I'm looking for a way to positively identify the presence of a car in a garage.
The purpose is: (1) if the car is present inside the garage, and (2) the humidity is high OR rain has been detected [have to figure that last one out], then (3) turn on a fan to dry the car and floor until (4) the humidity goes below a set value or a timeout expires.
I don't want to build my own circuit board, but I am willing to adapt a component (e.g., a different mount).
I'm looking at a Tuya "SmartZigbee Ultrasonic Liquid Level Water Tank Monitor Sensor", pictured below. I think this should work with a ceiling mount (the monitoring distance is sufficient to detect the floor versus a car), although I think I'd have to rig a different mount since I believe the flange-side is where the transducer is located (hence the unit is upside down for a ceiling mount).
Does anyone have experience with this type of unit and integrated it with Hubitat (driver available)?
I have worked with ultrasonic level transmitters inu work. The flange is normally on top of a vessel flange. The electronics are above the flange. The sensor is inside the flange facing down.
This type of device measures the distance from the flange to the reflective surface. In your application, the top of the vehicle or the floor.
Suggest that you look at the mm-wave presence sensors. They use the same frequency as the radar level transmitters
I’m using an ultrasonic sensor to detect if my car is in the garage or not. Works great.
When I was looking for a solution to detect when my car is in the garage, I didn’t find a subtitle sensor. I want with ESP32 in Home Assistant.
It wasn’t that hard to get it up and running but if you find a good working sensor that you can integrate directly into HE, let me know.
I will then replace my ESP32 solution. I want as much as possible directly integrated in HE.
I bit the bullet and ordered 2 of the Tuya "SmartZigbee Ultrasonic Liquid Level Water Tank Monitor Sensors", pictured above, before the tariffs hit the previously exempt low value mailed exports from China.
I'll report back if I can make them work with Hubitat and for my application.
I'm not sure presence sensors fill the bill: would a stationary car generate a different signal than a stationary floor? In other words, do the presence sensors report a detected distanceperiodically?
Not sure how a tilt sensor on a string detects the presence or absence of a car, unless the car disrupts the string/sensor from vertical when parked in the garage (i.e., I'm picturing your implementation as an electronic version of a tennis ball on a string, typically used for indicating proper parking position).
