4 Ways I Use Home Assistant Input Helpers!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

What are your creative ways for using Input Helpers? 👇

[@dan6810]

Is that a dashboard built off the new mushroom cards?

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Mushroom is built from Minimalist - I don't use Mushroom I use minimalist - hope that helps!

[@dan6810]

@@EverythingSmartHome I see, do you have your yaml posted for the dashboard anywhere?

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Not yet, perhaps one day!

[@tomschmitt1]

I use it to toggle my Homekit sockets from Home Assistant

[@DavidBichoHasBeard]

Quick tip on the pedagogics. Always start with showing the result, before starting the creation process. If someone doesn't know what a Helper is (which is why they watch this) it's good to see how it can be used. The old "Show what you gonna learn, learn, show what you have learned" is still a thing.

[@JonathanYankovich]

I like to use input selects to store a list of phrases, and then randomly or sequentially pick one for Alexa/Google to say. If you combine two or three, you can get a different mix of “Good Morning” or “Good night” messages, and they can even be pretty funny depending on the combinations.

[@happyjeans]

Now it’s 4000 degrees in my flat but I’m also prone to getting too cold when fans are on for too long I’ve set up helpers for number sliders to put on the dashboard to act as target temperature controls for the rooms to check against the readings from my heating thermostats to turn smart plugs connected to dumb fans on and off. I just watched your video and realised that using your guest mode example it answers the question of how I can provide a straight on/off button for the fans that won’t just immediately be overridden by the automation in 1 minute when it checks again! Thanks for all your videos, I’ve only been using HA for about a month and wouldn’t have been able to figure anything out without your videos!

[@Lamp512]

Wow, helpers have always been some sort of scary thing in the settings i never dared touch. Thanks for making it sound easy!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks dude, glad you found it useful!

[@jmr]

Definitely dig in there! Helpers are very "helpful". Many of my automations would be tough without them.

[@TheCelticbeast]

If your automations are a large number, you could create an automation called Guest whose action is to turn off a list of automations (equivalent to toggling on and off the switch next to the automation itself). This will give you the advantage of seeing what is affected in a single automation. That is use an automation to call a service that toggles other automations on or off.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Yep exactly, that's what the first example in this video was for! Cheers

[@MadCrix]

first time poster, been watching little over a yr. very new to HA and i really appreciate your vids and the explanations are very clear. Your alarm helper was a great way to have a flexible alarm to wake up on a morning. tks alot

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks, appreciate you taking the time to comment and for the kind words! Comments really help me out!

[@mariocastelhano6375]

I'm not using helpers, today, and doing a lot manually but this video open new doors for my HA integration. Thank you for your input. 👍

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks!

[@jmr]

It's a preference but instead of having the helper as a condition to run an automation I might have the helper turn the automations on or off as a group. That would leave me the option to manually change individual automations on or off that are part of the group. It might also make it easier to add and remove automations from the group because there is essentially a list in the main automation that controls the others.

[@spagamoto]

Very useful. As another option for alarms, the home assistant companion apps provide a sensor for the next alarm. I've got it set up so when I set my phone alarm, HA knows about it and can run automations just before my phone rings. This allows more complex alarm settings (like weekday vs weekend times, etc).

[@EverythingSmartHome]

That's a very good point indeed, although don't think it works on iOS? Could be wrong, been a while since I checked!

[@spagamoto]

@@EverythingSmartHome Not sure! Also it must be said that the next alarm sensor gets a little tricky because often the phone resets the alarm the instant it goes off, meaning automations might not trigger automatically. I've got mine trigger a few seconds beforehand. So maybe the helper setup is better overall.

