Help - I can't get the "Better Laundry Monitor" app to work

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1

I have a 240V dryer, with a 120V in-duct blower. The in-duct blower uses an air-pressure switch to turn on/off based on the blower in the dryer.

I have the air-pressure switch for the in-duct blower plugged into a Samsung SmartThings Outlet.

Looking at Samsung device in Hubitat, I can clearly detect power draw when the in-duct blower is running (about 32W). The power draw is 0 watts when the in-duct blower is not running, and about 10W when the door is open because there's a 10W appliance bulb inside the dryer chamber.

But I cannot get Better Laundry Monitor to send me a notification when the dryer is done. Would really appreciate some help with this. Based on the draw that I've measured, this is how I've setup Better Laundry Monitor.

Also - I should mention that the Alexa TTS is working fine for other notifications.

Thanks!

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Be sure and add the app or driver author, or the person that did the porting in your posts. In this case @ChrisUthe, so that way they'll be notified about your post and I'm sure will be happy to lend a hand.

I'd suggest breaking this down to the basics components to find the issue. Sounds like you've already looked at the driver details of the outlet and you are seeing a 32W draw. How about if you temporarily take Alexa TTS out of the app and instead assign a text message? Does that part work with this outlet?

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Thanks for the ping @SmartHomePrimer!

@aaiyar can you turnon debug logging, go over to the "Logs" area, start a cycle, wait a few moments, end the cycle and then copy paste the log output from just the Dryer Notification app (it's a tab) so we can see what it's up to?

I don't have any Alexa Devices, but I do have it successfully outputting to Pushover and Google Home devices (they happily announce that the washer/dryer is done). Your setup looks totally fine, having the fan as a proxy probably makes those readings more reliable, to be honest. The only thing you might see is if your dryer has a detangle mode or some other mode that doesn't blow air you might get told it's done prematurely. First thing first though, is getting notifications working!

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@SmartHomePrimer
Thank you for pinging @ChrisUthe - I will be sure to follow protocol in the future!

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@ChrisUthe

Will do so when I get home tonight. Thank you very much!

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If you are only dealing with your dryer than you might try this. It's built in RM though. For the dryer rule, I was able to remove the delay so now the TRUE action is jus the notification.

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@ChrisUthe

Hi - just got back home. I messed up and forgot to turn on debug for the app, and then remembered and turned it on. So the logs may seem unclear.

To clarify the logs, I have also attached the log for the dryer outlet itself - based on current draw you can tell when the dryer was turned on, and turns off.

I've also annotated the logs (hope that helps). I should also mention that the notification did not work. I'll try Pushover next.

Thanks for your help!

Dryer Outlet Log:

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Dryer Notification Log:

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Thanks for the logs @aaiyar what you're seeing makes sense, if you look at the dryer outlet log it only reports 0 watts once, and the dryer notification log says "hey I hit the delay once" but never gets a second 0 watt reading. Does your outlet have configuration available to specify how it sends updates?

It appears the Better Laundry app is working as designed, it just never gets a second notification that the power usage is 0. The outlet may only be reporting when there is a load.

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@ChrisUthe

Thank you.

I kind of figured that's what might be going on. So I set the number of reportings to be 0. It still doesn't work. Sadly, the outlet has no configuration options.

So, I'll setup a rule in RM where I refresh the outlet 5 times (20 secs apart) if the power becomes less than 5 watts. That should work, I think?

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For example, the Zooz ZEN15s only report 0 once.

Another strategy is to make the notification based on power threshold and time. That's what @Cobra's Message Central app does.

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Try setting it to 1, that should make it notify but might cause an early notification if it shuts down in the middle of the cycle.

Only sending 0 once make sense, makes it tricky in this application. You could indeed set up your RM rule, not sure if the outlet will respond as expected or not...

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@ChrisUthe I am also having a problem with notifications, but only with the push notification. The "Speak Via" is working, I get the TTS notification but no push notification. I do receive push notifications from other Hubitat apps.
In the debug logs I can see the text for the push notification message but it's never received...

app:8662020-01-13 12:42:14.365 pm infoState: false - Cycle Finished

app:8662020-01-13 12:42:10.414 pm [debug](http://192.168.1.10/installedapp/configure/866)Washer is done! Move laundry to dryer.

app:8662020-01-13 12:42:10.401 pm debugState: true

app:8662020-01-13 12:42:10.398 pm debugPower: 0W

app:8662020-01-13 12:41:51.700 pm debugWe hit delay 1 times

app:8662020-01-13 12:41:51.681 pm debugState: true

app:8662020-01-13 12:41:51.677 pm debugPower: 1W

app:8662020-01-13 12:40:10.461 pm debugState: true

app:8662020-01-13 12:40:10.458 pm debugPower: 531W

app:8662020-01-13 12:39:48.517 pm infoCycle started.

app:8662020-01-13 12:39:48.508 pm debugState: false

app:8662020-01-13 12:39:48.504 pm debugPower: 465W

app:8662020-01-13 12:38:47.736 pm debug1

app:8662020-01-13 12:38:47.712 pm debugUpdated with settings: [sendPushMessage:true, meter:Basement Washer, debugOutput:true, startThreshold:5.0, message:Washer is done! Move laundry to dryer., delayEnd:1, player:[Kitchen Sonos, Living Room Sonos, Master Sonos], endThreshold:2.0, speechOut:[Basement Echo Dot, Garage Echo Dot, Office Echo Spot]]

Thanks for your assistance.

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I know this is old, but I was also having trouble getting this to work with that Samsung outlet and found the solution; replace the generic driver with @srwhite ‘s Iris Smart Plug driver. It works with this plug and gives configuration options and now Better Laundry Monitor works perfectly.

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@ChrisUthe or anyone else, is the app working for you after upgrading to 2.1.8.117? It was working for me (except the push notification) up until I upgraded. No changes to app settings...

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Now, the log entries stop after the app hits the delay...no notifications.

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No problems here. Working perfectly since I started using @srwhite 's iris driver with my Samsung plug.

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Mine stopped working too, but I think in a different way. Mine says cycle done, and updates the time in the app, but never announces.

I haven't had the time (or done laundry when I can track this) so I can't figure out if it is this app, or Echo Speaks, a Hubitat update, or something else entirely.

I want to say that something changed between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I didn't notice until a couple weeks ago. It was one of those "hmm, didn't the washer used to do that?" moments.

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24 days ago I merged in a Pull request from @dman2306 (dcmeglio)

You can use github's history to grab the 1.4.4 version to compare. :slight_smile:

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Still works fine for me. I get a notification and my echo announces to the kids “Hey. Hey you. Check this out... Your laundry is done washing”

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There are three 'monitor methods' within BLM (Better Laundry Monitor) and it's possible you're using one that is just fine and @neonturbo is using another one :smiley: Reverting to a previous version is just a diagnostic tool (from my viewpoint, anyway.) :smiley:

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I was just giving a data point, albeit not a very descriptive one. I am using a Samsung (2018) plug with the Iris driver (shackrat) using default settings on the driver. I send notifications from the app to my mobile. I announce from ES on my ST account via HubConnect and mirror the virtual switch "Wash is done" to be the trigger for the ES actions app. These are my threshold settings:

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EDIT: I forgot to mention that I am on the latest version of ES and HE. I hope that is more helpful for someone.

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