How do you name your devices and entities?
It would seem logical to name them for where they are and what they do. "Bathroom motion sensor", "Bedroom lamp", etc. However, I've found that, if it can move, it ends up moving sooner or later. My "bathroom" motion sensor is now in the upstairs family room, for example.
I give everything fun and whimsical names so when I have to actually fix something, it takes longer than necessary. 😃
I gave up pretty quickly on trying to name things. Early on I was having a lot of issues with zigbee, and I frequently had to reconnect things, and renaming them into my scheme got to be another step I just didn't want to bother with. It felt like a waste of time.
A better use of time was fixing the zigbee issues (wifi interference - fixed that, and now the network is solid). But now I don't really ever need to worry about the device names, so, eh.
Generally, and for a number of different reasons, it's best to disassociate a device that is meant to be permanent and re-pair with HA. There's a whole lot of automation in the background that goes into pairing a device, or setting up schedules, automations, scenes, scripts ..etc. Deleting forces a find/clear on that entity, and re-pairing creates clean new entries.
Yeah, I was confused about some lamp always being on when I woke up, and realised I'd replaced it's smart socket with one that had previously been used for a coffee machine. Deleting and repairing sounds like wisdom.
Entities I strongly recommend naming them like this:
{location}_{type}
For example
main_bedroom_temperature
This way if you change devices, you can swap entity names and everything works. Also YAML code is much easier to read and write.
Devices? That's more difficult to name, but also way less important, IMO. Usually I try to follow the same scheme as for entities, but sometimes I just prefer something else, like the actual brand, date of install...
I went with
<function>
_<room>
. So like motion_garage, or door_office. The function of the device won't change, so it seemed logical to have it in that order.It's also not hard to change names of devices in Zigbee2MQTT and propagate that through HA if a device moves.
You can rename them later no? I name them after the sensor, and rely on the location field. But in esphome they are named location-sensor.
I name them James and Bob, then immediately forget which is which and get confused.
.. you may wish to use a different strategy
I separate the name from the ID, so the IDs are relative to the specific device only, and the names represent the device and location.
I've set the IDs for all my sensors to use a code. The letters identify the type of sensor, and the numbers are sequential when I got them. I also have a label maker and labeled all the devices with their codes.
Example:
AA##
So my first temperature sensor is
TS01
Then the name of the sensor is a little more elaborate, where it includes the type of the sensor, the code, and the location.
{Type} {ID} - {Location}
So my bedroom motion sensor is:
Motion MS02 - Bedroom
Then if I have to rearrange anything, I don't update the device ID, just the name and how it's used.
I recently moved and had to rearrange some of the devices. It wasn't as bad as it could have been as I tried sticking the sensors in the proper rooms (ie all the old bedroom devices stayed in the bedroom). But there were some cases where I did have to rename them & update the integrations.
@earlyriser
Considering the fact that just like Apple Home, HA dashboards strip the first part of the display name if it’s identical to the area name, I use the „area device“ convention. So „Bathroom Leak Moisture“ is displayed as „Leak Moisture“ under the area „Bathroom“.
Furthermore HA allows to recreate entity Ids after renaming a device resulting in: „binarysensor.bathroomleakmoisture“.
So if I move my sensor to another location, I simply rename it to „Attic Leak „.
I do exact that and rarely move stuff. When I do I rename it. Most of the stuff I have is Zigbee, so I rename it in Zigbee2MQTT, select the option to rename it in HA too.
i use a code like "nbrnw1" for like outlets and "nbrnw1&2" if its a dual outlet plug. Its a room code "nbr" and where/what device is, in this case "nelw" means "north wall. So "nbrnw1" is an outlet on the north wall of the north bedroom. "Ksw1" would be an outlet on the south wall of the kitchen.
I found someone a while ago that used this
floor - type - subtype - room - thing
You end up with a name like
00 - switch - plug - living room - lamp
I use room_object. It's easier to find the to make automation and for my dashboard. I tried not to moove them to much and I don't have a lot of object so it is fine. Most of them don't moove anyway, lightbulb, vacuum, speaker. (I messed up at the beginning with the naming of my light by not naming them correctly and it is an error that I still have to deal with. (And it's a pain in the ass)
I name them like the story about them ... Its surely unsustanble but 12 nodes and three iot devices and it's still going strong
The AC is MrColdMizer The PC of cobled spare PC part is TheResurection One laptop is Wapwop and Gamer1 Etc, etc
I then use labels to keep track of conditionals like location, circuits, functions, etc
If I'm moving the device, then it's not going to have the same automatons and such, so I can just rename it if I move it.
That allows me to use a really consistent naming scheme: Pump, Freezer, Electric Fence, Basement_room_1_lock, basement_room_1_electrics, basement_room1_ai_taunts_voice, Gerold, Hermione, Sir_Snuffalot, Misc_1, Misc_2, Misc_3, Misc_4, basement_hallway_motion_alarm, etc.
I just rename them if they are moved
¯(ツ)_/¯
Yeah, if they're moved I'll likely want them to perform different automations and such, so I just completely delete tte device and re-set it up.
I have some devices like þis, and þey cause confusion. Þe underlying IDs don't change, so þe device is named "Upstairs", but þe ID in all automations is still "sensor.garage_door" or someþing.
@Sxan @lka1988 Yes, I have a sensors.sunflower called fern because... Well, flowers die, even with sensors.
Oh, I rename the entity, too.