Home Assistant button with automation on your dashboard and state not always on

If you want to add a button to your dashboard that will trigger an automation once clicked, but you don't like the fact that by default the state will be always on, you can add an additional input_boolean. Below are the steps how to do this.

To define an input_boolean in Home Assistant, you can add it to your configuration.yaml file. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open your configuration.yaml file in Home Assistant.

2. Add the Input Boolean definition under the input_boolean section. If the section doesn’t exist yet, you can create it.

   yaml
   input_boolean:
     rain_water_pump_button:
       name: Rain Water Pump Button
       initial: off
   

   • rain_water_pump_button: This is the entity ID for your input boolean.
   • name: This is the name that will appear in the UI.
   • initial: Setting this to off means the button will be off each time Home Assistant restarts.

3. Save the Configuration and Restart Home Assistant:

   • After saving your changes, go to Settings > System > Restart to apply the new configuration.

4. Create a Combined Automation: This automation will:

   • Turn the rain_water_pump_button “on” for 2 seconds to confirm the button press.
   • Trigger switch.rain_water_pump for 3 minutes, then turn it off.

   yaml
   alias: Enable Rain Water Pump for 3 Minutes
   trigger:
     - platform: state
       entity_id: input_boolean.rain_water_pump_button
       to: 'on'
   action:
     - delay: "00:00:02"  # Keep button "on" for 2 seconds
     - service: input_boolean.turn_off
       target:
         entity_id: input_boolean.rain_water_pump_button
     - service: switch.turn_on
       target:
         entity_id: switch.rain_water_pump
     - delay: "00:03:00"  # 3 minutes delay for the pump
     - service: switch.turn_off
       target:
         entity_id: switch.rain_water_pump
   mode: single
   

5. Update the Dashboard Button: Here’s the updated configuration for the dashboard button to trigger the input_boolean instead of the automation directly. This way, pressing the button will activate the whole process:

   yaml
   type: entity-button
   entity: input_boolean.rain_water_pump_button
   icon: mdi:av-timer
   show_name: true
   show_icon: true
   show_state: true
   icon_height: 25px
   tap_action:
     action: toggle
   

With this setup:

• The dashboard button will change to "on" for 2 seconds when pressed.
• The input_boolean state change triggers the switch.rain_water_pump to turn on for 3 minutes and then turn off automatically.