Recently, I embarked on a project to automate the lighting in my kitchen, and I wanted to share my experience and some tips that might help others looking to do the same.
The goal was to have the under-cabinet lights turn on when someone enters the kitchen and stay on for five minutes after the last motion detected. This seemed straightforward, but I encountered a few bumps along the way.
First, I set up a motion sensor in the kitchen. I chose a battery-powered model to avoid any wiring hassles. The next step was integrating it with Home Assistant. I configured the motion sensor as a binary sensor and set up an automation rule.
Here’s a quick overview of the setup:
- Motion Sensor Configuration: I added the motion sensor as a binary sensor in my
configuration.yamlfile. - Automation Rule: I created an automation that triggers when the motion sensor detects movement. This automation turns on the under-cabinet lights and sets a timer for five minutes. If no further motion is detected within that time, the lights turn off automatically.
The challenge came with fine-tuning the timer. Initially, the lights would turn off too quickly, but adjusting the delay period solved the issue. I also learned the importance of testing different scenarios to ensure the automation behaves as expected.
One tip I’d share is to use the Home Assistant developer tools to monitor the sensor states in real-time. This helped me troubleshoot why the automation wasn’t triggering as intended.
Overall, the project was a success, and it’s been a great way to enhance the functionality of my kitchen. If anyone has questions or needs help setting up something similar, feel free to reach out! 
