half lichen
Good morning. Please help with my dusk to dawn outside light automation. I had it working using the 'Sun next setting' and 'Sun next rising' entities as triggers. However, there were occasions where it was too dark outside with these set, so I wanted more granular control.
I am now attempting to use the height of the sun as trigger. Please see my YAML below and what I am making a mistake on. Thank you for helping me, as I am new
pallid bobcat
Is it throwing an error, or not running at the right time or what?
half lichen
noticed this AM the lights didn't turn off when i expected them to. then i manually triggered the automation by hitting run. here is the trace:
am i doing something wrong with the 'above' and/or 'below'? or something wrong with the integers i am entering. i want it to turn the lights on when below the horizon 3 degreees, and turn off the lights in morning when it crosses above 2 degrees below the horizon
pallid bobcat
Manual triggering ignore the triggers which is why it chose no action
What's the trace from this morning?
half lichen
Manual triggering ignore the triggers which is why it chose no action
i did notice when i changed the automation, that i initally forgot to enter the trigger ID of "Dawn" so maybe that was the problem w/ the automation this AM. however, since the automation is now running, shouldn't it see the state of the sun elevation, and have the lights off? something is wrong w/ the way my trigger is currently set?
pallid bobcat
Ah, yes. If it didn't have the trigger Id that makes sense why it didn't do anything when it triggered this morning
half lichen
but now that i have the trigger ID entered, shouldn't it see that now? do i have any recourse other than waiting all the way to what i have defined as dusk, to see if it works?
pallid bobcat
The reason why it hasn't done anything since you modified it is because the numeric state trigger only goes off when it goes from below to above or vice versa.
You could have a button trigger it and then give it an Id of dawn/dusk for testing purposes
half lichen
i see. so the trigger only gets activated as the crossing occurs, and not the fact that currently the sun position is above -2 ?
wild forum
You can also manually set the state of the sun elevation in Developer Tools > States and see if it runs.
pallid bobcat
i see. so the trigger only gets activated as the crossing occurs, and not the f...
Ye
wild forum
Yes, numeric_state only triggers when the boundary is crossed.
half lichen
ok, so is there a way to simulate the crossing of over from below -2 to a number greater than -2 in Developer Tools?
otherwise, will just turn lights off manually and wait until this evening
wild forum
Yup. Set it to -2 and then set it again to -1 (or 2 or 12 or whatever lol)
pallid bobcat
Yeah, you can force the state as @wild forum mentioned
wild forum
Actually... set it to -3 THEN -1 or something
pallid bobcat
It updates every few minutes anyway
half lichen
so if i go into developer tools, what is the way to do it? set it to -2.5 and then wait for it to update?
pallid bobcat
Or set it to - 2.5 then 10
So long as it's either side of that trigger limit, it will trigger
wild forum
You don't have to wait at all... Set it once to -2.5, then turn around and set it to 10.
wild forum
Woot
pallid bobcat
Np
wild forum
It was like 99.5% @pallid bobcat lol
half lichen
being a newb is frustrating lol
wild forum
Three dots menu > Edit Tags > Resolved
Eh, we were all newbs at some point.
Then you get old and wish you were still a newb. lmao
(HA old... not like old old) 😉
pallid bobcat
(HA old... not like old old) 😉
Also both
half lichen
am old IRL and a newb at HA. we'll see how this goes lol
appreciate it. gotta run. will mark Resolved, and read more here on the Discord. doubtless i will be back w/ more questions 👍
pallid bobcat
Take care, and feel free to ask more questions
half lichen
a lot to learn b4 i feel comfortable w/ this stuff. appreciate it 💯
rigid abyss
Why don't just use sunset/sunrise events with some offset, e.g. 20 minutes?
pallid bobcat
Why don't just use sunset/sunrise events with some offset, e.g. 20 minutes?
Problem I found with that is that when you are sufficiently far north, the time a sunrise/set takes is quite variable over the year - so your offsets will change vs sky darkness, whereas elevation vs darkness is more consistent