sun controlled automation failed to run | Home Assistant | Page 1

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 1:21 AM

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I have two basic home automations to control turning on and off a set of lights via a smart plug. One to turn them on at sundown, one to turn off at sunrise.

Tonight, the sundown version seemed to not have run for some reason, and nothing showed in the logs.

How do I look further into this?

Is it possible to run a check to ensure that the automations eventually do run, after the default automation fails?

cosmic swallow Sep 27, 2024, 1:30 AM

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Hi @swift sentinel,
You can look for a trace to see if it triggered or not or what happened.
Beyond that sharing the YAML code is the only way anyone can help you here.

tawdry oarBOT Sep 27, 2024, 1:31 AM

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@swift sentinel To format your text as code, enter three backticks on the first line, press Enter for a new line, paste your code, press Enter again for another new line, and lastly three more backticks.
```yaml
example: here
```
Don't forget you can edit your post rather than repeatedly posting the same thing.

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 2:21 AM

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cosmic swallow Hi <@208274831127478272>, You can look for a trace to see if it triggered or not...

I'll share the yaml when I get home, my wife called to tell me the lights didn't go on like they were supposed to and I'm at work. I was able to manually run the automation and they turned on so idk what happened lol

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 5:31 AM

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SO it looks like that the device may not have been seen by HA somehow? On the days prior, I see the outlet but in the failed trigger, the outlet is missing in the trace timeline.

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`alias: Holiday Lights On
description: ""
trigger:

platform: sun
event: sunset
offset: 0
condition: []
action:
type: turn_on
device_id: 17248ee75cb97b46a677456953ab10c0
entity_id: 8d0ce77a10738e971573fbea809e0c93
domain: switch
mode: single`

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This is the failed attempt:

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Day prior's successful attempt:

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What I would like to do is build a way to ensure that the lights go on properly automatically should the first attempt fail

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But, I am unsure how to go about that in HA

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It looks like my device controlling the lights somehow dissappeared from the network for 12 hours too

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It's possible that someone turned off the switch somehow during that time

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Chekcing my cameras, yep, that's what happens. So, I would like to build a automation that checks every half hour after the sunset time to make sure that the switch is in the on position in case the switch goes offline due to cut power, and once power comes back it can turn the lights on at some point

last agate Sep 27, 2024, 7:22 AM

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Trigger on the switch turning off
Conditions to check if the sun has set
Action to turn the light on

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trigger:
- platform: state
  entity_id: switch.whale
  to: 'off'
condition:
- platform: state
  entity_id: sun.sun
  state: 'below_horizon'
action:
- service: switch.turn_on
  data:
    entity_id: switch.whale

boreal moth Sep 27, 2024, 10:48 AM

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last agate ```yaml trigger: - platform: state entity_id: switch.whale to: 'off' conditi...

you're missing a single quote after off
-# and it's action instead of service 🤫

last agate Sep 27, 2024, 10:57 AM

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-# I'm waiting for 2024.10 before I update all the YAML in my head 😛

wispy mural Sep 27, 2024, 1:29 PM

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Need to keep the sunset trigger also, to retain the intended functionality of the automation.

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 2:29 PM

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last agate ```yaml trigger: - platform: state entity_id: switch.whale to: 'off' conditi...

This will check for the device state and then turn on after it checks for sunset as well? Sorry, I'm new to this

last agate Sep 27, 2024, 2:35 PM

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Well, sort of

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It's triggered by the switch turning off

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Then it check to see if the sun has set

tawdry oarBOT Sep 27, 2024, 2:35 PM

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There are three sections to an automation:

trigger: When any one of these becomes true the automation starts processing. Only one trigger is ever responsible for starting an automation, if you make a condition that checks for more than one having started the automation then the condition can never be true.
condition: These are checked after a trigger starts the processing, and must be true for the automation to continue.
action: This is the part that does something, and can also include further conditions.

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 2:37 PM

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Ah, so the idea was that if the automation "failed" because someone turned off the manual dumb switch that controls this "smart" outlet, that when the switch goes back on (thus powering the smart outlet), an automation will see this change and then turn the lights on

last agate Sep 27, 2024, 2:39 PM

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Ah, that the problem was a dumb switch wasn't clear

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You can still solve that, it's just more complex

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Does the (smart) switch go unavailable when the power is off?

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How does the light feature in all of this?

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 2:52 PM

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So, to try and paint the best picture.. the power order goes like this

Dumb switch > Light socket > smart outlet > dumb lights

Dumb switch sends power to the socket which has a bulb socket and 2 three prong outlets, one of which the "smart" outlet is plugged into.

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Dumb switch

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Socket with "smart" outlet on it

last agate Sep 27, 2024, 2:56 PM

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Does the (smart) switch go unavailable when the power is off?

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 2:57 PM

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Where do I go to see that so I can check?

tawdry oarBOT Sep 27, 2024, 2:57 PM

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Developer tools: states

Open your Home Assistant instance and show your state developer tools

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 3:02 PM

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No, it just says off

last agate Sep 27, 2024, 3:03 PM

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And was it on or off before the power was cut?

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 3:03 PM

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It was also off

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Power was cut during the day after sunrise, when I have an automation that turns off the lights then

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Then my kid turned the dumb switch off

last agate Sep 27, 2024, 3:04 PM

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Then there's no way to tell when that happens

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 3:04 PM

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Ah okay

last agate Sep 27, 2024, 3:05 PM

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Some integrations handle that and will report unavailable

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Whatever you're using doesn't

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(or that hasn't been enabled)

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 3:06 PM

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It's the wyze integration and probably doesn't support it I think

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Some older devices I had seem to show this, so maybe it does, idk

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Maybe the check takes time to show as unavailable

last agate Sep 27, 2024, 3:07 PM

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Give it ten mins and see

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 3:07 PM

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Ok

swift sentinel Sep 27, 2024, 5:58 PM

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Okay I am back. It went "Unavailable" after 9 minutes, so that's good

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So the yaml code above, I can basically throw that in my sunset automation for it and it will do what I am looking for?

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just change from 'off' to 'unavailable'?

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or just leave it as 'off' as that will be the state the device will be in when power is returned?

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I made this automation

#sun controlled automation failed to run