Add some device classes

[jd1]

I added device_class to the sensor where I could test them.

If it is fine for you, I can also add more device classes to other sensors, but I will not able to test them because my car doesn't have this sensors.

[jd1]

I noticed that "Charging time left" is now only shown as full hours in Home Assistant. The minutes are gone. I'm going to invest if this is related to my changes.

[dvx76]

I noticed that "Charging time left" is now only shown as full hours in Home Assistant. The minutes are gone. I'm going to invest if this is related to my changes.

Never paid attention to this but I also only see hours (without added device_classes). Next time I'm charging at home I'll take a look at the API responses.

[dvx76]

API:

XXXXVIN      Charging time left - (charging_time_left)
        str_state: 07:20 h - state: 07:20
        attributes: {}

In HA the state value of the sensor correctly shows the minutes too. However when looking at the history graph, or using any graph card with that entity, it only shows the whole hour (e.g. 7h for the example above).

I wonder if the problem is the unit_of_measurement: h. Perhaps that expects a float with the number of hours (e.g. 7:30 would be 7.5)...

[dvx76]

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/understanding-device-class-duration-better/444140/4

[jd1]

Yeah, I think the problem is that the value is not numeric. I encountered the problem, when I tried to do some calculations with the remaining charging time. I couldn't format it into anything usable, especially not into a timedelta which would require a format like 0:07:30 instead of 7:30 for 7 h.

My first attempt was to add the device class, but that didn't solve the issue. I think the correct solution is to convert it into a float value. If I find the time, I will have a look into it, but if someone else wants to fix it, I'm also fine with it 😃

[dvx76]

I got this working with device_class: duration, unit_of_measurement: h and charging_time_left() returning the number of hours remaining as a float.

I have two concerns with this though:

• The formatting in the front-end doesn't seem quite consistent yet. E.g. the default Entities card will correctly format the value as hh:mm:ss but Entities just prints the float value with unit h. Same with templating (e.g. {{ states("sensor.<vin>_charging_time_left") }}
• "Fixing" this would change the value of the existing entity, which could end up breaking peoples existing dashboard and automatons.

I'm not convinced the device_class stuff in HA is mature yet.

[Farfar]

Yes the logical next step is to set the state to a full 'hh:mm:ss' for easier parsing. The time/date handling in Home Assistant hasn't been consistent.
But for now this will be enough if it works for you.