Home Automation

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Home automation is the residential extension of building automation.

It is automation of the home, housework or household activity.

Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), appliances, security locks of gates and doors and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security.

Warning: Working with electricity can result in injury, property damage, or even death if it is not done properly. Please keep this in mind while assisting others. If you are not sure about what you are doing, hire a licensed professional.

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Is there a device for this use case? (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I was curious if there is an automation device that can listen for a given cue like say the buzzer on a washer or dryer and use it to send notifications? I don’t even know what to call it to search for it on google…

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[–] jws_shadotak 2 points 10 months ago

I've no experience with any of this stuff but what if you hooked up a sensor inside the washer and dryer that uses the buzzer's electrical signal?

That might be easier and way less CPU insensitive than constantly listening for and identifying the sound.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You know, the rest of us are using a smart plug with energy metering to find out if the dryer is finished.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm curious what brand of smart plugs will notify you when power usage drops? Neither my Kasa nor DLinks have that ability.

Or do you have something else watching the power draw and detecting the drop?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Or do you have something else watching the power draw and detecting the drop?

This. I have never done it myself, but I would imagine this would be fairly trivial with home assistant. The plug reports it's power draw back to HA regularly, and HA has a trigger for when [a value] goes above/below [a certain figure].

So set something up like "Plug currently consumption falls below 5W, trigger notification."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Any ESP8266-based or Zigbee smartplug will do. If you get an ESP8266-based one, get one that comes with Tasmota preinstalled, then you don't need to open it up and flash it. Don't get an ESP32-based one.

If you run Tasmota or use a Zigbee plug, you need to do the detection in Home Assistant or Node-RED or whatever you're using. Personally I do it directly in ESPHome:

binary_sensor:
  - platform: analog_threshold
    id: machine_running
    name: "Washer running"
    icon: mdi:washing-machine
    sensor_id: power
    threshold: 5
    filters:
      - delayed_on_off: 60s

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Alexa can listen for certain sounds. iPhones can. HomePods can listen for fire alarms.

Or you could grab a raspberry pi and TensorFlow and make your own.