Hi, I wonder if anybody can help me with

[woeful totem]

I found it hard to understand the docs, so I cheated and sked ChatGPT and that worked after asking it to revise a few times.

  - name: Media Player Paused State
    state: >
      {% if is_state('media_player.vardagsrum', 'paused') and
            (as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(states.media_player.vardagsrum.last_changed)) >= 5 %}
        true
      {% else %}
        false
      {% endif %}
```

[late venture]

that's still not going to work...

you can't use a normal template, it will not update when you want it to update.

You have to use a trigger based template sensor in order to achieve this.

chat GPT won't be able to help you because it learned HA before trigger based ttemplate entities existed.

[woeful totem]

but it does work. Maybe it has limitations, but right now I'm using it live

ofc if there is a "better" way I am open to learning that 🙂

[late venture]

right, but the >= 5 will not work

that template will only update when media_player.vardagsrum changes state or once a minute on the minute

it will not resolve any other time

it has the exact same issue as what you were having issues with before.

YOu're welcome to argue all you want on this, but what I'm saying is 100% correct.

[woeful totem]

I have it set to >=20 now and it changed state after exactly 20 seconds. So it seems to work. Or am I missing something?

[late venture]

You are missing something

it will only update once a minute on the minute or when media_player.vardagsrum changes state

so that means, the template will only update when the minute crosses 0 seconds. or when media_player.vardagsrum changes state.

so you can be upwards of 40 seconds off.

if you're using 20 seconds as the >= number.

also, no amount of changes to that template will get you the results you want. You will need to use a trigger to force the updates of the template.

[woeful totem]

hmm sorry I'm really struggling to understand the issue, since it performs exactly as I wanted it to.

When media player is paused, and has been paused for 20 seconds, the state of my new sensor changes. Which is what I wanted.

[late venture]

and it's not doing that

which you're just simply ignoring

you think it's doing that, but it's not

Create the sensor, and use it without looking at the developer tools -> template result. You'll see what I mean.

[woeful totem]

so despite me sitting here counting the seconds after I press pause on the media_player, and despite the state in dev tool changing and the conditional cards updating....you are saying that this is not really happening.... ?

[late venture]

Yes

you finally understand

I'm telling you exactly how templates are designed

I helped design them, personally.

So I know what I'm talking about.

[woeful totem]

I'm using this to show different card in my dashboard. Which it does. How else can I prove that it it is/not is working?

[late venture]

there are 4 throttles for templates that are built into the system

[woeful totem]

I don't doubt your competence in this 🙂

[late venture]

1. Templates will only update when an internal sensor updates it's state or attributes.
2. templates using states will be throttled to at most 1 update per minute.
3. templates using states.<domain> will be throttled to at most 1 update per second.
4. Templates using now() or today_at() or relative_time() will update once on the minute.

Your template is only using 1 and 4

so, it will 100% only update when media_player.vardagsrum changes state. And it will only update on the minute.

meaning any >= timing values will only be resolved on the minute

if your device changes state at 22 seconds past the minute, the next resolution will occur 38 seconds later.

i.e. it will not resolve 20 seconds later if you used >= 20

[woeful totem]

you're right. I tested again and it did not perform as ealier described. I must have pressed paused at some very particular time before then, since it worked twice....?

thanks for taking the time to explain a bit more. Hopefully I can get around to understanding the docs on this

[orchid geyser]

@woeful totem this is what you need

template:
  - trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id:
          - media_player.vardagsrum
        for:
          hours: 0
          minutes: 0
          seconds: 5
        id: "true"
        to: paused
      - platform: state
        entity_id:
          - media_player.vardagsrum
        id: "2"
        from: paused
    sensor:
      - name: Media Player Paused State
        state: >
          {%if(trigger.id == 'true')%}
            true
          {% else %}
            false
          {% endif %}

[late venture]

that's alittle verbose

template:
  - trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: media_player.vardagsrum
        for: 5
        id: "on"
        to: paused
      - platform: state
        entity_id: media_player.vardagsrum
        id: "off"
        from: paused
    binary_sensor:
      - name: Media Player Paused State
        state: "{{ trigger.id }}"

[orchid geyser]

That's even better indeed

[late venture]

it should aslo be a binary_sensor

[woeful totem]

thank you! That looks very very similar to the yaml I saw whent rying to set this up as an automation instead. For the trigger that is. I will use that and deconstruct to learn exactly what is what. Thanks again!