Examples¶

Direct Connect Bridge. Mirrors the Modbus Bridge page Examples section for section: the same seven recipes, built with this bridge's form. Field names are the ones in the Add schedule dialog. There are no screenshots of these recipes yet.

Before you start

Force charge / discharge / standby needs the Modbus client (this bridge) switched on and the aGate's Modbus TCP Server (aGate :502) answering. Otherwise Force is greyed unavailable in the Battery action list.
Set the constants first: several recipes compare against them with Lookup. The ETA sensors also need the battery capacity constant.
Untick Enabled while you try things out, and press Test under each condition block.
For a force, use Daily at time, Weekly at time, Every N minutes or Custom cron, with a Duration (min). A force in a Recurring windows schedule stops after the hidden duration, not at the window's end (#160).
Do not give two force schedules windows that overlap on one gateway. When a force schedule's window ends, the bridge sends Release to that gateway, even if the schedule never fired and even if another schedule's force is running (#189). See Exit and release.

1. Evening top-up¶

Force charge on weekday afternoons if SoC is below 80 %, up to 90 %.

Field	Value
Trigger type	Weekly at time, Days Mon–Fri, Fire at `16:00`, Duration (min) `60`
Battery action	Force charge / discharge / standby: Direction Force charge, Power unit kW, Power `2`, Target SoC `90`
Entry conditions (Match ALL)	Battery SoC (%) `<` `80`

How it behaves:

At 16:00 on a weekday the bridge checks SoC. Below 80 %, it starts the force charge at 2 kW. Otherwise it logs gated (once a day) and checks again every tick until 17:00.
The Target SoC stops the charge at 90 %: the bridge's own watchdog checks the last polled SoC every 5 seconds. An End early when… row Battery SoC (%) >= 90 does the same through the scheduler.
At 17:00 the window closes and the bridge releases the force if it is still running.
The form offers % of inverter power and kW. Watts are API only ("unit": "w").

2. Evening peak discharge until the minimum SoC¶

Discharge through the evening peak, stop at your floor, and never export the battery if your plan forbids it.

Field	Value
Trigger type	Daily at time, Fire at `17:00`, Duration (min) `240`
Battery action	Force charge / discharge / standby: Force discharge, kW, Power `5`
Entry conditions (Match ALL)	Battery SoC (%) `>` Lookup Const: min discharge SoC (%)
	Utility: battery export allowed `==` `1`
End early when… (Match ANY)	Battery SoC (%) `<=` Lookup Const: min discharge SoC (%)
Priority	`10`

How it behaves:

At 17:00 the bridge discharges at 5 kW if SoC is above the constant and the utility allows battery export. Utility: battery export allowed reads 1 when the utility does not set it, and has no value when the gateway's meter has no utility, which fails the gate.
When SoC reaches the constant, the exit closes the window: the force is released and the schedule does not fire again until tomorrow.
At 21:00 the window closes and the force is released if it is still running.
The aGate's own reserve still applies.
Recurring windows 17:00 → 21:00 would read more naturally, but a force in it stops after the hidden duration (#160).

3. Charge from the grid when the NEM spot price is low¶

Charge when the AEMO wholesale price drops below 5 c/kWh; stop when it rises to 8 c/kWh or the battery is full.

Needs: a NEM region (or a Home Assistant price entity) under Settings → Integrations.

Field	Value
Trigger type	Custom cron `/30 * * *`, Duration (min) `29`
Battery action	Force charge, % of inverter power, Power `60`
Entry conditions (Match ALL)	Wholesale spot price (AEMO NEM or HA entity, c/kWh) `<` `5`
	Battery SoC (%) `<` Lookup Const: max charge SoC (%)
Hold (HH:MM:SS)	`00:02:00`
End early when… (Match ANY)	Wholesale spot price `>=` `8`
	Battery SoC (%) `>=` Lookup Const: max charge SoC (%)

How it behaves:

Every half hour the schedule opens for 29 minutes. Each half hour is its own occurrence, so after an exit it can charge again in the next one.
Within a window it fires once the price has been below 5 c/kWh for two minutes in a row.
5 and 8 c/kWh are two thresholds on purpose: one would start and stop on every small price move.
Custom cron needs the croniter package; the trigger list says Custom cron — unavailable without it.
Without a region the gate fails. With a region, the last good price is kept however old it is if the bridge cannot reach AEMO; the Modbus Bridge drops a price after 30 minutes.

