Non-motion occupancy

[Michael McSharry]

What you find with a washing machine is that it has soak cycles which means it is not a simple matter of ON/OFF to know when a load is finished. One can try to track the number of ON/OFF cycles to determine it. If you do not disturb a started load then a simple delay after the first ON can be used to know the load is finished.

What I think has been shown to be more effective is to monitor lamps on the washer that illuminate as each stage progresses. This is a photosensor extended from a hawkeye. Another is to monitor the position of the knob which is a magnet, reed switch and whatever you want to monitor contact closure such as DS10A, powerflash or whatever interface you have in the vacinity of the washing machine.

[Automated]

I think that's best for a washing machine. For most other items, I would prefer my other option.

[tpchristian]

As far as being on the computer. I have a similar problem. I have motion sensors in my kitchen, but if my daughter is in the kitchen working on the computer she is too still to be detected. What I did was use a XAP application that would send an activity message to the home automation server. I don't have that working ATM, however. I am trying to remember why. I know the XAP application worked great on winxp, but I think that it stopped working on win7. I wrote a replacement for win7, but that was before I started using HS. If you're running winxp, you could give this avenue a shot.