I have a Moen touchless water faucet in my kitchen sink which turns on based on motion control. it’s not a smart faucet though.
id like set up an automation to turn in the light above the kitchen sink if the faucet turns on and it’s dark outside. this usually happens when someone starts to do dishes and having additional light would be incredible.
Is there a way to set up a binary sensor that can tell if the faucet is on? Whenever I search for faucet sensor, I either find Flow Meters, which are pretty expensive and designed to be used to measure whole house usage, or I find leak detectors, which isn’t quite what I’m looking for.
A time of flight sensor using ESPHome could detect if someone is standing at the sink and would not suffer the issues of no significant movement, like a PIR. A small box behind the sink pointing to where someone would be standing, and a way to power it (5v power plug).
You need to know the flow rate (see how long it takes to fill a 1L jug at the lowest detectable flow rate you want), pipe size and maximum pressure to make a good selection. Again, 5V power is needed as well as good wifi coverage.
The smaller flow sensor seems like a simple option and is preferable to a time of flight sensor since it would be based on the water moving instead of just someone in the area. It’ll also be nice and hidden under the sink.
I’m confused about how the ESP board connects to the pulse sensor. I’m happy to DIY but this would be my first time using ESPHome. Do i need to cut off the plug of the flow sensor and then solder the wires to the board?
Soldering is the most reliable. However if you can ensure that the cables are not subject to vibration or moisture you can use DuPont jumper cables to connect from the ESP (buy one with pre-soldered header pins) and the sensor.
I’ve been very disappointed with the Chinese ESP boards lately. There seems to be a race to the bottom going on with really bad component choices to reduce cost.