Home Assistant Automations

[carealtor]

To those of you using Home Assistant...

Automations are ridiculously complex.

OR

Automations are brilliantly complete.

??

Having both Triggers and Conditions is a foreign concept to me, coming from the ISY world, and still gives me pause.

Not having any If-Then-ELSE construct initially strikes me as a huge shortcoming.  But then Choose Action type has a default action, which gives you the same thing, albeit in a more complex way.

I can't write the YAML from scratch, so I have to use the UI.  Then when I have something, looking at the generated YAML I can more or less see what is going on.

[asbril]

1 hour ago, carealtor said:

To those of you using Home Assistant...

Automations are ridiculously complex.

OR

Automations are brilliantly complete.

??

Having both Triggers and Conditions is a foreign concept to me, coming from the ISY world, and still gives me pause.

Not having any If-Then-ELSE construct initially strikes me as a huge shortcoming.  But then Choose Action type has a default action, which gives you the same thing, albeit in a more complex way.

I can't write the YAML from scratch, so I have to use the UI.  Then when I have something, looking at the generated YAML I can more or less see what is going on.

I am very impressed by Home Assistant, especially after @MrBill guided me through the use of ISY Programs in HA. This morning I added my Foscam cameras, so HA in my Chrome browser has become my main method to check status and change ON/OFF of my devices.  On my Iphone 12 Max I mostly use UD Mobile and occasionally HA. However, the engine behind it all remains ISY, as it is the most powerful and reliable home automation controller.

[MrBill]

1 hour ago, carealtor said:

Having both Triggers and Conditions is a foreign concept to me, coming from the ISY world, and still gives me pause.

Trigger makes the automation start, think of conditions as being filters that might stop it in its track.  

If

    This triggers

       unless these conditions apply

 

In ISY the same construct would be linking to a disabled program, such as

If

     Door Opens

Then

     Run Program TimeCheck  (if)

Else

     (none)

----------------------

Program TimeCheck (Disabled)

If

         Sunset

     to Sunrise (next day)

then

       Turn on light

        Wait 5 min

        Turn off light

else

     (none)

 

TimeCheck is like a condition, because it's disabled it never runs on it's own.... but if the program above runs it because the door opened it then checks if the time window is appropriate for turning on the light for 5 minutes.

1 hour ago, carealtor said:

Not having any If-Then-ELSE construct initially strikes me as a huge shortcoming. 

I actually don't use alot of then's on the ISY side anymore.  Simple timers, yes that's great use of the the IF, Then, Else construct, however when it gets more complex ELSE quickly becomes a burden.

 

Another Option for Home Assistant that many people like is installing Node-Red which is essentially graphic based automation.  I personally haven't gone there yet, but the concept is very appealing to some people.   I may try it out someday after watching some youtube video's about both setting it up and using it.