Quiet Dryer Notification for Home Assistant – Home Automation for Babies

My wife and I are new parents. We have an older GE Eterna dryer with a buzzer that can wake the dead. Home automation is all fun and games until you can use it to make major annoyances go away, then it’s no longer a frivolous hobby!

My wife complained about the buzzer on the dryer. I popped the back off and found a repair diagram attached to the cover! The buzzer is actuated by 110v AC, same as a standard North American outlet. I can work with this.

Requirements:

• Home Assistant
• Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5, Z-Wave Plus USB to create gateway
• GoControl Z-Wave Door/Window Sensor – WADWAZ-1
• Functional Devices RIBU1C Enclosed Pilot Relay, 10 Amp Spdt with 10-30 Vac/Dc/120 Vac Coil
• GE Super 7.0 Cu. Ft. Capacity Electric Dryer

Note: Product links above are affiliate links

I’m using the RIBU1C relay’s NC normally closed output to trigger the external sensor on the WADWAZ-1 Z-Wave door/window sensor.

I renamed the z-wave device in home assistant to s_dn_dryer (sensor, downstairs, dryer). This created a handful of entries in Home Assistant. The customize section hides these entries.

Next there’s a template binary sensor that indicates when the buzzer relay is activated.

My dryer sounds the buzzer twice at the end of every load. I only want an alert on the first. I use a 5 minute timer to stop this.

The automation is pretty straight forward. When the binary sensor is activated, trigger the rule. If the timer isn’t running, speak an alert, push an iOS notification, and start the timer.

packages/laundry_notification_dryer.yaml
[text]
# Package to alert when dryer buzzer is activated

homeassistant:
customize:
binary_sensor.s_dn_dryer_sensor:
hidden: true
sensor.s_dn_dryer_alarm_level:
hidden: true
sensor.s_dn_dryer_alarm_type:
hidden: true
sensor.s_dn_dryer_burglar:
hidden: true
sensor.s_dn_dryer_sourcenodeid:
hidden: true
timer.dryer_notification:
hidden: true

binary_sensor:
platform: template
sensors:
dryer_buzzer:
# LINEAR WADWAZ-1 Z-Wave Door Sensor – External Contacts
# alarm_level 0xFF (255) is active
# alarm_type 0xFE (254) is external contacts
# in my install, only external contacts are connected,
## magnet is taped to main sensor
friendly_name: ‘Dryer Buzzer’
value_template: "{{ states(‘sensor.s_dn_dryer_alarm_level’) == ‘255’}}"

timer:
# timer to prevent re-notification for dryer buzzer
dryer_notification:
duration: ’00:05:00′

automation:
– id: notify_laundry_done
alias: Notify when laundry buzzer triggered

trigger:
# when the dryer_buzzer is activated
platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.dryer_buzzer
to: ‘on’

condition:
# Only run actions if the timer isn’t running
condition: state
entity_id: timer.dryer_notification
state: ‘idle’

action:
# Speak announcement on downstairs speaker
– service: tts.google_say
entity_id: media_player.mpd
data:
message: ‘Dryer Completed’

# send to iOS notification group
– service: notify.ben_and_anna
data:
title: "Laundry Completed"
message: ‘Dryer Buzzer’

# start timer to prevent re-notification
– service: timer.start
entity_id: timer.dryer_notification
[/text]