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: cf56fdf2b6c37a7dcf7158be3c945710
    entity_id: 0cd3cf1f7357e615fbe81516c783a438
    domain: light
then:
  - type: turn_on
    device_id: a10fec546e97b3218296f3239058b447
    entity_id: 0caa44c4824b8b85de411b665a88470f
    domain: light
    brightness_pct: {{state_attr("light.kitchen_sink_ceiling", "brightness")}}
else:
  - type: turn_off
    device_id: a10fec546e97b3218296f3239058b447
    entity_id: 0caa44c4824b8b85de411b665a88470f
    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.

  • [email protected]@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    19 days ago

    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.caEnglish
      0·
      19 days ago

      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) }}

    • spongebue@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      15 days ago

      That, plus a couple other things I saw in different places, ended up doing exactly what I wanted! I posted my final solution above. Thanks for finding a piece to the puzzle!

  • Rekhyt@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    19 days ago

    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.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      19 days ago

      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.worldOPEnglish
        0·
        19 days 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