On 22 Dec 2020 16:36:59 +0000 (GMT), Theo
wrote:

snip

Makes sense (and what I did). There is a 'Name' field that I believe
you edit to give it a friendly name and an ID that is how it's seen by
the system (that you probably shouldn't edit?). It's the ID that seems
to appear when creating an automation?

I get to select it by name, which is handy because all the Aqara sensors
have entity IDs of 0x153..... which isn't very obvious.

Quite (similar here with the Lidl / Tuya stuff). However, I've deleted
a couple of things and re-paired them and now it does seem to show the
friendly names?

Actions:
Action type: Device
Device: 'Ikea power socket' (my name)

I would have to select '_TZ3000_00mk2xzy TS011F' as that's how what I
called 'Socket 1' comes up in the list (because I know it's in the
lounge).

For me all the devices come up with the names I've assigned them, and that's
the 'Device' column in Configuration - Devices.

And that's the other thing, is it me or is the UI all over the place
re how you delete something? I find myself constantly hunting to get
back to where I think I need to be, as if different people have
written different modules and never spoken to each other? ;-(

Although, I did notice it doesn't always rename some of the child entities.
If you click on the device in that list, it shows the entities in a box.
For example my list for the Garage sensor is:

Garage_temperature
Garage_pressure
Garage_linkquality
Garage_humidity
0x00158d00058a613f_battery

Ah, I saw that when taking the Sonoff PUR sensor off the Lidl system
and onto HA with the active sensing bit and the battery (two
instances).

so for some reason it hasn't renamed the _battery entity. If I click the
0x0015..._battery I can add a 'Name Override' to be Garage_battery (being the battery
level in the temperature/pressure/humidity sensor in the Garage).

(I don't really care about these readings, but renaming them saves them
cluttering up some of the logs with unidentifiable things)

Understood. KISS etc. ;-)

snip

You have to think in terms of 'when X happens then do Y', but once you have
decided that it's just filling in the boxes? Like you said 'at sunset turn
light on'.

Yeah, I get the logic in my head and am even aware of the boolean
logic re say dusk/dawn + PIR if overcast etc (but currently no chance
of implementing it physically).

snip

It's more complicated, but that's because it gives you more control.

Understood, however, the implementation seems more complicated than it
could be, like trying to determine what the difference is between a
device, entity and integration (ok, I get what device is).

Also it isn't designed for a small range of products, so has to be more
generic. Vendor-specific apps are designed for the handful of things
they sell and for a handful of use cases.

Agreed.

Did you read the docs on Automations:
https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/automation/

(I didn't, and yet I figured it out thus far)

;-)

Nope, well, I trued to get it to answer my first question re why a new
automation didn't seem to reset, 'Mode' but clicking on their link to
the documentation took me to something that didn't relate to what I
was seeing and when I found Mode, it didn't really help me understand
what it did? I could read what it said it did, but not what it meant
in the real world?

I haven't watched them, but I'd be surprised if they didn't show you.

So, now I have what appears to be a complete automation (turning
Socket 1 on at Sunset), do I have to create a new automation to turn
it off at Sunrise or would it be combined in the same automation?

I'd guess you need another one if that's what you wish (maybe you wanted
something else, like turning off at midnight). I don't know if there's a
way to pair actions:

If Sunset then Turn On;
If Sunrise then Turn Off

I don't know if there's a common thingy to do both at the same time - maybe
there is.

OK, I gave up on that, removed the middle hall light and hall PIR from
the Lidl system and paired them into HA. Then I used one of their
'Movement turns on light' templates and it sorta worked (the light
came on with the PIR but didn't go off in the 120s it was set to).
Then I noticed an update (V5.9) whilst clicking about trying to find
my way to stuff so applied that, it restarted and now the PIR light
works as expected! So this is another 'learning thing', knowing when
you *need* to restart, reset or just leave it for a while.

snip

HA is a generic platform so there are 57 varieties of newbies, trying to do
all different kinds of things, with all sorts of different products over all
sorts of different platform.

Understood.

Your best bet is to find videos/blogs/etc of
someone who has done something similar.

I did try before even building the system but everything I looked at
seemed to go into editing the Yaml file?

(It also appears the manual is based on writing snippets of YAML
configuration, and separate to that there's a UI that can do most of it. It
seems the way to do the same with the UI isn't always as clearly documented)

Tell me about it! There is no real point me 'reading' a manual like
that because it's not written by someone who doesn't already know what
they want. So my only hope is that I might get some help from it for
specific references but they rarely do.

Reading the manual has rarely worked to help me better understand how
it works (because if it's got to that position the chances are it's
not intuitive etc) and might only answer the odd question re what
something is or how it needs to be seen / reset etc.

There's also the HA forum which is quite extensive.

Hopefully (with your kickstarter here) I will be able to conflate the
contents of a template generated automation (although that is
different yet again as it seems to be more like a GUI flow diagram)
with an Automagic solution from the keywords and a bit of poke-n-hope
inbetween. ;-)

https://ibb.co/B6B0ZMD

Anyway, I am slowly weaning the devices off the Lidl hub over to HA
and have just linked the phone App (seems to have worked) and now need
to find out how I see / add all the devices from there, so I can
override / manage any if needed?

Thanks very much again for the support Theo (Inc the initial RPi
stuff). Sometimes we need a little nudge in the right direction. ;-)

Cheers, T i m