Vibration Sensor Advice

nedd

I'm a bit of a noob at home automation. Looking for some advice.

I have Home Assistant running, I have some smart plugs for lights and a few dashboards. That was all fine to set up.

I want to build a notification that tells me when the washing machine has finished. I know I could get an energy monitoring plug and use that. I see other people using vibration sensors.

For the vibration sensor route, would I need some sort of Hub for the sensor? ZigBee?

Any advice on what I need to get and what people currently have would be great.

Tree

Energy plug should do what you need, but I guess it's less fun to describe :)

You just run it a couple times and then decide to notify based on power draw dropping below a certain point after a certain time.(that's how I turn off the 3d printer instead of more closely integrating it in to HA)

donspeekinglesh

I'd heard mixed things about vibration sensors, so I went the energy plug route. I use a Blueprint called "Appliance Notifications & Actions" - has plenty of customisation options.

nedd

Thanks for the advice, my searching seems to show that vibration sensors can be unreliable.

I will go the Energy Monitoring route.

Tree

The other wildcard sensor for a washing machine could be a microphone…

10-10-20

Any of the sensors which work off a spring will only be sensitive to vibration in one axis, and tend to be unable to pickup small movements unless the washing machine is unbalanced and rocking the house down.

https://makershop.ie/ky-002n

The can-type vibration switches are omni-directional but aren't sensitive enough for the application.

https://makershop.ie/SW420

If you're into soldering up modules, you could try an acceleration sensor with an ESP32 and connect it to Home Assistant using ESPHome.

https://makershop.ie/Electronics/Sensors/GY-291

Squeeonline

Use an energy monitor. I've done both routes and the energy one is what I recommend. There are blueprints to help. I use this one https://community.home-assistant.io/t/appliance-notifications-actions-washing-machine-clothes-dryer-dish-washer-etc/ Appliance Notifications & Actions

re vibration sensor, I got an Aqara one to see when my postbox was opened but it is less than useless for anything I want. Two door sensors would work better (one for flap, one for door to take mail out).

I've heard better things about the bigger sensor from Third Reality but it probably won't fit where I need it on the inside of my postbox so that project is abandoned for now.