Need help with tracking my washing machine status

Configuration
18

Hi @derrick1985. It seems like automating the notification of washer/dryer status is a common desire! I found your post, and am attempting to adjust it for use with an Edimax switch which I bought a while back hoping to use the power monitoring aspect for this purpose, and am finally getting around to trying to implement it.

I’m stuck trying to understand what this binary_sensor is for. I can’t find any references as to how you defined it. Is it just part of your config that you just forgot to include in your post? Any reason you couldn’t just use a sensor.washer_average_watts_mean trigger with a below: 5 state?

Thanks for sharing your code!

19

Trying out a bit of this and the weird thing is I can take the code from the sensor and paste it into the template and it shows the time, but the sensor always says 0 seconds. I even cut out all the ifs just to see if it was dropping out to the static 0 for some odd reason. One minor piece driving me nuts.

  - platform: template
    sensors:
      dryer_doortime:
        friendly_name: "Door Open Time"
        value_template: >
          {{ relative_time(states.automation.dryer_door_stopwatch.attributes.last_triggered) }}
20

Never used relative_time before, but just tested on 0.70.1 and I get nothing returned, even in the template…
Bug?

21

Tried a couple different templates I found on the forums to do a simple stopwatch. Trying to do sensor showing a time of the current state of a sensor that is either “Drying” or “Door Open”, which turned out to be a mess of not working. Think I’ll just abandon and go with my original idea and just add it to my Nodered flow I have of dryer/washer notifications, have it push back a time in a loop every minute or something like that.

22

looks a bit complicated, but it works:
{{(as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(states.sensor.upstairs_temperature.last_updated | default(0))) | timestamp_custom("%d")|int-1}} Days {{(as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(states.sensor.upstairs_temperature.last_updated | default(0))) | timestamp_custom("%H")|int-1}} Hours {{(as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(states.sensor.upstairs_temperature.last_updated | default(0))) | timestamp_custom("%M")|int}} Minutes ago

23

Think I recall finding another post of yours with that template but it was showing like 30 days for some odd reason when I threw it in the test template deal on the config page. I’ll give it a go in the yaml though and see what happens. On the list for tonight unless my Aliexpress package of goodies gets delivered…

1 Like
24

Showing Unknown if I paste it into the sensor template config, but in the templates tester page it shows the 30 days thing. When check the actual trigger time it shows a few seconds ago.

  - platform: template
    sensors:
      dryer_doortime:
        friendly_name: "Door Open Time"
        value_template: >
          {{(as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(states.automation.dryer_door_stopwatch.attributes.last_triggered | default(0))) | timestamp_custom("%d")|int-1}} Days {{(as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(states.automation.dryer_door_stopwatch.attributes.last_triggered | default(0))) | timestamp_custom("%H")|int-1}} Hours {{(as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(states.automation.dryer_door_stopwatch.attributes.last_triggered | default(0))) | timestamp_custom("%M")|int}} Minutes ago
1 Like
25

Somehow I had to subtract 1 for the day. Try and replace int-1 with int and see if it’s better

26

Sorry for the thread bump but google directs me here.
I used (parts of) the code above to detect the status of my washing machine and run a stopwatch.
The code above is unfortunatly not compatible anymore with the current home assistant.
So I want to give back to the community and post my endresult here. (it works stable for me for over a year now)

Setup:
I use a Sonoff power monitor with tasmota to monitor the current of the washing machine. But any power-sensor should do.
I want to see if the washing machine is currenly on, and if so for how long (so I could estimate if it was almost done or not)
And get a notification when it was done off course :slight_smile:

I also have a dryer and to monitor that one I duplicated and renamed everything, You can do that too so I’m not going to post everything twice :wink:

Sensor setup
Add the following template sensor (the 10 and 18 values are watts and might need tuning for your device)

      - platform: time_date
          display_options:
            - 'time_date'

      - platform: mqtt
        state_topic: "tele/sonoff-pow1/SENSOR"
        name: "Washing machine power usage"
        unit_of_measurement: 'W'
        value_template: "{{value_json['ENERGY'].Power }}"

      - platform: template
        sensors:
            washing_machine_power_down:
              value_template: "{{ states('sensor.washing_machine_power_usage') | int < 10 }}"

            washing_machine_power_up:
              value_template: "{{ states('sensor.washing_machine_power_usage') | int > 18 }}"

            washing_machine_stopwatch:
              friendly_name: "Time Elapsed"
              value_template: >-
                {% if is_state('input_boolean.washing_machine_switch', 'on') and as_timestamp(strptime(states.sensor.time_date.state, "%H:%M, %Y-%m-%d")) > 0 %}
                  {{ (as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(states.automation.washing_machine_start.attributes.last_triggered)) | timestamp_custom("%H:%M", false) }}
                {% elif is_state('input_boolean.washing_machine_switch', 'off') %}
                  Idle
                {% elif is_state('sensor.washing_machine_stopwatch', 'unknown') %}
                  Unknown
                {% else %}
                  {{ states('sensor.washing_machine_stopwatch') }}
                {% endif %}

Input boolean
Add the following input to make a simple on/off status.

    input_boolean:
      washing_machine_switch:
        name: "Washer in Use"
        icon: mdi:settings

Automation
The first automation is to detect a “start”, the second one is to detect the completion/stop of the washing machine.
In my case I use a telegram notification to notify me, but you could replace it with anything else.

