Help needed - Wife wants an automation, I can't figure out how

A recurring notification to unload the dishwasher would go over like a lead balloon around here.
I am all for a single notification that it finished but any more than that is more thought given to clean dishes than I need.

Still to each his own and and I like seeing the solutions proposed . I agree with Nick - if one of our kids had the chore of ensuring dishes were put away, bugging them with a notification (and flashing room lights at 2am :wink:) might be ok.

Just to clear things a bit, the main reason for wanting to make this automation is that my wife has vision problems, so opening the door and looking inside is not an option for her, she has to fully open the door, turn on the kitchen light and almost put her head inside the dishwasher to actually see the dishes clearly.
Now for the human interaction part that @kramttocs mentioned above, what I am thinking is a button (I have many of those in the house) pressing the button could flash the kitchen lights green if the dishes are clean and red if they are dirty.

You know for most of us having a smart home and all those automations is a luxury thing but for people with disabilities a smart home can really improve the quality of their life. Just imagine a person that has difficulties walking to have to get up from his chair, walk 20 steps to turn a light off and another 20 steps back to sit down again, I know people that need almost 10 min to do that. So if they could turn the light off without having to get up and spend time and effort doing so, it really improves their life.

An automation that sounds crazy an has no meaning for us could improve another persons life.

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Totally agree with you. There’s no point in making it an annoyance. I was thinking something quite gentle.

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My sympathies for your challenges.

Just to clarify further and to guide additional suggestions: Does that then also mean operating a mobile phone is problematic too (besides the simplest of interactions). I remember years ago (and probably still) there were specific devices for people that are vision impaired to at least be able to make calls more easily – that was before “smart assistants”. The reason I’m asking, is that any kind of push notification or actionable notifications would then be problematic too.

It seems like a light in a suitable place would then be a good idea, with a button (at the dishwasher) that can reset some state when pressed (i.e. “I’ve emptied the dishwasher”).

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You’re absolutely right and I am guilty of that. I was only thinking of this as a novelty thing. With the context of difficulty seeing the state of the dishes, this makes perfect sense and a worthwhile endeavor.

Since a colored light would do the job, I like the idea of a indicator light beside (recessed into the counter face?) the unit that could be always on or motion triggered. If your weight sensor and the logic works out, could even have various colors for things like half unloaded or half loaded.

In addition to a button if that kind of physical trigger is preferred, a dedicated kitchen aqara cube, or even one of those miltiscene light switches that has the switch on top and then 4 push buttons on the bottom.

catching up on this topic after a couple of weeks:

a vibration or “ping” might work better than a light for notification? maybe every 30 minutes?

also: you’re not limited to one sensor - or even one “value” on that sensor - to trigger an automation.

Combine the weight sensor with the door open sensor, and a “differential” helper - and you could work out how much weight is being removed /added from the dishwasher over what period of time when the door is open. (rather than it losing weight as the water is pumped in/out).

Combine the power sensor with the “door open” sensor, and you could determine whether the pots have been left too long, and will need re-washing? (or is that just clothes?)

Buy a smart washing machine :slight_smile: I use Bosch and use this add-in

This creates sensors for everything required !! ( expensive option )

Does it really?
Is there a sensor that says if it’s clean or dirty dishes in the machine?

No , but it will tell you when the last program completed and when the door was last opened .

You can use these triggers to make a very educated guess whether the dishes inside are clean or dirty.

Do they integrate as standard sensors?
Eg: can you access “door open” as a boolean? and - going back to several previous posts - will it tell you how far open the door has been - and for how long?

also, to quote the war cry of my home town: " !!! 'ow much!!???!!?? :scream: :scream: :scream:"

These are the sensors

image

The rest are switches which turn on the various programs ( I have only showed the first 10 , there are 30+)

Below is an example but any Home connect Bosch will have the above

see SMV4HVX38G | Bosch Dishwasher | 13 Place Settings | ao.com

I

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So nothing more than what a door sensor and a power meter would get. That has been dismissed by OP previously

Just ran some tests as this is quite an intriguing problem.

There is an issue with Home Connect integration. It will turn off the dish washer off after 10 mins inactivity, so the door sensor will only report its status when the dishwasher is on , not sure if this behaviour can be changed , will run some more tests , so at the moment without an accurate door sensor this is NOT the solution

Even for people that don’t have vision problems, this strategy can be trickier then it sounds. Once someone has been burned by a bad dishwasher that doesn’t clean well then they tend to really rinse the dishes before putting them in. To the point where dirty and clean dishes are not easily distinguishable in the dark space unless you lean in close or pull the shelf out into the light. It can be quite frustrating lol

Lucky you lol. I was thinking that would be the problem for me if I tried to use the “next time the tilt sensor detects it has been opened assume it is clean” strategy. We are constantly guilty of opening the door to the clean dishwasher, pulling out what we need for the current meal and then closing it back up to unload it later. Not a very automation friendly approach.

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We do rinse our dishes that they are almost clean when we set them in the dishwasher, but that is mostly because we don’t want bad smell in the machine.

But it doesn’t matter, I still find it very easy to see if it’s clean or dirty.

These stains are not there when it’s clean, and as soon as you start loading it with dishes they come back.
Even if I was to remove half the clean dishes it would still look clean.
But as soon as I put the first plate in the machine these stains come back.
You just can’t get around this unless you are actively trying to fool yourself.

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esp32-cam + frigate to detect the stains?

Why don’t you just empty the dishwasher when it’s done?

I mean I can’t speak for the OP. But that certainly wouldn’t work in my house because its usually done in the middle of the night. And yea I could do it in the morning - if I remember. It’s also not usually my first priority.

This ^ because until every plate has a sensor that can report location and clean/dirty status, something like this is going to require human discipline to avoid a situation where it’s half unloaded. Sure, people will get interrupted and create exceptions just like folding clothes but that’s just the way it is. Aim for “accurate most of the time”.