Timer piston for how long a device was used

[Stukes]

1) Give a description of the problem
I want to know how long my dehumidifier was running

2) What is the expected behaviour?
When the power of my smart outlet is either at 1.4 or 1.5 get a notification of how long it ran

3) What is happening/not happening?
The only thing working is I get a notification that the dehumidifier turned on

**4)

5) Attach logs after turning logging level to Full
(PASTE YOUR LOGS HERE THEN HIGHLIGHT ALL OF THE LOGS AND CLICK ON THE </> ICON TO FORMAT THEM CORRECTLY)

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If a solution is found for your question then please mark the post as the solution.

[guxdude]

Funny, just answered this on another thread. Take a look at this and see if it helps…

Days since button push

1) Give a description of the problem I would like to keep track and even display days since a button was pushed. First, a virtual one and if it works well a real one in the future. Hopefully the no of days will be shown in app if possible. 2) What is the expected behaviour? When button push Start counter Display time in days If button push Reset counter 3) What is happening/not happening? How do I do this?

[Stukes]

No that unfortunately is not quite what I am looking for. All I want is like in my listed piston is when the dehumidifier starts running to set a variable of the time it started and when it gets to a certain power level set a time off level and compare the two variables to give me the length of time it was running. I am not looking to create a tile with what you suggested. Just want a push notification. and I had really no clue as to how to use the sample that you referenced in your answer. I downloaded that and could not figure out how to apply it to my piston. Thanks for any assistance.

[guxdude]

Sorry, I misunderstood your situation. You don’t have a switch turning on/off your dehumidifier that you can look at, you are just looking at power levels. Do you have logs? Is the power level actually getting to exactly 1.4 or 1.5? I suspect your check is too restrictive. Can you do a single if to look at level between 1.4 and 1.5? Maybe you need to look at 1.39 to 1.51? I suspect the reading is not exact and the power level is not exact enough to trigger your off logic.

[fieldsjm]

I suspect the reading is not exact and the power level is not exact enough to trigger your off logic.

That is my thought as well.

I have a similar piston that monitors whether my humidifer is out of water (small single room type with auto-shut off if water tank is empty). It is on a smart switch with power monitoring. The key to getting it work is using triggers like power rises above X watts or drops below X watts. To clarify: When on and running, I usually read between 3.1 - 3.3 W so I set my number at 3.

If power rises above X W
THEN set on time
If power drops below X W
THEN set off time, etc

[Stukes]

I was having trouble with the piston, and thought it might have been the enters or exit range that I previously had. like .99 - 2 w. I imported a very similar piston and it worked using the 1.4 and 1.5 w I will be retesting it for a range again and see if it still works, in case the dehumidifier deviates. It is pretty consistent to have the tank full at one of those 2 readings. I have a Emerson Kwik cool dehumidifier that has wifi so you can remotely change fan level, humidity level, and it does display on the app when the tank is full. The disappointment is it doesn’t send a notification when the tank is full, thus the reason for the piston using a smart plug.