[@Weeem]

I'm still fairly new to HA, but so far I've been using them as counters to let me know when I'm running out of different washing machine detergents (depending on the wash cycle), a numeric value which all device batteries are measured against (if < helper value then show what devices need new batteries) and various booleans that get triggered by calendar events such as sleeping, guest mode etc. Automations run off the booleans, so that way I can force override any of them if I want to rather then be forced to use each calendar state. Plus a few test buttons and switches in my lab tab for when I'm testing an automation or something :)

[@joshcliffejones]

Brilliant video and super helpful! I needed to implement a guest mode as my home office doubles as a guest room and now I know how to do it! :D The next thing I’d LOVE to know more about is how you capture the state of a device before changing it and then setting it back. For example if I have a light set to white and the door bell rings it flashes red, then goes back to its previous state. I look forward to more videos :)

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Josh!

[@routoriu]

@josh The best way to do that is to save the light state in a scene and then restore the state later on from that scene. See the services in the Scene integration documentation.

[@cmdbill]

Thanks for the advice! I was using virtual switches with smart things and Alexa to trigger when a door opened on my ring alarm system. Now it goes straight to my home assistant from Alexa. I do like the ring alarm for reliability so this works as a good way to monitor door contacts and motion sensors in home assistant that you otherwise cannot see in the ring integration. Awesome video! Thank you!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Excellent, thanks!

[@TimBass]

Didn't realize you could use an input helper for time like that. That's awesome, definitely changing the way my alarm clock works.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Nice one!

[@marian2141]

So happy! The time input helper worked!

[@rob1971]

Great video Lewis 🙂 Yet another reason I need to sit down and spend some time going through my HA setup and actually making it work for me 🙂

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Rob! You definitely do, get it done! 😅

[@rob1971]

@@EverythingSmartHome yes sir!

[@Shadownailshot]

I used the number selector to control my motion light automations with a separate automation. I have motion detectors in the "family" areas of the house (living room, dining room, kitchen, etc) that activate the overhead lighting (for now) when it detects motion. However, these are timed and turn off after a while. I don't have a better presence detector right now (such as the Aqara FP1 or anything like it), so instead I have this toggle slider on a couple dashboards. The slider has 1, 2, and 3 on it. 1 turns the lights off and deactivates the motion sensor automation. 2 simply reactivates the motion sensor automation, and 3 turns the lights on and deactivates the motion sensor automation. This has worked great, and I've even been able to customize the automations to change the lighting scenes when the TV is on in the livingroom, with each setting on the slider having a different setup!

[@jasper265]

What I'm planning to use input helpers for is "indirections". The best example of this is my thermostat. First of all, I want to create a schedule, so that will be some system of automatons that set a numeric input. But there will be a second numeric input helper for the temperature when I'm away from home, which comes with a boolean setting whether I'm at home or not. And then there will also be a numeric input helper for manual temperature overrides. Between those three numeric inputs, my automatons will choose which to actually send to my thermostat. That way, I'll be able to fetch the currently scheduled temperature even if the schedule wasn't in use for some reason during the last scheduled change...

[@MarkGhali]

Just what I was looking for! needed to turn a light on for if my 3 year old opens his door in the middle of the night so we wake-up! But only wanted to do it once! this was the key! thank you Lewis

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Mark, appreciate the comment!

[@scoten]

I had the same idea with conditioning my automations on a Vacation helper, but then when I wanted to add a Guest Mode helper, I was far too lazy to go through it all again. It's easier to set up a separate automation(s) that trigger on the helper state change and toggle the automations themselves.

[@MarkMayer]

Don't normally comment on videos but wanted to say that your videos really help and just made the bed sensor so this was really useful for me. Just one thing and the end of your videos covering the lens the way you do I think looks really tacky, don't know what everyone else feels about it. I mean this is a positive just to help give feedback. keep up the good work mate

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks buddy, really appreciate you taking the time to comment (helps out a lot!) and makes me very happy that the video helped you!

[@surfingnoid]

This was great, thanks for real usage examples!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks for the comment!

[@CrankyCoder]

If I remember correctly I believe input helpers also restore state across reboots. So if your "morning_mode" gets turned off and your HA instance restarts, it won't retrigger your morning routine again, it will be persisted. I use this for my washer/dryer state. When I first setup those automations after a restart i would get a notice saying my washer was done because the power usage changed from UNKNOWN to < 5 watt, triggering the "washer is done" automation.

