I have a Homeseer Flex for my very difficult to monitor Washer and it works well.
However, for my dryer I got my hands a little more dirty. My dryer starts with a push button. When you press this button it engages a 110v solenoid. All 220v dryer’s have a 110v circuit internally for timers and other stuff. The 220~240v is just for the heating element. The actual drum motor runs on 110v too. So when my dryers cycle is finished, that 110v solenoid releases.
What I did was added a 110v relay to the power going to that solenoid. To the contacts of the relay I added (which isolates any voltage from its own contacts), I connected a door/window sensor that has wires soldered to the reed switch of the sensor. The net result is, when I press the start button the solenoid engages and 110 V is sent to the relay. The contacts of the relay open, and the door/window sensor registers in HE as closed.
When the cycle completes, the 110 V solenoid turns off, closing the contacts on the relay, and the door/window sensor then registers in HE as opened. My rule is configured so that when the door/window sensor opens, one minute later (cancel on truth change), that sends a message that the dryer has finished.
This works 100% of the time. No false message, ever. I also added a power supply for the door/window sensor so I’ll never have to change its batteries either.
Alternatively, if that sounds a little bit too much for your liking, what I did before that also worked very well was, using an Aeon home energy monitor with one of its clamps attached to one of the wires in the panel that goes to the dryer. then you can just monitor when the wattage drops below a threshold, and send a finished notification.
As you state, this was my experience only while on battery power (so were quickly-dying batteries--not super quick, but only a couple months, likely due to the fact that my dryer flashes a light when it's done instead of just turning one on or off). I think in the manual Aeon states what this delay is, but I don't remember of the top of my head. USB power made my reporting nearly instant, though I confess I only switched because I had power nearby and wanted to stop needing to worry about batteries if that life was going to be the norm. (It took a bit of playing around with the "detect blinking" parameter in the driver to get it to detect a blinking LED vs. the solid one it shows when running, and now I also need to be careful to remember to turn the dryer fully off when I'm done, or it will keep blinking even after I open the door to remove the laundry.) In any case, it made me much happier with the device and encouraged me to finally use it to create a "dryer done!" automation instead of just letting it sit on my dryer for a few months while I tried to figure out what the heck it reported and when (again, my flashing light probably didn't help here, especially when the "off" part of the flash is very quick and the state while operating is on).
@aaiyar and @billmeek I have had this for about three years now and it has never been able to do anything except turn off and on. I have also change the driver and have try different drivers and still get the same results. I try it again about a month ago and still had the same problems no reporting except off and on? If either of you have a driver for it I would be willing to try it. Thanks
I actually don't want any more Z-Wave repeaters in this corner of my basement (it's already filled with smart plugs and I'm almost worried about having too many), but for most people I imagine that would be a legitimate advantage.
I also have two motion sensors nearby that I'm sharing USB power with. They aren't beaming and I paired them on batteries hoping that they will stay that way and not repeat, which is usually how they work--deciding when pairing. I did the same with the Flex sensor and hope it's the same. But again, I'd probably recommended most people just pair it how they plan to use it, powered if possible.
@billmeek All I get is the following. I'm thinking that my is Aeon Heavy Duty Sensor is bad. @aaiyar I will try that devices handler that you pointed to. Thanks for your help.
Ashok (aka aaiyar) and I are both pointed you to the same driver. I'd say that switching the driver should fix the issue or else you are correct and may have a bad sensor.
When the flex sensor is joined while powered by batteries the device's fingerprint includes the wake up and battery command classes, but it doesn't when joined while powered by USB.
That means that whether or not it's a repeater is determined during inclusion and that behavior can't be changed afterwards because changing a repeater back to a sleeping device would mess up your mesh...
I might be confusing this device with the Zooz's ZSE18, but I think if you joined it with USB and then unplug it the batteries will be dead within a few days because it won't switch to a sleeping device.
I'm also pretty sure if you join it as a battery device then it will change from a sleeping to always on device when plugged in and change back to sleeping when unplugged, but it won't act as a repeater.
So if I understand correctly, when the device is joinEd while on battery, it doesn’t repeat, even if you later attach a USB power cable. But if you join while USB power is present, it will act as a repeater and will continue to do so, regardless of power source.
Correct. It won't repeat, but I think it will wake up and stay awake once plugged in which will allow you to use the beep feature and get faster light change reports.
Correct, but I think it won't go to sleep so the batteries are only useful as a backup for when you lose power.
I know I'm correct about the repeating functionality, but it's been a while since I've played around with this device so it's possible I'm wrong about the wake up behavior when the power source is changed after its joined.
The Zooz ZSE18 has nothing to do with this topic, but since I mentioned it earlier I just want to clarify that the repeating functionality for that device is determined by the steps during inclusion and not the power source. It's something like push the action button once to join as battery and hold for 5 seconds to join as repeater.
I guess I wasn't clear, since that's exactly what I meant that I paired it in this manner. I have a ton of powered devices in this corner of my basement and didn't want a bunch of them to all act as repeaters (possibly overly fearful on my part, but definitely didn't want to mess with my lock-having Z-Wave mesh that had been working well):
And thanks to @krlaframboise for the extra information on the ZSE18! That's one of my devices, too. I paired it on battery and switched to USB later just to stay on the safe side (the previous generation of this hardware was not a beaming repeater, though I'm not sure if Zooz ever manufactured one using it;I haven't bothered to check the current generation, also sold with slightly different firmware by HomeSeer...but given the locks, I also wanted to avoid non-beaming repeaters).
That reminds me, is anyone seeing an issue with the Android app? My notification settings are resetting if the phone locks. I meant to send them an email last week, but it slipped my mind (like so much else).
I'll be able to set it up the week of Feb 17th. And I use Android, so I'll see if my phone does the same as yours (that's an issue with the Android platform - too many variables).
This is the email address I send correspondence to - I must say they're very responsive:
