ESPHome weight sensor in Home Assistant
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- I used an ESP32 to make a Home Assistant smart scale that notifies me when my water softener salt runs low.
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Links:
M5Stack scale kit: shop.m5stack.c...
M5 scale kit specs: docs.m5stack.c...
HX711 ESPHome documentation: esphome.io/com...
I see few suggestions of using distance sensors, and it looks reasonable at first sight. Ultrasonic or even laser range sensor definetely could show you actual height of the salt blocks. But when I think more about it more solutions come up to me.
For example, you can use door closing sensor and put magnet on the top of the salt block while another part of sensor could be placed on the requiring alert level.
Or you can construct some sort of mechanical trigger, for example just two electric contacts that circuit by something located on the top of salt blocks. When salt block gets lower cover on the top of it comes down and connects two contacts alerting you by ESP Home.
Or you can use light crossing sensor instead of mechanical. Just put light emitter and reciever on opposite sides of the box at required level
Yes, SmartHome is very interesting not only in programming but in engeneering as well. Especially if you have your own house instead of rent appartment)
Did something similar with my water softener, except using an ultrasonic sensor measuring the distance from the top. We use salt pellets, never seen them as bricks like that before! I have sensors configured for cm used, cm remaining, and % remaining. Then I put a gauge card up on the dashboard to show the remaining percent and two sensor cards for used/remaining cm which show the trend over time.
What was the brand or item number that you used for the supersonic sensor? I find it interesting
@@jig1056 I used HC-SR04
Great idea as always, thank you! One improvement though. I don't see a reason why to calibrate it to measure weight of everything put onto it. If you put the water softener without any salt on it, you'd get 0 when the softener has no salt. With your current set up, you get weight of the softener, which the doesn't make sense in automations (like why is there the magic number 34kg as empty...). Then you can proceed and put a known weight on it to have the second value. But I'd recommend just fill it up to max, and calibrate that reading to 100. That way, you don't get weight, but percentage of your "filling". The same could be used for humidifiers etc.
Thanks for the shoutout! However i dont deserve the credit, i totally stole the idea from some other project and adapted it to work on esphome.
Just a thought, but did you try reverse engineering the built in sensor on your salt softner? That would be a fun project in the future.
Thanks, now I have to go order 7 of these for all the ideas you just gave me 😊
Start with one! Then see if it works for you 🤣
Instead of using weight, you could attach an ultrasonic sensor to the top of the lid of the salt section and use distance as a source of measurement instead of weight, similar to an ultrasonic water level indicator
That's exactly what I was about to suggest.
I'd be curious how long it would last before it corrodes. They're cheap enough to replace though I suppose.
@PiyushNikam This is what the manufacturer provides already(Called iLid), but runs their proprietary software.
It runs on a button battery and connects to wifi to send measurements a couple of times a day.
Could use a Time of Flight sensor. Should be lesser prone to corrosion than an ultrasonic sensor.
Does anyone have any instructions on how to build the ultrasonic sensor? Using weight is not an easy option for me because the way my softener is hooked up to the water line, I don’t really have much play to be able to lift it and out the kind of scale under it.
I went through a phase of making my own sensors and getting them in ESPHome. I kind of gave up and went back to premade sensors as generally they look better, have battery options so cords are not running everywhere and just overall neater installs. Now that works with sensors you can buy off the shelf. Sometimes, like this weight sensor, you just can't buy one off the shelf so you have to DIY it and that is where the power of ESPHome or Tasmota (Depending what you like) come into their own.
Interesting! I'm trying to move away from battery sensors as replacing them annoys me and surely isn't great for the environment
@@HomeAutomationGuy I guess it depends on how long the batteries last. Sometimes hiding cables can be a pain, but I understand what your saying as well 🙂
@@EsotericArctos That's very true. I do use battery motion sensors in my hallways, because I can just blutack them to the ceiling and the batteries last two years in some cases!
Now, I don't have a water softener and I doubt I would ever need that specific device, but this video is all about how you make use of HA to make your home smarter.
You might also be able to use the existing Aquacell integration in Home assistant to integrate Harvey softeners, although it is cloud dependant.
I have been reverse engineering the Mobile App and am able to log in successfully login and pull the values from the cloud servers.
The next step is to make a custom_component for home assistant, but this wont be easy for me.
Try Claude by Anthropic
If it’s for the Harvey I’m very interested
@DTech101 Yes its the same app/process for Harvey, and their Reseller Brands e.g. MiniMax.