[@mysticsilent]

Thanks! I already used them before for a scene switcher and motion override button but damn those are some brilliant ideas i've never thought about! Thanks ;)

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! Motion override is a good idea!

[@gregg2233]

This was great I’m definitely looking for any information to help improve my automations.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Hopefully you got some inspiration 😅

[@boehserenkel]

Thanks for the video. For run once automation you can also use a template condition: {{as_timestamp(state_attr('automation.arbeitsbeleuchtung','last_triggered'))|timestamp_custom('%-d') != as_timestamp(now())|timestamp_custom('%-d')}}

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Good idea!

[@Zyck3r]

Extremely interesting, good use cases.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks glad you enjoyed it!

[@HATipsByLarry]

Great video you gave me some great ideas for my automation's. Thank you so much. Also just so some people might already know i use HACS virtual components as a alternative for helpers. They are pretty much the same but the main difference i have found is that the virtual switches in virtual components are exposed to google home and alexa so you can turn them on and off through those assistants. I use them to let HA know when i'm asleep and awake as i don't have a bed sensor yet :)

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@robert.wigley]

You can turn Helpers on and off for Alexa too, so is there any other advantage to using them rather Helpers?

[@HATipsByLarry]

@@robert.wigley while i only have one alexa device (most of my devices are google ones) i couldn't get the helpers i created to be exposed to the alexa assistant i do have. How did you get yours to be?

[@robert.wigley]

@@HATipsByLarry I just turned them on through Home Assistant Cloud / Alexa / Manage Entities.

[@derMaulwuff]

- Did you use a custom card for the alarm clock time display with the arrows? - Is this a tablet or some kind of smart speaker with the display?

[@alejandrortl]

Good one. 👍👍👍

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks dude!

[@MrGatya2]

These are excellent ideas. I will use them :)

[@EverythingSmartHome]

🙏

[@medienmond]

Use a date Input helper for your once-per-day automations. Execution only If the fields value is before date.today(), Directly after running your stuff, set the helper to the current date. Therefore you do not have to reset the helper anymore and it gets more reliable.

[@henningklages861]

Using a date helper let me define the return date from a trip. Based on that return date the travel mode is set to on /off

[@EverythingSmartHome]

👌

[@mikeguest6307]

One of my helpers is numeric. It counts how many loads have been through the dryer , and reminds me to clean out the lint filters of it's 5 or more. The counter is reset by a xiaomi button on the dryer panel. (Or through Lovelace)

[@kgehmlich]

Lint filters should be cleaned out after every load.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

That's a great idea!

[@mikeguest6307]

@@kgehmlich We generally find there's only enough lint present to be worth removing at this point. Plus it's a massive improvement over the prior situation where clearance only happened when I realised nobody had done if for a while.

[@kgehmlich]

@@mikeguest6307 reading it again I realize my comment probably came off a bit rude - sorry about that. Maybe I just have extra linty clothes, haha. Either way, if that counter has improved things for you it sounds like a win!

[@mikeguest6307]

@@kgehmlich No worries. I'm a little tone deaf when it comes to this sort of thing. in any case and you're absolutely correct, the instructions do say to do it every load - we're not particularly good at following instructions :)

[@RichSimpson]

The time/date helper? I got as far as mushroom dashboard following your video but didn't venture onto the harder version. That option to change the time is good though and I can't get it in mushroom. I can add the helper as an entity but controlling it is very messy. If I want 22:00 it takes some messing about to get the first box to accept 22 (closes after the first 2 usually). Any thought other than plunge into the alternative dash?

[@murrayr76]

Great video as always - thankyou ! Just wondering what you are using for your 'morning announcement' media on your office display - I can see the play media action and the google icon below. Are you calling a google routine somehow ?

[@RoadsterLoverMedia]

If you can get sun up and sundown times via API so they vary each day, create whole house wake up and sleep actions to set on the lights and draw curtains or start morning coffee and feed the pets.

