Yaml and Jinja Course Episode 7: Creating your own sensors

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Let me know what custom templates you created in the comments!

[@DementedDog]

I'd like to see a yaml sensor which finds the temperature of all active temperature sensors, and then shows the average please! Far easier than having to keep going in and changing helper sensors when the physical sensor is changed or the battery goes flat! Love this series - thanks.💗

[@desertaip9137]

@@DementedDog try adding a Temperature label to the sensors you want and using this: {{ (states.sensor | selectattr('entity_id', 'in', label_entities('Temperature')) | map(attribute='state') | map('float') | list | average) }}

[@DementedDog]

@@desertaip9137 thanks - hadn’t thought of that

[@major_west]

Another great tutorial. Thanks for producing this whole series! I use to fear yaml and templates, but no longer. Can't do without them now.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Thank you for the compliments. It's great to hear that this series helps people! 🙏🏻

[@clairerovic]

Again I am enjoying this series - thanks so much for sharing. While fiddling around I actually found I was defining my Templates in the Binary-sensor file .. DOH. Hopefully to help others I also added " | rejectattr('entity_id', 'search', 'bulb|robby|led') " This helps me to remove any sensor LED's etc from my list easily. I also have a naming convention that any light inside a group is called a 'Bulb', this quickly removes them without having to go arround and set specific labels.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

That's actually a great idea!

[@johnwietz]

Thank you. Your tutorials are outstanding!

[@desertaip9137]

Thanks again! With this and episode 6, I replaced my Total Power summation sensor which was about 30 lines of code with a very clean single line of code. Now I have a single sensor that adds all my power loads together, and all I need to do to add a new one is to add the label to it. I modified the code with the map('float') and sum functions. I use this sensor to display the total instantaneous power draw in my house on my dashboard. {{ states.sensor | selectattr('entity_id', 'in', label_entities('Power Load')) | map(attribute='state') | map('float') | list | sum }}

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

So cool that you managed to narrow your code down with help of my tutorials! 👍🏻👍🏻

[@sevagjb]

Nice room filter; I'll begin incorporating them into my code. :) Thanks, Ed.

[@emms-place]

Thanks Ed. Another awesome video in the series. Cant wait to see what you will share next

[@alangilman2015]

I had to add this to the template for counting the number of lights on: "rejectattr('entity_id', 'in', label_entities('lights'))". Not sure if that's the right way or not but it worked!

[@alangilman2015]

Ha, I guess that didn't work after all. It is still counting the "light.ROOM_NAME' entities

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

You might want to watch the whole series to fully understand how jinja works.

[@richardfuller7506]

Really useful tutorial. Thank you very much 👍

[@johnadams1976]

LOL. Love the outtakes!!!😅😊😅

[@manfredzimmer1199]

I love the outtakes🤣

[@powertbs88]

Your content is great! Would like to know how to create a time sensor and should be able to use it for automatons Thank you

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

See my episode on calculations and time.

[@peterturcan1062]

thank you for video. but one problem I have. I already have sensor in node-red, which is summary of three sensors SSR1+SSR2+SSR3 and it's name is SSR_power. I have created it as template but HA created sensor 'SSR_power_2' although I have specified correct name. Can I replace node-red sensor with simplier one with the same name? I need it, because of history... thank you!

[@maricelchristarr3095]

Hi, Initially I followed your videos to recreate the sprinkler watering system in order to learn as much as I can. I ran into issues with a couple of things. I have since resolved the issues but the major issue has been the sensors not updating . As I had created the sensors myself after purchasing the latest code from you the sensors ended up with a modified name suffixed with a l_2”. In order to resolve is there a way to remove the original sensors that I had created from cache

[@lakromani8172]

When you make a sensor, HA will store that value inn its database. It will take more space and if you are running Raspberry PI with SD card, it will wear out faster. If you only need to display a number, but not store it, you can make lots of calculation directly in the display card it self. (Do you really need to go back one month and see how many lights that are on? I know this is just an example, but this is how you should think)

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

If you are still using an SD card, you should upgrade your system. This is how you should think. 😉

[@defisit501]

@@SmartHomeJunkie yes, but it’s good being critical about what data to retain and for how long.

[@eugsmiley]

@@SmartHomeJunkie Sadly the HA on Pi installation instructions do not explain this for new users to understand.I only found this out after running on a Pi for over a year and performance started going downhill.

[@major_west]

You can easily control which sensors are saved in the database and which sensors are not using the HA Recorder "include" and "exclude" configuration variables. A big advantage to creating template sensors, is they are available for use throughout HA, not just for display on one card.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

@@major_west Exactly this.

[@carlopic6610]

hello Junkie in my HA I don't have the TUTORIAL function in the left menu, maybe because I'm not registered with Nabu Casa? Or can I create it in another way?

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

No, this is just a dashboard that I created.

[@joncentel4932]

👍

[@ezrakoper]

Even after viewing the entire 7 episodes I had no idea why I need Jinja in Yamel. Asking ChatGpt gave an answer in 1 Sec. Yamel is static and can’t use dynamic elements. Jinja is an add on to resolve it making it dynamic. I wish you had explained in the 1st episode why Jinja is needed from the start.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

And you still don't spell YAML correctly 😂😂😂

[@mdavidf]

@ezrakopee He didn't use those exact words, but he did explain it in the first episode.