There are a few home automations that took me a while to figure out a good solution for, and I’m going to show you how I did them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you haven’t watched the video that goes with this article, go check it out here<\/a> to understand how the automation works and see it in action!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve had different input booleans (or virtual switches) that can be turned on to skip an automation for a long time. They are super handy, but not always ideal for family members to know how to turn them on. Until now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Home Assistant (HA) can tell the difference between a manual on or off using a physical switch, in the app, or if the automation changed the device. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is perfect for knowing if a family member manually changed the lights, for example. When they are manually turned on or off, then I can turn on<\/strong> that input boolean, to skip any light automations in that room for the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s how to tell if how a device is controlled. There are three choose conditions: physical device, HA app, and an automation. As you can see, there is an input boolean turning on for only the physical device and HA app option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For the automation trigger, just make it a light turning on or off. Then you are good to go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wanted to make an easy way for my smart home to ask me if an automation should run. Then all I have to say is the the trigger word and “yes.” Then it would know what automation to run, out of a long list of automations it could potentially run. So here’s how I set it up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I created a “drop down helper”<\/strong> or it is also called an “input select helper.”<\/strong> This will be a list of growing automations that could<\/em> run with this voice command. I also have one option as “none”<\/strong> and that’s important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then if a certain conditions are right, like if it’s bright in my room, I’m in the room, and the “input select helper”<\/strong> is “none,”<\/strong> then the automation will ask if I want to lower the shades. That automation changes the “input select helper” to the automation name i.e. “lower back porch shades when bright.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have another automation that I call my coordinator for all them. The trigger for that automation is all the voice phrases: “yes” “sounds good” “execute order 66″…etc. Then for the actions it is one big Choose that check what the “input select helper”<\/strong> is. If it’s set to “lower back porch shades when bright” then it will run that automation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I also have one more automation that if the “input select helper”<\/strong> is NOT “none”<\/strong> for 2 minutes, it changes it back to “none.”<\/strong> That way it gives me a minute to respond, but if I don’t then it will skip the automation and if someone randomly says “yes” it won’t run an automation when it’s not supposed to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are some other automations I’ve covered years ago like the doorbell one. If you want more info, you can check them out here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If this content is helpful, then please subscribe on YouTube<\/a> for future automation videos!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Easy skip automation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
choose:\n - conditions:\n - condition: template\n value_template: \"{{ trigger.to_state.context.id != none }}\"\n - condition: template\n value_template: \"{{ trigger.to_state.context.parent_id == none }}\"\n - condition: template\n value_template: \"{{ trigger.to_state.context.user_id == none }}\"\n sequence:\n - action: input_boolean.turn_on\n metadata: {}\n data: {}\n target:\n entity_id: input_boolean.skip_automation\n alias: Physical device\n - conditions:\n - condition: template\n value_template: \"{{ trigger.to_state.context.id != none }}\"\n - condition: template\n value_template: \"{{ trigger.to_state.context.parent_id == none }}\"\n - condition: template\n value_template: \"{{ trigger.to_state.context.user_id != none }}\"\n sequence:\n - action: input_boolean.turn_on\n metadata: {}\n data: {}\n target:\n entity_id: input_boolean.skip_automation\n alias: HA user interface\n - conditions:\n - condition: template\n value_template: \"{{ trigger.to_state.context.id != none }}\"\n - condition: template\n value_template: \"{{ trigger.to_state.context.parent_id != none }}\"\n - condition: template\n value_template: \"{{ trigger.to_state.context.user_id == none }}\"\n sequence: []\n alias: HA automation<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nReal life Jarvis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
More automations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n