Binary Sensor

Binary sensors which have either the state “on” or “off”. Binary sensors could be e.g. a switch in the wall (the thing you press on when switching on the light) or a motion detector.

Switches are mainly intended to act on input, which means to execute so called Actions. An action can be toggling a switch or a light or the moving of a cover.

The logic within switches can further handle if a button is pressed once or twice - and trigger different actions. Use the attribute counter for this purpose.

Overview

binarysensor = BinarySensor(xknx, 'TestInput', group_address_state='1/2/3', device_class='motion')

xknx is the XKNX object.
name is the name of the object.
group_address_state is the KNX group address of the sensor device.
sync_state defines if the value should be actively read from the bus. If False no GroupValueRead telegrams will be sent to its group address. Defaults to True
reset_after may be used to reset the internal state to OFF again after given time in ms. Defaults to None
device_class may be used to store the type of sensor, e.g. “motion” for motion detectors.

Example

outlet = Switch(xknx, 'TestOutlet', group_address='1/2/3')

binarysensor = BinarySensor(xknx, 'TestInput', group_address_state='2/3/4')
action_on = Action(
    xknx,
    hook='on',
    target='TestOutlet',
    method='on')
binarysensor.actions.append(action_on)
action_off = Action(
    xknx,
    hook='off',
    target='TestOutlet',
    method='off')
binarysensor.actions.append(action_off)

Configuration via xknx.yaml

Binary sensor objects are usually configured via xknx.yaml:

groups:
  binary_sensor:
    Livingroom.Switch_1:
      group_address_state: "1/2/7"
      actions:
        - { target: Livingroom.Outlet_1, method: "on" }
        - { target: Livingroom.Outlet_2, method: "on" }

    Livingroom.Switch_2:
      group_address_state: "1/2/8"
      actions:
        - { target: Livingroom.Outlet_1, method: "off" }
        - { target: Livingroom.Outlet_2, method: "off" }

    Livingroom.Switch_3:
      group_address_state: "1/2/5"
      actions:
        - { target: Livingroom.Shutter_1, method: up }
        # Only executed if the button was switched twice:
        - { counter: 2, target: Livingroom.Shutter_1, method: short_up }

    Livingroom.Switch_4:
      group_address_state: "1/2/6"
      actions:
        - { target: Livingroom.Shutter_1, method: down }
        # Only executed if the button was switched twice:
        - { counter: 2, target: Livingroom.Shutter_1, method: short_down }

  switch:
    Livingroom.Outlet_1: { group_address: "1/3/1" }
    Livingroom.Outlet_2: { group_address: "1/3/2" }

  cover:
    Livingroom.Shutter_1:
      {
        group_address_long: 3171,
        group_address_short: 3172,
        group_address_position_state: 3173,
        group_address_position: 3174,
        travelling_time_down: 51,
        travelling_time_up: 61,
      }