#I cannot get a simple humidity automation working as I want

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

neat plover
#

Hello all 🙂

I recently started working with automation, but I quickly became discouraged by several errors, or to be specific, “no errors.” I spent the last days trying to get things running but whenever I'm about to get it fully functional, something goes wrong and I'm stuck at 98% completion. Then, while searching for a solution, it turns out that Home Assistant cannot deliver what is still missing. And that means starting all over again.
After multiple iterations now I dont know what to do. I hope you could maybe help me or send me in the direction.

When debugging I now ran into the crucial error: I cannot save a dictionary into an helper because of its 255 char limit. I somehow need a way to persistantly save a mapping "sensor: timestamp" which I can read from and write to.

# 
Perform action 'Input text: Set' on Humidity warning notification sensor timestamp
Executed: 3 January 2026 at 15:40:01
Result:

params:
  domain: input_text
  service: set_value
  service_data:
    value:
      sensor.snzb_02p_123123123123_humidity: 1767451200
      sensor.snzb_02p_f0ß890234_humidity: 1767451200
      sensor.snzb_02p_tetetete_humidity: 1767451200
      sensor.snzb_02p_swewewe_humidity: 1767451201
      sensor.snzb_02p_e44234_buro_humidity: 1767451201
    entity_id:
      - input_text.humidity_warning_notify_time
  target:
    entity_id:
      - input_text.humidity_warning_notify_time
running_script: false

Thats the last step which needs to be completed for my automation to work properly.

But its never written into the input_text

#

If the payload just has 1-2 sensors it will write into the input_text but I need it to write all sensors.

stuck idol
#

What are you trying to accomplish?

neat plover
#

I want to have a way to know when the respective sensor "triggered" a notification so It wont spam since I sadly found no other way to trigger the automation except using a 5 min timer.

neat plover
#

I want to check if a sensor is exceeding a predefined threshold and then notify the persons which are currently at home.
It should only notify if the last notification is more than 15 mins old.

I didnt want to have huge effort maintaining many automations or helpers when adding or removing sensors, or even just editing its ids.

So I fetch all sensors I need with regex.

#

The "automation" is working and the notifications seems to be working as well but it cannot "check" the timer from the last notification of the sensor because I cannot save this data :/

#

specifically

  - target:
      entity_id: input_text.humidity_warning_notify_time
    data:
      value: "{{ sensor_timestamps | to_json }}"
    action: input_text.set_value

does not write into the input_text when the payload exceeds 2 Sensors. I then checked the docs and it might be because of the 255 char limit (I am not receiving any errors from the automation or the "write" attempt).

stuck idol
#

oh nvm, you want to alert only those who are home. Hmm...