home-assistant.io/source/_components/timer.markdown

layout	title	description	date	sidebar	comments	sharing	footer	logo	ha_category	ha_release	ha_qa_scale
page	Timer	Instructions on how to integrate timers into Home Assistant.	2017-10-23 06:00	true	false	true	true	home-assistant.png	Automation	0.57	internal

The timer component aims to simplify automations based on (dynamic) durations.

When a timer finishes or gets canceled the corresponding events are fired. This allows you to differentiate if a timer has switched from active to idle because the given duration has elapsed or it has been canceled. To control timers in your automations you can use the services mentioned below. When calling the start service on a timer that is already running, it resets the duration it will need to finish and restart the timer without triggering a canceled or finished event. This, for example, makes it easy to create timed lights that get triggered by motion. Starting a timer triggers a started event unless the timer is paused, in that case, it triggers a restarted event.

With the current implementation timers don't persist over restarts. After a restart, they will be idle again, together with their initial configuration.

{% linkable_title Configuration %}

To add a timer to your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
timer:
  laundry:
    duration: '00:01:00'

{% configuration %} "[alias]": description: Alias for the timer. Multiple entries are allowed. required: true type: map keys: name: description: Friendly name of the timer. required: false type: string duration: description: Initial duration in seconds or 00:00:00 when Home Assistant starts. required: false type: [integer, time] default: 0 icon: description: Set a custom icon for the state card. required: false type: icon {% endconfiguration %}

Pick an icon that you can find on materialdesignicons.com to use for your timer and prefix the name with mdi:. For example mdi:car, mdi:ambulance, or mdi:motorbike.

{% linkable_title Events %}

Event	Description
timer.cancelled	Fired when a timer has been canceled
timer.finished	Fired when a timer has completed
timer.started	Fired when a timer has been started
timer.restarted	Fired when a timer has been restarted
timer.paused	Fired when a timer has been paused

{% linkable_title Services %}

{% linkable_title Service timer.start %}

Starts or restarts a timer with the provided duration. If no duration is given, it will either restart with its initial value, or continue a paused timer with the remaining duration. If a new duration is provided, this will be the new default for the timer until Home Assistant is restarted (which loads your default values). The duration can be specified as a number of seconds or the easier to read 01:23:45 format.
If no entity_id is given all active timers will be started.

Service data attribute	Optional	Description
entity_id	yes	Name of the entity to take action, e.g., timer.timer0.
duration	yes	Duration in seconds or 00:00:00 until the timer finishes.

{% linkable_title Service timer.pause %}

Pause a running timer. This will retain the remaining duration for later continuation. If no entity_id is given all active timers will be paused.

Service data attribute	Optional	Description
entity_id	yes	Name of the entity to take action, e.g., timer.timer0.

{% linkable_title Service timer.cancel %}

Cancel an active timer. This resets the duration to the last known initial value without firing the timer.finished event. If no entity_id is given all active timers will be canceled.

Service data attribute	Optional	Description
entity_id	yes	Name of the entity to take action, e.g., timer.timer0.

{% linkable_title Service timer.finish %}

Manually finish a running timer earlier than scheduled. If no entity_id is given all active timers will be finished.

Service data attribute	Optional	Description
entity_id	yes	Name of the entity to take action, e.g., timer.timer0.

{% linkable_title Use the service %}

Select Services from the Developer Tools. Choose timer from the list of Domains, select the Service, enter something like the sample below into the Service Data field, and hit CALL SERVICE.

{
  "entity_id": "timer.timer0"
}

{% linkable_title Examples %}

Set a timer called test to a duration of 30 seconds.

# Example configuration.yaml entry
timer:
  test:
    duration: '00:00:30'

{% linkable_title Control a timer from the frontend %}

# Example automations.yaml entry
- alias: Timerswitch
  id: 'Timerstart'
  # Timer is started when the switch pumprun is set to on.
  trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: switch.pumprun
    to: 'on'
  action:
  - service: timer.start
    entity_id: timer.test

# When timer is stopped, the time run out, another message is sent
- alias: Timerstop
  id: 'Timerstop'
  trigger:
  - platform: event
    event_type: timer.finished
    event_data:
      entity_id: timer.test
  action:
  - service: notify.nma
    data:
      message: "Timer stop"

{% linkable_title Control a timer manually %}

With the script component you would be able to control a timer (see above for a timer configuration sample) manually.

script:
  start_timer:
    alias: Start timer
    sequence:
      - service: timer.start
        entity_id: timer.test
  pause_timer:
    alias: Pause timer
    sequence:
      - service: timer.pause
        entity_id: timer.test
  cancel_timer:
    alias: Cancel timer
    sequence:
      - service: timer.cancel
        entity_id: timer.test
  finish_timer:
    alias: Finish timer
    sequence:
      - service: timer.finish
        entity_id: timer.test