Why not Always (sensor-driven)?

An Always schedule fires once and then never again: its single occurrence is recorded as done (#190). See Triggers.

4. Storm forecast: fill the battery¶

Top the battery up when Open-Meteo reports a thunderstorm.

Needs: the PV latitude and longitude under Settings → Integrations.

Field	Value
Trigger type	Custom cron `0 * * * *`, Duration (min) `59`
Battery action	Force charge, % of inverter power, Power `60`, Target SoC `95`
Entry conditions (Match ALL)	Battery SoC (%) `<` `95`
	Weather: condition `like` `thunder`

How it behaves:

Each hour the schedule is open for 59 minutes. If the current weather is a thunderstorm and SoC is below 95 %, it charges to 95 %.
weather.condition is the current weather, refreshed with the forecast cache (about 15 minutes). The exact wording of the condition text is not documented here (unverified): press Test on a stormy day, or read the live value, before relying on *thunder*.
The WMO weather code is in the snapshot as weather.code but not in the picker; through the API a row weather.code in 95, 96, 99 works.
To keep the charge afterwards, add a second schedule with Force standby and the same weather gate. Set reserve SoC does not help: it never runs (#129).

5. Peak-demand window: shave imports using the Demand-Charge Min SoC¶

During the network's peak-demand window, discharge when the house imports more than 1 kW, but keep the battery above the demand-charge minimum.

Needs: a tariff with a demand window on the gateway's meter, and the demand-charge min SoC constant.

Field	Value
Trigger type	Custom cron `/30 * * *`, Duration (min) `29`
Battery action	Force discharge, kW, Power `2.5`
Entry conditions (Match ALL)	Tariff: in peak-demand window `==` `1`
	Grid power (W) `>` `1000`
	Battery SoC (%) `>` Lookup Const: demand-charge min SoC (%)
Hold (HH:MM:SS)	`00:01:00`
End early when… (Match ANY)	Tariff: in peak-demand window `==` `0`
	Battery SoC (%) `<=` Lookup Const: demand-charge min SoC (%)
Priority	`20`
If busy	`override`

How it behaves:

The one-minute hold ignores short load spikes.
Tariff: in peak-demand window has no value when the tariff defines no demand window, so the gate fails and the schedule does nothing (on the Modbus Bridge it reads 0).
Priority only decides between schedules that become ready on the same tick. If recipe 2 is already discharging, If busy decides: override takes the battery, defer skips this half hour, wait retries each tick.
Do not combine this with recipe 2 on one gateway. Each half-hour window end sends Release, which also ends recipe 2's discharge; and recipe 2's 21:00 window end releases this one (#189).
grid.power_w is positive when importing. Once the battery discharges, import drops, but the run continues: the gate is not checked again until the next half hour.

The Modbus Bridge's Peak-demand shaving template is not in this bridge; its Templates include Peak shaving (discharge at peak), a 16:00–21:00 force discharge with an SoC gate.

6. Weekend export, unless Home Assistant says you are away¶

Export the battery on Saturday and Sunday evenings, except when a Home Assistant helper says you are away.

Needs: a Home Assistant instance, with the helper exposed on the Home Assistant tab.

Field	Value
Trigger type	Weekly at time, Days Sat, Sun, Fire at `18:00`, Duration (min) `120`
Battery action	Force discharge, kW, Power `3`
Entry conditions (Match ALL)	your HA instance: `input_boolean.home_mode` `==` `1`
	Battery SoC (%) `>` `50`
End early when… (Match ANY)	Battery SoC (%) `<=` Lookup Const: min discharge SoC (%)

How it behaves:

On/off helpers read 1 (on) and 0 (off). Compare with 1 or 0, not true.
Prefer a helper that is on when it is safe to act (home_mode == 1) over away_mode == 0: the rule then reads as what must be true before the battery moves. An entity that is unavailable or unknown, or an instance that cannot be reached, has no value, so the gate fails either way (before 0.5.4 an unavailable entity read 0, #167).
To tell yourself, add a + notify Home Assistant action with the message Weekend export started at %battery.soc_pct%%.

7. Full by 07:00, starting as late as possible¶

Charge overnight so the battery is full at 07:00, but start only when the time left is about the time needed.

