I'm trying to create a setup that tells me whether or not my trash bins have been taken out to the street. I think I'd prefer zwave. I've done a little research, and I haven't been able to find any devices that might help with this. For instance, I think that some kind of distance sensor could at least detect whether or not a trash bin is present at a specific spot. Does anyone know of any existing devices that might be able to handle this? A camera seems like overkill, and door/window sensors seem to all require really close contacts.
#Trash bin location
versed rover
potent hound
I'm trying to create a setup that tells me whether or not my trash bins have bee...
distance sensor is not a bad option
could use a weight sensor under where the bin goes.
or you could put a BLE transmitting tag on the bin. then use esp32 running espresense or simalar to measure the approx distance between the tag and the esp32.
what is the bin made of? if its conductive then could attach a couple of wires to a sensor which would trigger when bin is placed on them. like a flood sensor or something.
none of this is specifically zwave mind.
versed rover
@potent hound these are all great ideas, thanks. I think I'd have lots of options digging into a custom-built solution; but are you saying you think there's no consumer device currently available?
I'm not super familiar with BLE tags; are they accurate enough to know the difference between 10 meters or so?
potent hound
definetly, i use BLE for room detection. have a few receivers around the house and can tell what room a person is in by the ble becons from a smartwatch for example
a tag is just a small device that sends becons out. the receiver will be able to tell the distance to it semi reliably and definetly acurate enough to know its been moved
versed rover
so this would entail some kind of hub in the garage that talks over bt to the ble tags?
(you're awesome by the way, feel free to tell me to go off to my own research at any time)
potent hound
the becon is passive bluetooth. and yeah can just use a esp32 to listen for becons and relay back to HA over wifi
sec i have a photo of the esp32s i use for this ccurrently (although i want to upgrade them tbh)
small usb one that sits in a usb power adaptor
i ordered a bunch of them cheap on ali express. but you could use any esp32 device. could get a cheap m5stack device and use that
ill be honest, its not the most simple thing in the world to set up but equally it wasnt that difficult either
versed rover
oh awesome, thanks!
versed rover
ill be honest, its not the most simple thing in the world to set up but equally ...
ha, well I've been grinding through AH steadily, so it's mostly just a matter of how much time I'm willing to waste
thanks again, you've been really helpful, I'll dig into this a bit and see if it works for me
potent hound
no worries. i hope it works out. if you get a few, you can do room detection with it too which is super cool 🙂