I was toying with how to remind myself to put the right bin out at the right time. Although its generally the same schedule every week, I would still occasionally forget.
I used to be able to html scrape a local council page for the next date, but they changed supplier and that’s now gone 
Instead I created a new Google Calendar for each bin (and made the colour match the bin, naturally…)
To do so click the + next to calendar, choose New Calendar and give it a Name and Colour
Follow the guide here on how to get Google Calendars into HA. You can choose to track or not track all the other calendars it brings in. I use this for lots of things from guest mode to travel sensors, wfh modes and other bits and bobs. Its quite powerful.
Once you’ve got the calendars into HA as sensors (calendar.blue_bin, calendar.black_bin etc) you can then build up on it.
To start with you’ll probably need to make recurring all day appointments in Google. If like me you don’t want to use the powerful tagging to create offsets as outlined in the HA docs you’ll want a trigger sensor to turn on some time the evening before.
I do this by making two template sensors: (25200 seconds is 7 hours, so the sensor triggers at 5pm)
- platform: template
sensors:
blue_bin_offset:
friendly_name: "blue bin offset"
entity_id: binary_sensor.bins_offset_trigger
value_template: >
{% if as_timestamp(states.calendar.blue_bin.attributes.start_time) - as_timestamp( strptime(states.sensor.date__time.state, "%Y-%m-%d, %H:%M" ) ) < 25200 %}on{% else %}off{% endif %}
- platform: template
sensors:
green_bin_offset:
friendly_name: "green bin offset"
entity_id: binary_sensor.bins_offset_trigger
value_template: >
{% if as_timestamp(states.calendar.green_bin.attributes.start_time) - as_timestamp( strptime(states.sensor.date__time.state, "%Y-%m-%d, %H:%M" ) ) < 25200 %}on{% else %}off{% endif %}
We’ll also need an input_boolean to stop notifying when we’ve actually put the things out. We’ll turn it on later.
bins_out:
name: Bins Out
icon: mdi:delete-empty
EDIT: We also need a time of day sensor to trigger updating the offset sensors or they will stay dormant.
- platform: tod
name: Bins Offset Trigger
after: '17:00'
before: '20:00'
Now we have the triggers we need automations to kick off to notify me. They check if the bins are already out (maybe i remembered earlier, or maybe between reminders?) Note in the iOS notification action the data -> push we’ll set that up shortly.
- id: '1529959662644'
alias: Green Bin Reminder
trigger:
- entity_id: sensor.green_bin_offset
platform: state
to: 'on'
condition:
- condition: state
entity_id: input_boolean.bins_out
state: 'off'
action:
- data:
message: The GREEN Bin needs to go out
title: Bin Day!
data:
push:
category: greenbins
service: notify.ios_phill
- id: '1529959662643'
alias: Blue Bin Reminder
trigger:
- entity_id: sensor.blue_bin_offset
platform: state
to: 'on'
condition:
- condition: state
entity_id: input_boolean.bins_out
state: 'off'
action:
- data:
message: The BLUE Bin needs to go out
title: Bin Day!
data:
push:
category: bluebins
service: notify.ios_phill
OK so the actions bit, the greenbins and bluebins category. We’ll need to set that up. I don’t really understand the bit below title though… the identifier is the event pushed back to HA, the title is the label in the notification when you force push it to see more detail.
ios:
push:
categories:
- name: Blue Bins
identifier: 'bluebins'
actions:
- identifier: 'BINS_OUT'
title: 'Bins are out'
activationMode: 'background'
authenticationRequired: yes
destructive: yes
behavior: 'default'
- identifier: 'BLUE_REMIND_LATER'
title: 'Remind me later'
activationMode: 'background'
authenticationRequired: yes
destructive: no
- name: Green Bins
identifier: 'greenbins'
actions:
- identifier: 'BINS_OUT'
title: 'Bins are out'
activationMode: 'background'
authenticationRequired: yes
destructive: yes
behavior: 'default'
- identifier: 'GREEN_REMIND_LATER'
title: 'Remind me later'
activationMode: 'background'
authenticationRequired: yes
destructive: no
When one of the actions is tapped we’ll need automations to pick that up and do stuff
One to change the input_boolean.bins_out Note is sends an acknowledgement back for peace of mind.
- id: '1529960481866'
alias: Bins are out boolean changer
trigger:
- event_data:
actionName: BINS_OUT
event_type: ios.notification_action_fired
platform: event
condition: []
action:
- data:
entity_id: input_boolean.bins_out
service: input_boolean.turn_on
- data:
message: Bin notification received.
service: notify.ios_phill
And we’ll need the remind later automations which kick of scripts to delay kicking off the reminder notifications manually (instead of the sensor triggering them)
- id: '1529960481868'
alias: Blue Bin Remind in an hour
trigger:
- event_data:
actionName: BLUE_REMIND_LATER
event_type: ios.notification_action_fired
platform: event
condition: []
action:
- data:
entity_id: script.blue_bin_in_an_hour
service: script.turn_on
- data:
message: OK I will remind you in an hour.
service: notify.ios_phill
- id: '1529960481869'
alias: Green Bin Remind in an hour
trigger:
- event_data:
actionName: GREEN_REMIND_LATER
event_type: ios.notification_action_fired
platform: event
condition: []
action:
- data:
entity_id: script.green_bin_in_an_hour
service: script.turn_on
- data:
message: OK I will remind you in an hour.
service: notify.ios_phill
Here are the basic scripts that do those delays:
blue_bin_in_an_hour:
alias: Remind about Blue Bins in an hour
sequence:
- delay: 01:00
- data:
entity_id: automation.blue_bin_reminder
service: automation.trigger
green_bin_in_an_hour:
alias: Remind about Green Bins in an hour
sequence:
- delay: 01:00
- data:
entity_id: automation.green_bin_reminder
service: automation.trigger
Now all that’s needed is a second trigger on the day in case i just ignore the reminder (although i could nag by simply starting the script again each time it finishes?) Note the 5am script means it triggers an hour later at 6am.
- alias: Remind green bin at 6am
trigger:
- at: 05:00
platform: time
condition:
- condition: state
entity_id: input_boolean.bins_out
state: 'off'
- condition: state
entity_id: calendar.green_bin
state: 'on'
action:
- data:
entity_id: script.green_bin_in_an_hour
service: script.turn_on
id: d6581bd23a8e4c01a60428b84cdb7985
- alias: Remind blue bin at 6am
trigger:
- at: 05:00
platform: time
condition:
- condition: state
entity_id: input_boolean.bins_out
state: 'off'
- condition: state
entity_id: calendar.blue_bin
state: 'on'
action:
- data:
entity_id: script.blue_bin_in_an_hour
service: script.turn_on
id: d6581bd23a8e4c01a60428b84cdb7986
How can this be improved? Well it would be nice to automate the bins_out boolean by possibly using beacon locations or machine learning camera images but the bins get moved around. I worry the beacons woudl get knocked off or the bins swapped.
Any other improvement ideas? Steps I’ve missed? Shout!
EDIT: Forgot how the boolean gets turned off.
Firstly there is a group of bins
bin_group:
entities:
- calendar.blue_bin
- calendar.green_bin
Then there’s an automation on it turning off
- id: '1530193864185'
alias: Bins in when Bins in
trigger:
- entity_id: group.bin_group
platform: state
to: 'off'
condition: []
action:
- data:
entity_id: input_boolean.bins_out
service: input_boolean.turn_off
EDIT 2: forgot a condition on the 6am reminder that meant they always triggered.