Not in this bridge as written. The Modbus Bridge's recipe gates on the hour of day (time.hour); this bridge has no time.* sensors. Build the ladder from one schedule per rung instead, each with its own cron hour:

Schedule	Trigger	Entry condition
Rung 06	Custom cron `/15 6 * *`, Duration (min) `14`	ETA to max-charge SoC at max rate (min) `>` `0`
Rung 05	Custom cron `/15 5 * *`, Duration (min) `14`	ETA to max-charge SoC at max rate (min) `>=` `60`
Rung 04	Custom cron `/15 4 * *`, Duration (min) `14`	ETA to max-charge SoC at max rate (min) `>=` `120`
Rung 00–03	Custom cron `/15 0-3 * *`, Duration (min) `14`	ETA to max-charge SoC at max rate (min) `>=` `180`

Each with Force charge and End early when… Battery SoC (%) >= Lookup Const: max charge SoC (%).

How it behaves:

Each 14-minute window ends with a release, and the next one re-checks a minute later.
battery.time_to_charge_min needs the battery capacity constant, and uses the Modbus client (this bridge)'s Model 702 rating, else the battery max power constant (default 5 kW). If you set a lower power, add margin.
The rungs never overlap in time, so the release at each window end does not cut another rung's force. A schedule from another recipe on the same gateway could still be cut.

More ideas¶

Goal	Sketch
Solar sponge	Templates → Solar sponge (charge midday): 11:00 for 240 minutes, force charge to 100 % while SoC is below 80 %.
Export bonus	Templates → Battery Bonus export (evening), or gate on `Tariff: in battery-export-bonus window == 1`.
Free-import window	Force charge with the gate `Tariff: import billable == 0`.
Alert on a timezone change	Not in this bridge: there is no `time.tz_ok` sensor. The schedules run on the site's clock read from the aGate; see Restarts and the clock.
Do nothing on a collar	Not in this bridge: there is no `gateway.battery_capable` sensor. Bind battery schedules to battery gateways.
Respect the plan	Add `Utility: battery export allowed == 1` to every discharge schedule.
Hold during a VPP event	Gate force schedules on `Under external control / VPP mode == 0`.

More examples (Direct Connect only)¶

These came from the old troubleshooting page and use this bridge's Templates.

Low-battery alert¶

Tell me when the battery drops below 20 %. No battery action.

Templates → Low battery alert (notify only) → Use.
Under Home Assistant actions, pick your notification device.
Tick Enabled and press Create Entry.

It is a Daily at time window from 00:00 for 1439 minutes, so it fires at most once a day, the first time SoC is below 20 %. The message uses %battery.soc_pct% for the live value. Between 23:59 and 00:00 the window is closed.

Notify at the start and end of the peak window¶

Templates → Peak window — notify start & end → Use.
Pick your notification device. The action's when is Entry & exit, so you get one message at 16:00 and one at 21:00.

The exit message is sent when the window closes whether or not the entry message went out (#189).

Overnight off-peak charge¶

Charge overnight on the cheap rate, only if the battery is below 50 %, up to 90 %. Needs the Modbus client (this bridge).

Templates → Off-peak charge (overnight) → Use.
Check the window: Fire at 01:00, Duration (min) 300.
Check the action: Force charge, 100 % of inverter power, Target SoC 90.
Tick Enabled and press Create Entry.

The force stops at 90 % or at 06:00, whichever comes first.

Time-of-Use at peak, then back to Self-Consumption¶

A mode change stays until something changes it, so this takes two schedules.

Templates → Time-of-Use at peak (only if charged) → Use. It switches to Time-of-Use at 16:00, only if SoC is above 50 %. Save it.
Add schedule. Trigger type: Daily at time, Fire at 21:00, Duration (min) 0. Battery action: Set operating mode, Self-Consumption. Save it.

A duration of 0 is a one-minute window. Alternatively give the first schedule a duration to 21:00 and set "restore_on_exit": true through the API: at the window's end the bridge puts back the mode it replaced. See Exit and release.

On/off actions saved before 0.5.5

Before 0.5.5 Off in the form ran as on: the circuit turned on, or the site went off-grid instead of reconnecting (#188, fixed in 0.5.5). If you had such a schedule, check what it did in History.