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Is It Dry Yet?

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Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#91

Post by secabeen »

badgerbbbadger wrote: post #65
xandrius wrote: post #24

This seems exactly the same approach as the rice cooker post. Maybe inspired? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39902207

It wasn't inspired but thanks for the link! If I had known of the device notification integration, I would have just used that instead of trying to roll my own logic :D

You also can take a lot of it out of the manual config by creating an input_select with various options to track the operational state of the dryer (Off, Drying, Finished), then use traditional automations to trigger switches between opstates and notifications based on opstate change. There are many threads on the HA forums and community about how to do this.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#92

Post by birdman3131 »

Now I understand using HA if you are trying to keep it all off the internet but this is all doable in the shelly app itself.

May be a better way of doing it but off hand you can do it with 2 scenes.

Scene 1. If power consumption > 100w for 5 minutes turn scene 2 on.

Scene 2. If power draw less than 5w for more than a minute. send notification to phone. Turn off scene 2.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#93

Post by MisterBiggs »

jchw wrote: post #72

I've wanted to do this sort of thing for a while, but I am a bit concerned about using many of the smart plugs on the market with large motors, and I assume most dryers contain a fairly large electric motor (not sure how large.) I'm in the midwest U.S., so my dryer is a gas dryer; so presumably, the only real thing being driven off the electricity is indeed a micro-controller and a fairly large motor of some kind. I…

I tried automating a portable A/C unit using a smart plug and I can confirm that the large power draw will eventually burn them out. The post does mention Shelly which is a brand I would trust for this sort of thing assuming they have a product with the right rating.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#94

Post by js2 »

jchw wrote: post #72

I've wanted to do this sort of thing for a while, but I am a bit concerned about using many of the smart plugs on the market with large motors, and I assume most dryers contain a fairly large electric motor (not sure how large.) I'm in the midwest U.S., so my dryer is a gas dryer; so presumably, the only real thing being driven off the electricity is indeed a micro-controller and a fairly large motor of some kind. I…

Some folks have success with vibration sensors:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/blue-print-to-work-wit...

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#95

Post by thechao »

NortySpock wrote: post #90

For those wanting this convenience on a dumb washing machine, I used a single smart plug flashed with Tasmota firmware to monitor when the power draw dropped to zero. Notifications through Home Assistant. Not affiliated, just a happy customer of: https://cloudfree.shop/product/cloudfree-smart-plug-runs-tas...

CloudFree is great, but I wish I'd been able to pitch the name 'clearsky' to them. I hate, I do mean loathe, all of these cloudy smart things. So... I'm pretty pleased you posted this. Now, I just gotta figure out what the heck "Tasmota" is.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#96

Post by fragmede »

valicord wrote: post #87

Not to knock other people's hobbies, but our dryer plays a loud jingle when done, no Internet connection required. Do other models not have this feature?

How loud is that jingle, and how small is your house? for some, the dryer is located in a basement, far away enough that no such jingle, or buzzer can be heard in the rest of the house.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#97

Post by time0ut »

Cool hack and enjoyable read.

The smart plug idea is slick. I like the idea of decoupling the smart from the appliance. I'd much rather all my appliances be dumb.

In the US, you'd have to get a 240 volt smart plug. Are there any reputable ones?

For the laundry use case, I just set an alarm on my phone though...

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#98

Post by jchw »

chongli wrote: post #81
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and instead use other methods to either measure current or implement switching. Yeah, I keep meaning to look at clamp style measurement. That doesn't give you control, of course, but I'm mostly interested in finding out how much power larger appliances are actually using (my dryer is pure electric).

A current clamp meter will not tell you anything unless you break out the individual wires you want to measure. Having both live and neutral running through the clamp will cause the electric field of the neutral to cancel out the field of the live whenever the device draws current, so the meter will be unable to read anything.

This isn't too big of a deal since at least around here, appliances tend to be wired with screw terminals. So, in a lot of cases there actually is a separate place to measure hot and neutral without any terrible hacks. (Not sure if that applies to my dryer, though: I should check.)

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#99

Post by astura »

valicord wrote: post #87

Not to knock other people's hobbies, but our dryer plays a loud jingle when done, no Internet connection required. Do other models not have this feature?

Most do, but basements and garages are a common location for dryers, both are usually out of the way enough that it's very difficult to hear the sound in the living quarters.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#100

Post by mbil »

badgerbbbadger wrote: post #66
mbil wrote: post #31

Hah, this reminds me of one of the first programs I wrote for personal use. My Macbook at the time had an accelerometer or gyro of some kind. So I made a program to monitor the output from that sensor, and it would send me an email when the motion stopped. I'd run the program, set the laptop on top of my running dryer, and go upstairs. In retrospect it was probably not smart to leave a laptop on top of the dryer for…

This is one of the most bodgy things I've come across and I love it! Did you end up replacing it with something else?

Ended up just replacing it with a timer, which was good enough. The main reason was that I wanted to use my computer while the laundry was drying.
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