[@neilyoung9653]

Brilliant video!! Is the anyway you can post you code on the music player helper please, as a newbie I’m still trying to learn about HA

[@ranaway34]

Great video, I used the drop down menu to choose different timer to turn off my my ceiling fan (1hr, 2hr, 3hr and 4 hr). it simply calls scrips to turn off the fan. It works well besides one issue, if I choose the last option I used which also appears in the menu nothing happens. I need to choose a diffrent timer and than choose my timer I want. Its a problem beacaue often I choose the same timer. Is there a solution?

[@colincheng6674]

I'd like to use a timer boolean helper to set a static date (e.g. December 1st) for when my Christmas lights turn on and then another helper for them to turn off (e.g. January 1st). It appears that using this method forces me to select a date in a specific year. Is there a way to select December 1st/January 1st for each and every year so that I don't have to manually change this on an annual basis?

[@gnlgrim2]

I currently have about 10 helpers. Most helpful one is having the boiler run for a set amount of time and turn itself off after the time has elapsed. Can pick between 1.2.3 hours or have it run automatically

[@EverythingSmartHome]

That's a good one!

[@hlchanad]

what card you were using for the alarm?

[@Hiltune84]

How did you do the buttons and showing helpertime in the frontend ui.

[@jonasnystrom2707]

I think this will help me to create a easy UI to set automated heating on the car based on depatrure time and day and the temperature outside.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Definitely a good usecase!

[@bschmu]

I've started using the guest mode exactly as you described and it is working great so far; but it has me thinking... I'm interested in automating the guest mode with the device_tracker provided by the unifi network integration. I've grouped my personal devices so they can be ignored and have a sensor listing only guest devices. I'm going to try it out for a bit with only sending a notification but I'm wondering if I can practically use this to activate/deactivate my guest helper in the future.

[@schillaci5590]

Sometimes I'm suprised how basic things are missing from HA. I want to check on the state of a binary sensor, and based on that trigger an automation. Can't seem to do something as basic as that in HA using the UI. Read that carefully. I can trigger an event when a state changes but can't seem to trigger one when I want (based on a state). Why would I want to do that? Could be I want to run the automation on demand.

[@wallacewalcher7560]

How do you add the helper to Lovelace? I am not seeing a Card that supports it.

[@ninnaogtommyfrederiksen2266]

when you show the dashboard where you can set the alarm clock, there is to arrows.. how do you get that?

[@holgerwinkelmann6219]

can you show how you set up the dashboard for alert timer helper

[@dpsfitness7375]

This is great actually. I never even knew about this. Also what bed sensor are you using out of curiosity?

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks! It's a custom made one, check the card linked in the top right hand corner of the video when I mentioned it

[@dpsfitness7375]

@@EverythingSmartHome sorry I must of missed that. Apologies. I’ll take a look. I’ve been looking to get a bed sensor for some automations for when I’m on shift as I alternate days and nights. Appreciate it mate. Hope you’re doing well.

[@FloWmo619]

Nice.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

🙏

[@tarcisio_menezes]

Heyy! Great video! Thanks for that! I have a question: you mentioned your bed sensor. Which one do you use it? Is it reliable? Thank you!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Hello! It's linked in the top right hand corner of the video as the same time I talked about it - hope that helps

[@techtuber92]

Heay i know it is irrelevant to this videro but i have a broadlink ir/rf blaster. I did not get any trouble adding remotes and input. I need something to ass those inputs on any thermostat for my AC. Is there anything you can point me to help?

[@ronbrown4551]

Hi, How do you get the google home to say the weather via home assistant ?

[@dlh1989]

Hi Lewis. Great video! Quick question: the alarms on your mobile dashboard at 4:19 with the up and down buttons. What card are you using for that? I haven't been able to find anything resembling that or perhaps I'm not looking hard enough.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Hello! It's a card that's available when using minimalist UI - hope that helps

[@dlh1989]

@@EverythingSmartHome Awesome! I'll check that out. Thank you.

