A flow to identify inactive sensors (values) / unavailable devices

[Yestond]

I’ve tried to search through different topics without luck.
Is there any way to create a flow that notifies if a sensor value hasn’t changed/updated in, say 24 hours?

I basically want a notification if a sensor (eg. Aqara or Sonoff temp.) hasn’t changed.

I created this flow to identify unavailable devices, but I haven’t since I just created it, I haven’t had an alert yet.

I’m aware of this topic where a script has been used, but I’m not sure if it works and how to implement it?

A script to check sensor last update

I used this in HS to force a value to be considered numeric, not sure if it works inside the tag arguments tag('notReportingCount', Number(notReportingCount)())

[Peter_Kawa]

Hej Jesper

You can use this importable flow (use the Device Capabilities app for it);
Including a how-to and script:

The Flow Exchange(r) - Exchange Your Flows with Others!

Sensor (or any device) Connection Check. Sometimes, you’ll discover a sensor or other device doesn’t report it’s status or value anymore, but it does NOT notify you of being offline… Well, this flow checks the, most recent update time of your sensors. You can run the flow every day, twice a day, just add or remove a time triggercard. The ‘inactive time’ can be edited as well (24hrs as default) and you can choose to not send notifications when all sensors did report inside the ‘inactive time…

You can even import it right away using the app configuration, and pick “Templates”:

[Yestond]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for helping out.
I’m not sure what to put here when importing the flow?

Can you help me out?
I’m an absolut noob in homey script and also at importing flows
UPDATE: Never mind - I figured it out
Thaks again

[Yestond]

@Peter_Kawa now I have this issue instead

[Peter_Kawa]

Just hit “Update Text” and when you see code appear, hit the link “Homey API Playground”
This screen pops up, but first fully clear the input field with the default examples, and then CTRL + V (or use paste with the mouse menu)
Scroll back up, and hit the blue “Run” button.

When it succeeded, go back to the previous screen, it should show a link with the created flow:

[Yestond]

I still get this error

[Peter_Kawa]

Read the howto again. This card is a dummy card, which has to be replaced by the real Homeyscript card by you.

Oh, the card bottom left can be deleted (little error on my side).

[Yestond]

Arh sorry for my incompetence

One final little quirk now is that it returns the following headline “Devices without updates for NaN hrs / NaN days”

Will this solve itself or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks again for helping out

[Peter_Kawa]

NaN = Not a Number
Did you use the right Homeyscript card?

[petomei]

@Yestond

One final little quirk now is that it returns the following headline “Devices without updates for NaN hrs / NaN days”

You have to choose the HomeyScript Flowcard* “Run Code with Argument and return Text-tag” and insert 43200 in the Argument section:


Then it should work.

*there is a little mistake in @Peter_Kawa 's video

[Yestond]

@petomei

43200

Thank you both.
I needed to set the argument like you said @petomei
Thank you @Peter_Kawa for you contribution as well. I know you’re a very active member in the community - great work!

[Peter_Kawa]

The vid is from a similar “card swap”, and there’s no argument used. I thought “get the picture” would suffice.
Should I make a vid for the specific flow you think?

I also tested the homeyscript card without entering the seconds in the argument field, and it just returned all sensors, not NaN… not sure what was different

But I’m glad it works now, Jesper! @Yestond

[Yestond]

Is there any way to only show certain censors like motion and temperature. Right now Chromecast values and other non-relevant values are part of the updates as well?

[Torch1969]

@Yestond

I’ve tried to search through different topics without luck.
Is there any way to create a flow that notifies if a sensor value hasn’t changed/updated in, say 24 hours?

This thread has some usefull suggestions

A script to check sensor last update

Hello everyone, In my home set-up I have a bunch of Aqara sensors directly connected to a Homey that I use to monitor temperature and humidity (and for some of them, to trigger some automations based on those). Overtime they run out of battery and I only realised it when the automations don’t start or for the “passive” ones, only when I dive a little deeper in the Insights section. My idea was to use a script to read at a regular interval (say every day) the last updated value of a given senso…

[Peter_Kawa]

@Yestond

Is there any way to only show certain censors like motion and temperature.

Yes you can adjust the code starting at line 10 - ish

    // Exclude by app names virtual devices and other app devices
    // (find correct app names via https://tools.developer.homey.app/tools/devices and look for "Driver")
    if (device.driverUri.match('vdevice|DeviceCapabilities|chronograph|betterlogic|devicegroups|callmebot|netscan' )) continue;
    // Exclude by (parts of) device name
    if (device.name.match('^se|^pr|TST|z_|z |z. |IR|rris|eboo|rada|KNM|Timeline|#1|#0|ESP|esp|TV C|TV S|iffu|Unav|Wekk|OUD|OLD|Peter|Custom|Afval|LEDs')) continue;

You can change it to something like this:

    // Exclude by app names
    // (find correct app names via https://tools.developer.homey.app/tools/devices and look for "Driver")
    if (device.driverUri.match('appNameYouDontWant|OtherAppNameYouDontWant')) continue;
    // Include by app names
    if (!device.driverUri.match('appNameYouWant|OtherAppNameYouWant')) continue;
    // Exclude by (parts of) device name
    if (device.name.match('nameOfSensorYouDontWantToCheck|nameOfOtherSensorYouDontWantToCheck')) continue;
    // Include by (parts of) device name
    if (!device.name.match('nameOfSensorYouWantToCheck|nameOfOtherSensorYouWantToCheck')) continue;

@Yestond

Chromecast values and other non-relevant values are part of the updates as well

They should be excluded afaik, not included …
When I comment out (=disable) the “if (device.driverUri…” line, they all appear here, and I don´t want that:

    // Exclude by app names
    // (find correct app names via https://tools.developer.homey.app/tools/devices and look for "Driver")
    ////if (device.driverUri.match('vdevice|DeviceCapabilities|chronograph|betterlogic|devicegroups|callmebot|netscan' )) continue;

[To_Lou]

I would like the script to include say after 24h (86400) but NOT after 48h to produce a syslog entry every day with unique devices.

Struggled with the
if (! capabilityObj?.lastUpdated || (Date.now() - new Date(capabilityObj?.lastUpdated) > INVALIDATE_AFTER * 1000)) { count++; }

to add another constraint for also exclude doubled time without success…

Any suggestions?

Also would like to throw an error if no devices match criteria, and NOT produce a empty log entry.

@robertklep

[Yestond]

Perfect @Peter_Kawa. That did the trick. Thank you again

[Anders_Gregow]

@Yestond

Is there any way to create a flow that notifies if a sensor value hasn’t changed/updated in, say 24 hours?

The Device capability app has a card to retrive latest change for a device and its capability. The value will be in millisec so compare it to 2436001000. I am doing this for my important devices, works great.

[To_Lou]

Leaning towards Device Capabilities and ‘Duration till now’ result tag. This way there’s only one minimum duration instead of multiple LastUpdated records.

But how to call the ‘Retreive Insights’ THEN flowcard from a Homeyscript?

const { result: response }  = await Homey.flow.runFlowCardAction({
  uri: 'homey:app:nl.qluster-it.DeviceCapabilities',
  id: 'homey:app:nl.qluster-it.DeviceCapabilities:action_capability_log',
  args: {
    device: 'Motion Sensor 1',
    capability: 'Motion alarm',
    numberof: 0,
  },
});
log(response);

[Mike_D]

Hi, I used this flow and it works, only issue I have is that every device is being listed as no communication in last 12 hours. For example though, I see some devices have communicated with homey in that time. Does anyone have any ideas. Is there a way to check the last communication time for an individual device?