what you want, you would need to switch to a trigger-based template sensor.
There was an extraneous : in the name, I have removed it above. When you paste it into your configuration make sure template is all the way to the left. Sometimes in Studio Code the top line of a paste will get thrown off.
Drew
no errors thrown now thanks. Just restarting and I will check tomorrow. I usually have the source unavailable from about 3am to 8am. Battery doesn’t get through the night.
Appreciate your help
Drew,
I might have to interrupt my battery to check now. Because we are now receiving good amounts of sun at the appropriate angle my battery is now going the full 24 hours.
Pat
Didge
Something weird is now happening. I receive the retained value no worries.
This retained value then updates the sensor.top_tank_volume.
However the automation I have in place is not starting when expected.
In config.yaml I have
sensor:
- platform: template
sensors:
top_tank_volume:
value_template: >
{% set voltage = states('sensor.retained_sensor_value') | float %}
{{ ((voltage / 4.3) * 20000) | round (0) }}
unit_of_measurement: litres
friendly_name: top tank volume
alias: fill water tank
description: ""
trigger:
- platform: numeric_state
entity_id: sensor.top_tank_volume
below: 11000
condition:
- condition: time
after: "10:00:00"
before: "15:00:00"
weekday:
- mon
- tue
- wed
- thu
- fri
- sat
- sun
action:
- service: switch.turn_on
data: {}
target:
entity_id: switch.sonoff_1000c029a7
- service: notify.mobile_app_pixel_6_pro
data:
message: The tank pump has turned on
- delay:
hours: 3
minutes: 0
seconds: 0
milliseconds: 0
- service: switch.turn_off
data: {}
target:
entity_id: switch.sonoff_1000c029a7
- service: notify.mobile_app_pixel_6_pro
data:
message: The tank pump is now off
mode: single
I’m confused. The sensor.top_tank_volume is below the threshold of 11000 but the automation doesn’t start.
When I push run in automation it will start - even though I’m outside the hours i want it to run?
If it is below the threshold then it won’t trigger. It triggers when the value crosses the threshold.
Running the automation manually skips the conditions.
Add another couple of triggers to fire on restart / reload and a condition to check the value is below the threshold for when it’s these triggers that fire:
You may also want a trigger at 10:00. At the moment, if the value drops below 11000 at 09:30, it won’t run the action either.
Note that if you restart HA during the three hour runtime, the pump will never switch off. I would implement this by moving the pump-off logic to a new automation, that triggers when the pump has been on for three hours.
Troon
thanks for that
The value that is being reported has some fluctuations - even though I have used median values over a time range. The sensor is a shelly uni matched with a voltage water pressure sensor.
So I guess I want the automation to see what the value reported for this sensor is and if below 11000 and the time is between 10 and 3 then turn the pump on.
It worked for a couple of cycles until I got help with didge on the retained value.
The sensor is likely to report this value below 11000 in the hours after 1500. So I would want it to recognise this the following day and start the pump at 1000
Pat
My modifications above would do that. As an alternative, use a state trigger which will fire any time the value changes, then use conditions like this:
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: sensor.top_tank_volume
condition:
- condition: numeric_state
entity_id: sensor.top_tank_volume
below: 11000
- condition: time
after: "10:00:00"
before: "15:00:00"
- condition: state
entity_id: switch.sonoff_1000c029a
state: "off"
Went past 10am this morning and automation wasn’t triggered. Sensor … Volume was at about 8700. Below the threshold of 11000
I know it’s something simple but I can’t see it.
Pat
alias: fill water tank
description: automatically fill the top water tank when level below 11000
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: sensor.top_tank_volume
condition:
- condition: numeric_state
entity_id: sensor.top_tank_volume
below: 11000
- condition: time
after: "10:00:00"
before: "15:00:00"
weekday:
- mon
- tue
- wed
- thu
- fri
- sat
- sun
action:
- service: switch.turn_on
data: {}
target:
entity_id: switch.sonoff_1000c029a7
- service: notify.mobile_app_pixel_6_pro
data:
message: The tank pump has turned on
- delay:
hours: 3
minutes: 0
seconds: 0
milliseconds: 0
- service: switch.turn_off
data: {}
target:
entity_id: switch.sonoff_1000c029a7
- service: notify.mobile_app_pixel_6_pro
data:
message: The tank pump is now off
mode: single
That automation will trigger whenever the sensor value changes, which it hasn’t done since 07:09. It has no trigger for 10:00. As soon as the water level changes it should run.
If you want it to run at 10:00 (as I suggested above), add a trigger to do so:
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: sensor.top_tank_volume
- platform: time
at: "10:00:00"
