Notices by Andrew (codechimp@mastodon.online)

My latest little thing to improve quality of life with #HomeAssistant is now on HACS.

To track critical sensors being unavailable all I need to do is label those entities. A Label State helper provides a boolean flag if any of them has an unavailable state so I can create one automation to alert me when any important device needs attention.

You can create state is, state not and numeric state ranges to cover many scenarios.

https://github.com/andrew-codechimp/HA-Label-State

@badnetmask Just been working on a thing that might be useful to catch this in future.
Was waiting to post about it in a few days when I will have time to address any early teething issues.

https://github.com/andrew-codechimp/HA-Label-State

@badnetmask @kevin Maybe a utility meter and then a template sensor calculating the cost based on your rate.

And 2025.5.1 is out fixing the issue so I'm back on the latest. Turns out it was something affecting far more than just Forecast.Solar and bdraco was on the case to fix something upstream after getting me and others to do some validation. Was impressive to see how quickly this got fixed.

I haven’t had to roll back to an old version of #HomeAssistant for a long time but 2025.5.0 seems to have introduced an issue with Forecast.Solar and other integrations using AioDNS when running HA in a container.
Issue raised and already being looked into so I’m sure a fix will come quickly.

@badnetmask Yes changing zigbee is a big undertaking for one device. Strange as hue devices are the ones I’d consider the most reliable.

@badnetmask I'm using an SMLight coordinator, with Z2M I'm seeing
Firmware date 20210830
Firmware version 2.53.6
I've not done anything special tweaks with them at all, just paired and let them work.

@badnetmask I have two of these paired via Zigbee2MQTT and they are giving me frequent updates, approx every 5 mins without any motion detection. Had one for 2 years, one for about 6 months without issues.
I've not updated the firmware since getting them but you can do OTA firmware updates via Z2M without requiring the Hue Bridge, think you can with ZHA as well but I don't use that.

@badnetmask I've bookmarked your post to one day think about implementing a service call within HA, the python library used in the Mastodon integration can get these. The Mealie integration does something similar returning json so you can parse and create your own automations.

#Solar install day 1 and the scaffolding is up ready for the panels tomorrow.
Amazing how fast it goes up and they did a good job of avoiding windows & doors.
The garden drops down so that tree is level with the bottom of the roof in reality so no shading issues.

@courtney Thanks, most modern houses in the UK have it and it’s a right pain to get fixings, I’ve got a 60’s house where everywhere else is very hard to drill into but at least things stay up.

I created a new #HomeAssistant helper to simplify keeping track of min/max values where I wanted to have control over when they were reset, saving creating template sensors and automations to do it for each entity.
I use it for daily garden min/max temperatures, can be used for things like tracking the peak generation on solar installations and being generic it's up to you on how you use it.
First release so use with caution.
https://github.com/andrew-codechimp/HA-Periodic-Min-Max

I’ve not made a new #HomeAssistant custom component in about a year, it’s good starting something fresh and learning from all your past mistakes.

Had an issue raised about one of my #HomeAssistant custom components not running on NixOS, having now looked at why and what NixOS does I can only come to the conclusion that people running it for a home install must be complete masochists.

A little milestone reached with 20k people downloading the latest version of Battery Notes for #HomeAssistant
True usage stats are impossible but this is the figure used in HACS to indicate popularity.
Never thought I’d reach this sort of usage when I first created it but it’s been great receiving lots of positive feedback and ideas for improving it.
It does also make me very nervous releasing new versions in case I break something.

Thinking about the #HomeAssistant voice hardware, that Grove port location on the bottom would make it possible to create a stackable module that sits underneath.
Lots of option for things like a screen, additional input controls, or other sensors in a neat package.

I created a new custom integration for #HomeAssistant that allows you to attach a note to an existing device to indicate the battery type it takes, which then shows up in the Diagnostic section of the device. This allows me to go pre-armed with the right battery when a battery is getting low, which shows up using an auto-entities list on my main dashboard.

Full details here on how to add it either via a HACS custom repository or manually
https://github.com/andrew-codechimp/HA-Battery-Notes