    # ----------- Notification when washing machine is done -----------
    - alias: "Washing Machine Start"
      trigger:
        platform: state
        entity_id: sensor.washing_machine_power_up
        from: 'False'
        to: 'True'
        for: '00:01:00'
      condition:
        condition: state
        entity_id: input_boolean.washing_machine_switch
        state: 'off'
      action:
        - service: input_boolean.turn_on
          entity_id: input_boolean.washing_machine_switch

    - alias: "Washing Machine Finish Notification"
      trigger:
        - platform: state
          entity_id: sensor.washing_machine_power_down
          from: 'False'
          to: 'True'
          for: '00:03:00'
      condition:
        condition: state
        entity_id: input_boolean.washing_machine_switch
        state: 'on'
      action:
        - service: notify.TELEGRAM_NOTIFY_XXXXXXX
          data:
            title: "*Washing Done*"
            message: "Please move laundry to dryer\r\nTime Taken: {{ states('sensor.washing_machine_stopwatch') }}"
        - service: input_boolean.turn_off
          entity_id: input_boolean.washing_machine_switch

Customize config
Hide some values we do not need to see (but need for coding)

    sensor.washing_machine_power_down:
      hidden: true
    sensor.washing_machine_power_up:
      hidden: true

Group config
Combine all values neatly together

    laundry_room:
      name: Laundry
      view: no
      control: hidden
      entities:
        - input_boolean.washing_machine_switch
        - sensor.washing_machine_power_usage
        - sensor.washing_machine_stopwatch
10 Likes
27

Really nice job on this one. I switched my automations to Node-Red a little while ago so this was a bit of a blast to see it re-coded. Looks nice and tidy compared to how I had it.

1 Like
28

don’t forget to also add a date_time sensor.

  • platform: time_date
    display_options:
    • ‘time’
      #- ‘date’
      #- ‘date_time’
    • ‘time_date’
      #- ‘time_utc’
      #- ‘beat’
29

Good point! I’ve added it to the example.

30

How are you tracking run time in Node Red? I’m looking at setting this up myself but am quite stumped on this piece…

Can you post your flow by chance?

31

Sure, here ya go. It’s not perfect but it works. The way i’m tracking runtime is with the interval length function. I ping it when the washer starts and ping it again when it stops (which is relayed through my current sensing Wemo plug; tracking the power of the washer) and when the interval length receives the second ping it outputs the time between the two pings.

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node_red_flow
node_red_flow1147×450 55.2 KB

1 Like
32

Awesome, thanks! This gives me a great reference to work from!

33

So I’m running into a weird issue with the interval length node…

I’m doing almost exactly what you’ve done here, but the interval length node appears to trigger whenever a start or stop of the washer occurs… this leads to some strange behavior where when it goes from a stopped to a started state… I get notified for the interval between the last time it was stopped and the new start time… which obviously tends to be a really long time…

Am I doing something wrong here? I attempted to reset the interval length node… but that doesn’t solve the issue either…

34

Nevermind… I think I realized I can’t do exactly what I want with the interval length node…

I switched to tracking everything with a counter and it resolved my issue.

Thanks again!

35

Hi!

The config works awesome, except the time estimate. I always receive an error in HA.

“Could not render template Time Elapsed, the state is unknown.”

The date_time sensor is created and I have no idea whats the problem.

36

Hi, I’m glad to see that people are (still) using my creation :slight_smile:
I still use it in the latest home assistant and it is working for me so I suspect a some config error.

Can you check if the following line renders in on the template test page? /developer-tools/template

{{ (as_timestamp(now()) - as_timestamp(states.automation.washing_machine_start.attributes.last_triggered)) | timestamp_custom("%H:%M", false) }}

If you change any name of a switch/automation you need to update all references to it.

Oh and it is “time_date” sensor instead of “date_time” sensor. But I think you just mixed up that when typing your message.

37

Thank you for your answer. I renamed the automation states.automation.washing_machine_start and that is the problem.

Now works perfect. Thank you again!

1 Like