Event-based Devices¶

Some RF devices transmit only when something happens. Doorbells, remotes, buttons, contact sensors, and motion sensors do not behave like periodic weather sensors, so the integration models them differently.

Event Entities and Replay Suppression¶

Momentary RF devices such as remotes, doorbells, and key fobs are native Home Assistant event entities. Each genuine transmission fires one event whose type is the transmitted value. Event entities stay available between presses.

A doorbell device page showing an event entity with its most recent event type and the activity log of presses

On reconnect or Home Assistant restart, rtl_433 replays recent event history. Momentary events that occurred while Home Assistant was disconnected are not re-fired, so an old doorbell press cannot trigger automations late. Their latest readings still seed ordinary sensors.

Motion and Occupancy¶

Detect-only PIR sensors that send a trip but never an off become occupancy binary_sensor entities. The integration synthesizes the off state after a clear delay, defaulting to 90 seconds. The delay can be tuned per device in Device settings.

See Motion / occupancy for the mapping schema.