WOW, I did not expect such a response rate on this. Seems like laundry is something we all do!
@HAL9000 -- I think a dedicated app might be a bit of an overkill for me. My washing machine notification needs are fairly basic and so far I've noticed that when off, it's at 0W, when it's on, but not working it's between 1-3W, when doing any sort of movement, it's above that.
So given this, I copied with pride @ogiewon's rule. The laundry is on as I write it, so it will be put to test in less than an hour.
Believe me, you don't want your stuff to poke you. See, my cat when he wants something (go outside, food, some love), he butts me with his head. This gets real tedious real fast. Now after I got an Apple Watch and set alarms, the alarms get real tedious real fast. I get real tired of things poking me.
Absolutely! The key point I was making was that a simple threshold (which is what you were starting with in the original post) wasn't going to work. The rule would have to be a little smart so that a single low power observation won't trigger it. @ogiewon added those smarts with a cancellable delay.
Looks like you got something figured out already. In case anyone finds this by searching and wants to see yet another option, I thought I'd share mine. This uses a "new" paradigm staff began suggesting a while back where the trigger is a specific event and the actions use "Wait..." to subscribe to something else after that (rather than a single "changed" trigger and an IF THEN/ELSE), but either should work:
@bertabcd1234, I was really hoping that you'd chime in with this 'new' simpler method! I am going to try your design, as I believe it to be more elegant. What is less obvious to many users is that the triggering of this rule again, will cancel any pending 'Wait' actions, correct?
looks good want to try this with a zooz zen15, a couple of questions the one minute wait for event would seem to imply that your fill cycle only takes one minute? That seems a little low to me?
You may have to adjust the time for your washer, but this is what I figured out worked for mine. Either the usage does not report as below 20 W during that time or any such usage (e.g., while filling for the rinse cycle) lasts less than 1 minute. I don't remember what I actually figured out for mine, just that with my particular washer and the power reporting settings on my plug, this is what my event history suggested should work. The washer is a small front loader (literally only two possible models that could actually fit down my basement stairs...) so <1 minute wouldn't surprise me...
I'm using a ZEN15 for mine, too! Also note that I updated mine to firmware 1.05 to prevent it from sending power reports every few seconds when the level hovered near 0 and the change was less than the specific watt or percentage threshold I had configured (I was actually the one who reported this bug to them and was amazed that they fixed it so quickly)--less chattiness on my Z-Wave network, which I like. If yours is new, it may already have come with updated firmware. And as mentioned by others above, you may need to tweak the reporting settings (I did the minimum I could get while still getting the data I needed, which took a couple cycles to figure out).
This is messing up with my head (in a good way). I think I will try your way as well and then watch logs to really understand what is happening in the background. Thanks again!
That's a good example of tailoring the logic to your particular washer and what cycles you commonly use. A one minute delay wouldn't work for a top-loader, but a front-loader doesn't fill (well, it does sort of, but the motor is still is active during that time).
Of course all the best-laid plans and logic go out the window when your spouse decides to do a pre-soak.
Yes, I believe 1.6, or 1.06 as Zooz usually writes it, is the current version. I have my power reporting set to 25W and 45% thresholds, with all other reports (energy, voltage, and periodic/interval-based reporting of all kinds) disabled. This is a fairly aggressive attempt in my part to limit reports to only what I need to make this automation--the only reason I'm using the plug--work. I'd probably recommend starting with less aggressive settings (more reports) and then seeing what you can get rid of, assuming you like to keep your Z-Wave network chatter to a minimum like I prefer to do.
ok thanks a lot.. starting with your settings and rule but upped the delay to 3 minutes as i have a lg top loader.
my zen15 is repurposed from my dehumidifier which obviously is not used here in nh in the winter.. I left it plugged in as to not impact the mesh. I have ordered a replacement for it for next year.
thanks these are my settings with the rule and the zen15 with an lg top loader.. I was getting tons of power reports so upped the percentage quite a bit over you.. may even be able to up it a little higher.. The 100 watts doesn't pick the rule up as the machine first starts but that is not necessary and it cuts down on the triggers quite a bit as it does pass 100 quite a few times and that is all that matters.
If you prefer a device solution for the "wife pissed off" issue, you can disable local on/off. And although there isn't a way to disable remote on/off, you can set it to automatically turn itself back on after a minute.
Disable Manual Control
Parameter 30: Choose if you want to use the physical button on the Power Switch to turn the outlet on or off manually or if you want to disable this function. If this parameter is set to 0 (disabled), you will only be able to turn the outlet on or off remotely using your Z-Wave hub.
Values: 0 – manual control disabled; 1 – manual control enabled (default).
Size: 1 byte dec
Parameter 33: Use this parameter to set the time after which you want the Power Switch to automatically turn on once it has been turned off. The number entered as value corresponds to the number of minutes.
ya i know but will at some point forget and hit configure and thats all she wrote.. if they would support those in the driver that would be a different story.
Thanks for this rule, I am working to move from Webcore and this was one of my last items to resolve. I am new to Rule Machine and trying to figure how it works. Is the Wait for event: --> elapsed time in your example checking every 1 minute for the power level to be <= 20 or is it 1 minute after the power is <=20 it will speak the announcement?
The latter: it just waits that amount of time, then proceeds with the next action. It's notable that any trigger event will effectively cancel any in-progress waits in Rule Machine, so this is why you don't have to worry about what happens if the power usage goes higher again--the actions start over. (Do note that this behavior is different from "Delay." The "Wait" behavior is similar to what you get with WebCoRE's default "task cancelation policy.")
I'm testing some "done" notifications myself and I feel like I have a pretty simple Rule Machine for each. Here's two I have set up, one is for a humidifier that will run consistently until it's done. The other is for an aroma diffuser that for some reason will randomly report 0, then something crazy, then something almost normal, before going back to normal... all in under a minute. If you can determine the longest delay for a variably powered device, you can simply delay the condition check for longer than that and I would think that's fine?
This uses a "new" paradigm staff began suggesting a while back where the trigger is a specific event and the actions use "Wait..." to subscribe to something else after that (rather than a single "changed" trigger and an IF THEN/ELSE), but either should work:
