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I bought some leak sensors to use as bath sensors. (feddit.uk)
submitted 9 months ago by Lifebandit666@feddit.uk to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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I'm a Dad. When I run a bath I hang around waiting for it to run. Usually I grab my guitar or my Rubik's cube and play around for a bit. Most of the time I lose track of time and find my bath is "overflowing" by the time I realise I should still be keeping an eye on it.

My kids are the same, usually they don't wanna bath, they're playing games or something.

So I got a couple of Tuya water leak sensors off Ali for £4 each, one for each bath.

I installed mine yesterday on the back of a basket that we keep bath things in hanging from the shower. I've run the wire down, around the taps and a dab of glue on the back of the sensor to stick it just below the overflow.

Now when my bath water touches it, all my bedroom, kitchen and front room lights will flash for a second and my GH speakers will announce that my bath is run.

I plan to do the same with my kids' bath, I just need to find somewhere to put the sensor.

It's an idea I've had for ages. Next idea is to have one placed in the downpipe from my guttering so that I get notified when it's raining, saving my washing from getting wet. We live in the UK so rain is pretty common.

Any other creative uses for normal sensors? Share them here for the community.

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[-] digger@lemmy.ca 32 points 9 months ago

The best thing I ever did with home automation and children is to setup motion sensors in the hallway and tie it to my WLED strips. If anyone in the house leaves a bedroom at night, led light strips in the hallway, along the stairs, and downstairs turn on low and red for 5 minutes. There's no turning on lights or forgetting to turn them off. It's bright enough to see but not so bright that is jarring. Also, using red light doesn't kill your night vision when you go back to a dark room.

[-] Lifebandit666@feddit.uk 8 points 9 months ago

Yeah I have a very similar idea going on, all the hallway lights are on motion sensors and I use Adaptive Lighting to turn them on Night Mode when everyone goes to bed.

I have 3 spots in the hallway outside the kids rooms and they used to wake the youngest up when he was smaller so I have 2 of those not work at night so just the furthest from his room comes on low brightness, enough to see by but not enough to wake him.

I love my Hallway motion sensors. We live in a 4 storey town house with the kitchen (and washing machine) on the ground floor and it used to be a right ballache carrying washing from the ground floor to my bedroom, turning lights on and off all the way up with hands full. Nowadays it's as simple as walking

[-] Devi@kbin.social 22 points 9 months ago

You are allowed to get in the bath while it's running.

[-] ashok36@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

Indeed. If op fills the bath to the overflow and then gets in, guess what. It's gonna overflow.

Also, just take a shower for peets sake.

[-] Lifebandit666@feddit.uk 10 points 9 months ago

I have showers too but I like a bath, always have done. It's my time away from it all. Also I'm getting older as we all are, and have a more physical job now. The baths are great for my thrown shoulder and glass back.

May I point out you're talking to the guy with 2 baths, I may be a little biased.

[-] echo64@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

I've had one in the humidifier tank for a few years, leaving a notification on my phone when the water tank is dry. Don't forget that these leak sensors also function as dry sensors

That setup has some wire going into the tank from the sensor because I don't think the sensors are supposed to be submerged for months at a time

[-] Lifebandit666@feddit.uk 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Nice, love it! Check out the Tuya ZigBee water leak sensor. It runs on AAA batteries and it has a 2ft long wire with a couple of contacts on the end. I believe they are designed to be waterproof so there's no need to Jerry rig wires since they're built-in

[-] phx@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago

Just a consideration on this, but would they not also use up more battery as a "dry" sensor (assuming they use batteries as the ones I have do).

For leaks, the sensor activates when water bridges the poles, which should be a rare thing. For dry, you'd be in a constant state of activation - which I presume requires passing a current through the fluid between poles - and thus consume more battery.

[-] Lifebandit666@feddit.uk 2 points 9 months ago

It activates when it's wet, "dry" is the off state.

[-] echo64@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

That was a concern for me, yeah, but the reality is that I change the batteries once a year, maybe? I can't remember the last time I did it, over a year. The amount of current that goes through is very small and they only need to send current through for less than a millisecond maybe once a second. So, super low current that's only active, maybe 0.01% of the time

[-] Lifebandit666@feddit.uk 6 points 9 months ago

Here's a link to the sensor I bought for anyone interested https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005220809595.html?spm=a2g0n.order_detail.order_detail_item.3.1411f19cSsrYfN

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

This is a great implementation, and one I may steal. I don't run baths often but it would help me a lot every time I throw my back out.

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

I really like the rain sensor idea too

[-] MTK@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Sick! Can you elaborate on the setup and devices used?

[-] Lifebandit666@feddit.uk 5 points 9 months ago

Yeah it's not rocket appliances, it's simply a ZigBee water sensor from Tuya hooked into ZigBee2MQTT. The contacts on the wire are set just below my overflow on the bath.

In Node Red (because that's what I use, not because it's required) I have a very simple flow. If the leak sensor is "on" trigger a notification and "turn on" the lights in "these areas" with a short flash.

Simple as that.

[-] phx@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago

Works with standard HomeAssistant automation and the various "notify" channels as well. If you've got a smart/wifi speaker of some sort you could also use Piper to send custom TTS messages like "the bathtub is full"

[-] MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Great setup

[-] Lifebandit666@feddit.uk 3 points 9 months ago

Just tried it out, had lights flashing as I went up to check on it and apparently the TTS notification when haywire, so I need set it to fire once lol

[-] phx@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago

You can set the automation to fire after a reasonable delay, so that if something is firing continuously you aren't getting constant/overlapping messages.

[-] Lifebandit666@feddit.uk 1 points 9 months ago

Yeah I've edited it to activate after 20 seconds now and added a Boolean that also activates with a delay of 2 hours before the Boolean turns off. I've also added a node to check if the Boolean is off before the notification.

So now it activates if the sensor has been submerged for 20 seconds and the notification hasn't fired for 2 hours.

I may have another edit and have the Boolean turn off if the sensor hasn't activated for a while instead.

I'm also considering adding the sensor to the light automation in my kids bathroom to stop the lights going out. I already have a motion and door sensor doing this, but the kids keep managing to knock the door sensor off with their heavy handed door use.

[-] OminousOrange@lemmy.ca 2 points 9 months ago

I believe there's a throttle node in node-red to only let the flow continue once in a settable amount of time. I use it to keep security camera motion notifications at bay.

[-] Lifebandit666@feddit.uk 2 points 9 months ago

I've just set it to trigger after a delay, seems to have done the trick

[-] MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Say, are you planning to update the stock firmware of the device with Tasmota? Will you keep on top of updates? Is there a need to?

[-] Lifebandit666@feddit.uk 1 points 9 months ago

No need, it's ZigBee so it's just hooked in via my ZigBee usb, no Tuya involved except in its manufacturing.

[-] MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Do you not need to update the firmware for newer versions of Zigbee?

[-] phx@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago

Not with any of the ones I've bought recently (also from AExpress)

this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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