This is great! I really need to experiment more around these Esp32 sensors I have several lying around being useless.
It's quite a rabbit hole. But I'm loving the ability to make my own multi-sensors so I only need one multi function device per room.
Cool, I'd been wondering if I could add a sensor to do this for mine. 👍
Any issues with the M5 having to be rebooted every week or so? Have heard others complain about it as a BT proxy?
I plan on using this idea. Thanks.
I've had frustration using the Atom Lite as Bluetooth proxies. It frequently goes offline/unavailable until I reboot them. They still work otherwise.
I’ve been using a time of light sensor coupled to an ESP32 at the top of my salt pellet tank, works a treat with notifications at 6% 👍🏼
Sorry, what's "time of light"?
Presume they mean "time of flight". Measures distance by timing how long light takes to hit an object
@@SBinVancouver yes sorry time of flight..
Sounds interesting, do you have any instructions on how to implement?
This is brilliant and not something I had thought of!
As you hinted at in the video, it should also allow you to track when / how often your softner runs a recharge cycle, which is also a useful thing to know.
The tip about the ready made M5 Stack is also much appreciated!
For $14 it's worth getting the kit. It was plug and play!
Thanks for this. Great video. During your research were you able to find a more precise solution even if it were more involved or expensive? I've used threshold based solutions like this, and it covers almost all of my needs. However, there are a few applications where precise and consistent values would be super useful! Anyone have any suggestions on where to start?
My research showed that if you buy more accurate load cells, then you get better results.
The whole reorder system was the reason I avoided Harvey, I used a ultrasonic sensor to detect the distance to work out how much was remaining. I wasn't sure if the water softener weight would change depending on water, so I opted for monitoring the distance.
It's a good idea!
I don't think using weight is a good idea,
I have one of this unit at home, and another type of failure this unit have is a internal pipe leak
which will cause the unit water lever to go way higher then it should
If that happened your weight senses will unable to detect any problem as the unit will be fill with water weight
I have this problem on myself when my unit is just less then a year old and need to call for repair
Oh, that's good to know! I hope mine lasts a little longer
Thanks Alan. I use a conditional badge on my dashboard for my dog's water bowl status. Using visibility, it only displays when it's below a certain level. I use a Yolink water sensor to monitor it. I need to create a template helper binary sensor entity to display the status in a friendlier format. It currently displays as either Wet or Dry but I'd prefer Full or Refill. A tip for displaying badges, in addition to the icon, you can display both the name and the state within the same badge. That way, you get a header (name) and its current state but the badge remains the same size, taking up less space on your dashboard. I use conditional badges for mail & package deliveries, Gate open/closed, recycle & trash bin reminders (night before and day of).
I wanna know more about this water softener you have. Do you like it? How well does it work? Have you done before/after water tests?
I love it. It works really well. I did water hardness tests before and after, but you don't really need them. The results are immediately obvious to the naked eye. No more calc build-up on the taps and shower. Glasses are cleaner. Dishwasher salt lasts way longer.
I have set up a similar system of scales to weigh solvent tanks. They monitor rinse solvent to alert staff when its nearing empty and requires a refill. Otherwise its a guess due to no display on the tanks.
Excellent use case!
hm, maybe i can use something like this to check how full the water tank of my dehumidifier is...
Perfect!
I’d love the under bed sensor but, I have cats…
You can adjust based on weight. Just create a threshold that's above your cat's weight. That way, they won't trigger.
It’s more to exclude their movement from an under bed sensor. I’ll figure something. That’s way down a very long list 😊
@@rorylong314 ah, sorry, I missed that part about UNDER the bed! 😅 😸
I use an Aqara motion sensor. I have placed this horizontally about 10 cm above my bed, about 40 cm to the side (mine is attached to a speaker). The motion sensor is facing upwards, mostly facing the wall. Only when I get up out of bed, it triggers the motion sensor.
It would have been easyer if you use distance sensors. 2 of them above the salt brick would show the % value
Geek chic! Thanks.
Amazing! I want to do this too. My water softener is sat outside in a box so I need it to be weather proof
Take a look at some of the other comments. People are using transducers to measure the distance from the top of the softener to the salt to determine how full it is. You could probably put a contraption like that into a waterproof housing
What type of ESP do you use on your automations?
There are also other water softener out, which can run white out salt. My parents switched to them after a incident white salt based.
What kind of incident?
@@HomeAutomationGuy it exploded after some years and basement was little flooded. Luckily there was not bigger damage.
@@tobiasgugger-haslerrail5914 😱