Flume integration

⚙️ Custom Apps and Drivers
102

I like having it, but I'm torn on whether it is a novelty or something critical.

I will say that it has impressed me with its ability to catch a few slow leaks (like a leaky faucet or a hose nozzle left on).

It hasn't paid back in cost savings like a thermostat or energy monitor might, but it is still useful insight. And I really like having the peace of mind that Flume would be able to alert me about a water leak when I was away from home, which I'd be blind to otherwise.

So, it's cool if you're already adding things like it to your setup because you enjoy the hobby.

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103

I love it. That said, would I have purchased it if my local water company didn't subsidize most of it... Probably, but not definitely.

I especially like it when I'm filling/topping off the pool, as there is basically no way I could forget to turn it off since it lights up like a Xmas tree.

I also like being able to look when I'm out of town and know for sure water is OK. That coupled with an automatic water shutoff and leak sensors gives me high confidence.

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105

I certainly like mine and it definitely has helped setting and meeting water budget goals which is important as we live in the highest water cost area in my state. The community driver works well for integrating with my shutoff valve in case of a leak.

I am a little concerned about the reliability. In my case 2 out of the 1st 3 months of usage has resulted in the meter to just stop capturing and reporting data and both times support has pushed a firmware update to fix the problem. They promised this last one would be a permanent fix so I'm hoping those problems are behind me.

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106

It helped me identify a leak in my irrigation system. I'm not sure how much money that actually saved me but I'm grateful to have found and fixed it.

I purchased the Flume 1 and after I replaced the batteries for the first time it died shortly after. They offered me a discount on a replacement, but it was super disappointing that it would fail so soon. I've only had the Flume 2 for a couple of months now, so we'll see how long this one lasts. My first Flume was subsidized by my water company, so I didn't feel too bad about paying for a replacement. If I had to pay full price for both, I might not have replaced it.

Though, eventually I would like to get a valve controller to shut off my main source. If Flume detects a leak or any of my leak sensors are wet, shut off water. Water damage is no fun and very expensive to fix, so assuming I can get this all working in concert, the money will definitely be worth it.

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107

My Flume 2 arrives today - am very excited about the possibilities. I have a bulldog smart valve and will be creating some "rules" to handle leak situations.

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108

Okay to report back - wow that was easy. No issues with set up, seems to be monitoring the water flow just fine.

Created a few sequences in Node-RED (I use that for my rules) and now if the "device" shows as "wet" I close my water main valve and send a warning email. Also I set the Flume "presence" based on my presence detection routines, such as they are...

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109

I think I'm being dense, but can you please explain the "water - wet/dry" attribute a bit more?

I haven't paid attention to it thus far, but I see mine's "wet" right now... No leaks detected and water hasn't been running since morning showers earlier.

What triggers it going to "wet"? And should it likewise somehow reset to "dry" on its own, or does that always have to be done by pressing the "Clear Wet Status" button in the device details page?

Thanks in advance - I'll say it again, this integration is really awesome!

110

I thought the HE device wet/dry reports "wet" when Flume detects a flow rate greater than the configured parameters set at installation (plus maybe some smart monitoring as well). Once triggered it has to be cleared unlike a traditional leak sensor which automatically goes back to "dry".

Have there been any alerts on your Flume app recently?

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111

That's what it is based on:

// check for Flume Smart Leak alerts            
            if(true == alert.flume_leak)
            {
                sendEvent(name: "water", value: "wet")
            }

One oddity because of how their API works is that when you create a new Virtual Device (or re-Configure your existing one, for example by changing a device setting and saving), there's a "catch-up" process that my driver runs to make sure the Hubitat driver is in sync with the Flume notification system.

So, if you have an old leak notification that you haven't cleared in the Flume app and you Configure your Virtual Device in Hubitat, you'll see "wet". Running the clearWetStatus command will make it "dry" again, and unless you Configure the device in Hubitat again that particular notification won't show back up.

If you get "wet" subsequently, then it means that Flume reported a smart leak notification. I have seen these with drippy faucets and a hose that was left on, for example.

EDIT: @hydro311 for visibility on my reply.

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112

Thank you @tomw and @erktrek for your insights!

All of my app notifications were cleared out, so nothing there... Though I added Flume to HE a while ago, I haven't actually done anything with it until yesterday and now I suspect I crossed some wires as I mashed buttons and tested stuff pretty willy-nilly... On top of that, there was a brief cloud outage on Flume's end while I was doing all this that broke reporting-communication in both the app and API integration, so maybe that left something stuck when it came back up.

Anyhoo, it all seems to be working fine... I think I'll just manually clear that wet status and see how it goes... I'll do some more disciplined leak & flow alerts testing sometime soon to verify.

Thanks again! :+1:

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113

I noticed in the Flume monthly report email they show the battery level. Is that something that could be added to the driver?

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114

Good suggestion. I see some info about the battery in the response (battery_level=high), but they don't document it in their API so I wouldn't know what the levels are called and how to translate them roughly to percentages.

I'll contact their support team to see if they can provide more info so that I can add it.

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115

Well, as always their support team responded quickly and was helpful.

But the data available isn't great- they only report high, medium, or low, and it sounds like it is expected to be high the majority of the time because the Flume app will start notifying you to replace the batteries any time it hits medium.

I could see doing this a few different ways:

  • Just don't support capability "Battery" because there isn't enough fidelity in the information reported. I am leaning toward this option.
  • Do support it, and translate high/med/low to something like 100%/<some value>/0%, where "some value" is an appropriately low value that it would trigger most people's battery monitoring routines to spur some action.

What are your thoughts on how to best handle this? Also interested input from others in this thread like @JasonJoel, @erktrek, @scunny, @augoisms.

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116

Thanks for checking that out! I feared it would just be hi/med/lo, so it is what it is. I'm leaning toward not adding it too - just not worth it. Thanks again!

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117

That's a tricky one! I guess I would like to see some sort of indicator so I can include with my other battery notifications even if I have to tweak the input. On the other hand invalid battery status levels will likely cause confusion for future adopters and are nearly (but not quite) meaningless...

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118

I know this wont fit the "Battery" capability, but maybe create an attribute "BatteryLevel" (or something) that reports a string; High, Medium, Low.

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119

I wouldn't support the battery capability on this one. But I'm just one voice.

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120

Same here, I would not have a use for the battery level without it being a little more accurate/informative. I understand the latest version has a much improved battery life and I think has the option to include a 2nd battery.

I monitor my usage almost daily and would notice if the data stopped recording which would alert me to dig deeper and find a low battery condition.

Thanks again for your effort on this project. We sometimes have a flapper issue on a specific toilet and this has saved me more than once by closing my shutoff valve as we're in the highest water cost district in my state.

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121

I agree with you guys. I also like @kampto's suggestion to expose the H/M/L as a custom string attribute, just in case it is interesting to anyone. I will likely go with that when I make my next update.

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122

I received an email from Flume about a new program called Flume Insight. Seems like they are going to offer a subscription package to get the features we now have but current users will be grandfathered in. Anyone else know more about this?