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.

  • @[email protected]English
    1•1 year 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.

    • LifeBandit666OPEnglish
      1•1 year 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.

      • @[email protected]English
        2•1 year 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.

        • LifeBandit666OPEnglish
          2•1 year ago

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