So I sometimes forget to turn on the dryer after putting clothes in it. Been trying to come up with a way to remind me if I didn’t turn it on. Since its a gas dryer I already have a smart plug to see if current is running thru it and an automation to tell me when its done. I also have a spare door/window sensor. Just not sure how to piece this all together with an automation. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
I think you may need another sensor, depending on what your habits are.
You need some way to figure out if there are clothes in the dryer. You can’t just rely on current not flowing and the door being closed, because that could happen even in an empty dryer.
Maybe put a smart weight/pressure sensor under one of the legs. Even it out with a shim on the other side to keep it even. Calibrate it with the weight of an empty dryer, and then if the weight increases and the dryer hasn’t started running trigger your automation.
Without the weight sensor, it might still work. You’re going to build a state machine. Create a “Dropdown” in the Helpers menu. Load it with the following values: idle, loading, loaded, running, done.
Create automations like this:
- when idle and door is opened, change the value to “loading”
- when the state is loading and then the door is closed, set it to loaded. Call a service to notify you if it stays in this state for too long. I think this is where the weight sensor comes in. If someone just opens and closes the door without putting anything in, you would receive spurious notifications.
- when the state is loaded and current starts flowing, set the state to running
- when the state is running and the current stops flowing, set the state to done. Call a service to notify you that it’s done.
- when the state is done and the door gets opened, change the state to idle. Someone has presumably emptied it and it’s ready for the next load