I have been trying for weeks now to get a Washing Machine announcement to work. None of the rules I have tried work consistently.
Here is the setup.
I have a sense energy monitor. I use a virtual switch with IFTTT to determine if my washer is on or off. Since the washer naturally has a on/off cycle, the virtual switch flips a couple of times per cycle.
This is my last attempt. In the past is appeared that the trigger event was only being evaluated once so I put in the repeat but I don't know if that is correct. Also I need a 2 minute delay before the announcement, I am hoping that on truth change it won't speak?
Trouble shooting this is awful because IFTTT doesn't properly register my sense monitor. I don't know if it is because the sense is flipping the state of the switch too fast or what. But often I have to manually set the switch to the correct position b/c IFTTT did get the message.
My announcements work fine. I've had the announcements go off to early in the cycle or never go off at all.
I am having the same problem with my clothes dryer announcement. I am hoping to copy/paste the same rule just change the switch.
You can't use that trigger! The rule only evaluates when the trigger is triggered, ie, right at the start of the washing cycle, when you turn the washing machine on.
I use sense as well! I use (2) virtual switches, zWasher which is tied to IFTTT and Washer which my Notification app watches. The reason I had to use two was Sense thinks the washer turns off multiple times during the washing cycle as the washing machine lets clothes soak, etc. This removes the false positives and announces correctly. See below.
The easiest solution is to put a power sensor (plug) in. Then you can monitor the power and use that as a trigger for when the machine is on/off. I have Sense and never found it useful for triggers. I used a Zooz Zen15 for my washer with the following rule. The Zooz was $35 and it was worth it rather than trying to get IFTTT and Sense working together. Add to that both are cloud centric.
Yes it can. Fortunately for me, I only needed the appliances and the fish tanks monitored. And, even then, I went with lower cost power plugs on the fish tanks as I wasn't dealing with as much amperage to start up the device. That ran me around $160, which has paid off both in WAF and keeping the fish alive when I forget to turn the filters back on after cleaning the tanks
I like Sense as when it works, it really works. The dark side for me is that when it doesn't, it really doesn't. It's cute that I can see the light bulb in my fridge come on, but It's never figured out the HVAC heater, spa and it's hit and miss on the car charger. You have the luck of the Irish.
I want to setup complex automatons like if it rains are my sump pumps going off. I am looking at monitoring the dish washer, clothes dryer, two sump pumps and three refrigerators with warnings or alerts. My sense does very well in monitoring this accurately. I'd rather not buy more devices for each outlet.
I had it working well with home assistant and reliably. I agree IFTTT with sense is junk.
Plus I am the W in the WAF so the hubby has little say in how I monitor the wash LOL
I know that I’ve seen some posts somewhere here from a couple of python experts. You might be able to put a call out to the community, and perhaps someone can hook you up with a custom driver.
This is unrelated to the problem in this topic, but I found the HomeSeer Indicator Light Sensors to be the easiest and most reliable way to detect when my washer and dryer are finished.
Most washers and dryers have an LED that stays on while the machine is running so all you have to do is stick the sensor's light probe over that LED and use the device's on/off events as triggers in Hubitat.
