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YAML Newbie, stuck on what should be an easy question (using state attributes instead of numeric value) (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) by spongebue@lemmy.world to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world

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Trying to run an automation to match one light's state (on/off/dim) to another's. Have this currently:

alias: Sync cabinet lights with sink light
if:
  - condition: device
    type: is_on
    device_id: [something]5710
    entity_id: [something]a438
    domain: light
then:
  - type: turn_on
    device_id: [something]b447
    entity_id: [something]470f
    domain: light
    brightness_pct: 100
else:
  - type: turn_off
    device_id: [something]b447
    entity_id: [something]470f
    domain: light

That works fine to turn the lights on or off, and I have triggers in the automation for that and changes in brightness. But using a non-static number for brightness_pct (yes, I know I'll probably have to math the 0-100 scale instead of 0-255) is giving me trouble. When I try something like this:

alias: Sync cabinet lights with sink light
if:
  - condition: device
    type: is_on
    device_id: [something]5710
    entity_id: [something]a438
    domain: light
then:
  - type: turn_on
    device_id: [something]b447
    entity_id: [something]470f
    domain: light
    brightness_pct: {{state_attr("light.kitchen_sink_ceiling", "brightness")}}
else:
  - type: turn_off
    device_id: [something]b447
    entity_id: [something]470f
    domain: light

I have also tried {{states.light.kitchen_sink_ceiling.attributes.brightness}} instead. Both seem to have the correct value when I play around in the developer tools. But when I put it in the automation, I get an error that a float value was expected. I see some similar issues online, but it always seems to be in a different context and people fix it by changing some value I never had.

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[–] InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Oh.. I think you also need double quotes around template brackets when used as the value in a service call..? Which conflicts with the quotes around the entity and attribute so just use single quotes there.

brightness_pct: "{{state_attr('light.kitchen_sink_ceiling', 'brightness')}}"

Just whipped up a partial example with my living room lights. It is missing a trigger and an else butI focused on theactionyou had trouble with.
Using brightness instead of brightness_pct seemed simpler. (Or at least if both can usethe same attribute...)

alias: Example
description: ""
trigger: []
condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: light.living_room_floor_lamp_1
    state: "on"
action:
  - action: light.turn_on
    metadata: {}
    data_template:
      brightness: "{{state_attr('light.living_room_floor_lamp_1', 'brightness')}}"
    target:
      entity_id: light.living_room_floor_lamp_2
mode: single

[–] Rekhyt@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Out of curiosity, is it something as simple as needing to wrap the template in quotes? I may be mixing up my YAML with the Ansible work I've been doing, but I think you need to have templates double quoted like this in order to resolve the jinja2 properly: "{{ state_attr('light.etc', 'brightness') }}

I don't think you need the quotes in the Templates section of dev tools but you do in YAML files. I could be wrong though, let me know if you try it.

Definitely use the state_attr() form over states.etc.etc form. I think there's something about how HA handles startup that may mess with templates if you use states.etc.etc .

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Combining this with similar comments, plus adding in the math to convert to a percent, I tried this:

brightness_pct: "{{state_attr('light.kitchen_sink_ceiling', 'brightness') | float(0) /255*100}}"

Still getting the same message

Message malformed: expected float for dictionary value @ data['brightness_pct']

For what it's worth, if I try to set brightness instead of brightness_pct, I get a different message

Message malformed: extra keys not allowed @ data['brightness']

(I'm assuming that device just doesn't accept a brightness attribute - not a big deal to math it out though)

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Taking a different approach of starting simple and working up,

100.0 works

{{100.0}} does not work

"{{100.0}}" also does not work

[–] InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Hmmm if it's just complaining about expecting a float, you could maybe get away with simply multiplying by 1.0

{{state_attr("light.kitchen_sink_ceiling", "brightness") * 1.0}}

I think... {{state_attr("light.kitchen_sink_ceiling", "brightness") | float}} also works these days.

My lights return brightness=None when they're off... and None * 1.0 probably breaks something, so this might be more consistent: {{(state_attr("light.kitchen_sink_ceiling", "brightness") or 0) | float}}

PS: I can't say much about brightness_pct, I normally use brightness instead (0-255).

[–] CondorWonder@lemmy.ca 2 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

You’ll need to use | float(0) in templates. All state values and attributes start out as strings. Also setting a default value in the float(#) cast will ensure templates don’t break when the value is invalid.

That means use this style: {{ state\_attr("light.kitchen\_sink\_ceiling", "brightness") | float(0) }}

[–] InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

I think OP might just have needed the quotes around the template brackets in the yaml.

[–] InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

If OP somehow needs to translate between beignes and brightness_pct.
Probably something like this:

brightness: "{{state_attr('light.kitchen_sink_ceiling', 'brightness') | float(0) /255*100}}"