[@colincheng6674]

A second way that I think helpers can be used is to set a state. I'm having an issue with door sensor notifications. Currently, I have an automations that triggers whenever a door sensor state changes from on to off or from off to on. This works great for most of the year when doors are closed shortly after they're opened. I am experiencing a problem in the warmer months of the year when doors and windows tend to be left opened in which case the automation keeps running repeatedly and I get multiple notifications that a door is opened. Can anyone suggest a way in which I might use helpers to solve this issue?

[@jasonstation]

Is it possible to run an Alexa routine directly from Home Assistant? If not, why not lol.

[@jonnydickson]

What theme are you using shown on the phone screen? Or is that just a fake screen shot?

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Haha no not fake, it's my dashboard - the "theme" is called minimlist (not really a theme)

[@davidhill8151]

Thanks for the video. For your radio station example, how do you set up a card in Lovelace there the user can select from the dropdown list?

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks! It depends on your theme/UI you are using but you can use a simple "entity card" to do it

[@davidhill8151]

@@EverythingSmartHome Thanks! The 'Entity' didn't do it for me. But the "Entities" card did it!

[@Saturn2888]

This is way beyond me. I use Groups as my helpers. That's it. I was having trouble understanding all the other stuff you were talking about. Is it all dashboard related? I would've liked to see more of how they worked with real world examples.

[@WebmediArt]

Instead of that boolean, is it possible to call the service to turn off the running automation (so turning off itself)? 👀 I will try that myself at least. Cause I hate clutter :p

[@EverythingSmartHome]

You can, but if you have multiple automations rather than a single one then you'll end up with lots of extra work, that was the purpose of the example 😅

[@uSlackr]

Our automated kitchen lights are a bit problematic when sitting and eating at the island as there isn't enough motion. I added a helper and button my wife can click on her phone. Works great

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Nice one, simple solution!

[@SeanRynearson]

The alarm I solved with calendar

[@djamonstaal1123]

What theme do you use and how to install that in Home Assistant? :O

[@EverythingSmartHome]

See the latest video :O

[@connorthompson8303]

I don't suppose you have released your dashboard config? If not would you be willing to do so?

[@EverythingSmartHome]

I haven't...yet!

[@connorthompson8303]

@@EverythingSmartHome Ooo, exciting! Well hopefully we get to see it soon, I just love how you've laid out particular elements!

[@ianrobson9612]

Great video. I am new to home assistant moving over from smartthings. I have an input_datetime helper and trying to work out how to test if it is blank or null and if so enter the current time but I do not seem to be able to get the test to work. if: - condition: template value_template: '{{ states(''input_datetime.device_operated'') == '' '' }}' then: I thought it would solve as true when not set but it doesn't

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Hop into the discord and I'm sure we can help you out with it!

[@ianrobson9612]

@@EverythingSmartHome thank you

[@sudheer7595]

Can you do google local control

[@EverythingSmartHome]

It's not really an option for most people unfortunately due to some limitations

[@JonathanYankovich]

Umm, actually, you can use the automation’s last run attribute in a value template to check if it has already run on a given day without polluting your input helpers!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

You can, I don't find it as nice to use personally - but like many things in home assistant, there are more than one way to do things

[@jevgenijhuebert-weizenegge7138]

What about the most important helper... instead of setting some static values in any pannel (for instance show sensor data for a day) I whant use a numeric helper (show sensor data for a configurable numeric value) This is not possible!!! Or is it? Because in my case error messages shows up and says: value must be float. Even if you write template code: "{{sensors('nummeric_value.range')|float}}" Can someone tell me how can I use my created helper just everywhere. In my case makes helper no sence when Im not allowed use them on any attribute....

[@derMaulwuff]

maybe {{states('input_number.helpername')|float(0)}} (also: no quotes) you can test templates in dev tools > template, it also will show the resulting type.

[@jevgenijhuebert-weizenegge7138]

@@derMaulwuff I will test it thx

[@ZacharyLeBlanc]

I've been using Toggle helpers in conjunction with my IR blasters. That way, the IR blaster won't respond if my dumb TV is already on.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Ah, good idea!