how to turn light on at sunset and off at sunrise with a single automation | Home Assistant | Page 1

mortal river Nov 28, 2024, 4:57 PM

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timber pilot Nov 28, 2024, 5:16 PM

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You can set two triggers (sunrise & sunset) and allocate IDs to them (lookup trigger ids).
Then use the Choose action with conditions 'triggered by' the ids

Something like this:

triggers:
  - trigger: sun
    event: sunrise
    offset: 0
    id: sunrise
  - trigger: sun
    event: sunset
    offset: 0
    id: sunset
conditions: []
actions:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - sunrise
        sequence:
          - type: turn_off
            device_id: xxxx
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - sunset
        sequence:
          - type: turn_on
            device_id: xxxx

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Or in the UI:

mortal river Nov 28, 2024, 5:34 PM

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thank you for writing out that template for me, I will likely end up using it

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hmm is it possible an incorrect device_id could cause this error message?

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hmm no the device id is correct

timber pilot Nov 28, 2024, 5:51 PM

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yeah - you will need to put your own devices in there. Delete that bit and do it from the interface if it's easier

mortal river Nov 28, 2024, 5:57 PM

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any idea what's wrong with the syntax? it's still giving the error with the correct device id

faint crystal Nov 28, 2024, 6:02 PM

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If you're using a device action you likely need domain: light

mortal river Nov 28, 2024, 7:30 PM

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it's actually a smart outlet, do I put switch?

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Message malformed: Unknown device 'switch.xmas_lights_switch'

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are there any docs with examples to follow for this?

timber pilot Nov 29, 2024, 9:26 AM

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sorry, my bad. I removed the domain: line from the config to try and keep it short.
Yes, likely to also need "domain: switch"

If you still haven't got it working, try doing it from the user interface rather than yaml. It will do most of the config for you

sly lance Nov 29, 2024, 2:16 PM

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mortal river are there any docs with examples to follow for this?

Device triggers, device conditions, and device actions are intended to be created through the UI. If you want to manipulate the YAML then you should be using the other options. In your case, the action switch.turn_on

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https://community.home-assistant.io/t/why-and-how-to-avoid-device-ids-in-automations-and-scripts/605517

mortal river Nov 29, 2024, 3:27 PM

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ah interesting

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i always prefer code to GUIs when possible

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but I'm ready to attempt this with the gui

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what is the trigger menu button?

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oh I see - triggers don't have IDs by default

nimble shore Nov 29, 2024, 3:29 PM

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yeah, in the gui you have to open the dotsvertical menu and select "Edit ID" to see the ID field

mortal river Nov 29, 2024, 3:30 PM

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okay I managed to input it through the gui, thanks

mortal river Nov 29, 2024, 3:48 PM

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I guess my issue was I was trying to set device_id to a human-readable name and it only accepts a hex string

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i wonder if there's a reason why that lookup can't happen automatically

sly lance Nov 29, 2024, 3:54 PM

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I think you’re confusing entity_id with device_id

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You can use the UI to choose switch.turn_on and use the UI to also select the entity

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There’s really no need to use device_id for anything, ever

mortal river Nov 29, 2024, 4:20 PM

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oh

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what's the difference between

        sequence:
          - action: switch.turn_off
            target:
              device_id: 634a01cf778e0c67ea93b927cff7ba10

versus

        sequence:
          - action: switch.turn_off
            target:
              entity_id: switch.my_switch

sly lance Nov 29, 2024, 5:53 PM

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The one with entity_id is human-readable, and if you change your device later, you can keep the same entity_id. In other words, using device_id has drawbacks and no benefits

#how to turn light on at sunset and off at sunrise with a single automation