Activation delay per Custom Position Slot

[Thorondir7]

I'd like to suggest adding a configurable delay to
Custom Position Slots.

Use case: I use a window contact sensor to trigger a
ventilation position (e.g. 30%) when a window is opened.
The slot activates and deactivates immediately when the
sensor changes state — causing unnecessary cover movement
when briefly switching between tilt and fully open position.

Desired behavior: A per-slot delay setting (in seconds)
that applies to both activation and deactivation. The cover
should only react after the sensor state has been stable
for the configured duration.

This would avoid unnecessary cover movement caused by
short sensor state changes.

Thanks for the great integration!

[elmakus]

You can probably work around this already on the Home Assistant side by creating a delayed helper / template binary sensor and using that delayed entity in the Custom Position Slot instead of the raw window contact sensor.

For example, something like this:

template:
  - binary_sensor:
      - name: "Window ventilation delayed"
        unique_id: window_ventilation_delayed
        state: "{{ is_state('binary_sensor.your_window_contact', 'on') }}"
        delay_on:
          seconds: 30
        delay_off:
          seconds: 30

Then use binary_sensor.window_ventilation_delayed as the condition/entity for the Custom Position Slot.

That way the slot only becomes active after the window contact has been stable for 30 seconds, and it also only deactivates after it has been stable in the other state for 30 seconds. This should avoid unnecessary cover movement when briefly switching between tilt and fully open.

A native per-slot delay could still be a nice feature, but this workaround should already cover the use case without requiring changes in ACP.

[jrhubott]

A month late replying here, but @elmakus has this exactly right. Wrap the window contact in a template binary_sensor with delay_on and delay_off, then point the Custom Position Slot's Trigger Sensors field at that delayed entity instead of the raw contact. That's the same debounce you're asking for, applied to both edges, and it's the right answer today.

I've filed issue #1211 to track a native per-slot delay so this doesn't need a template layer at all. Before I build it, I need to settle one thing: debouncing the trigger entity, which is what the template does, isn't the same as debouncing the slot's evaluated result once a Condition Template enters the picture through Combine Mode. A delay on the raw sensor won't debounce a slot that ANDs that sensor with a template, or ORs several sensors together. I want the native version to handle those cases correctly rather than just move the template workaround into a UI field, so I can't give you a ship date yet. It's a real request, just not an urgent one given how clean the workaround is.

For details, see the Custom Position wiki page.