homebridge-snowsense v2.0.5

homebridge-snowsense

An Occupancy Sensor that indicates snowy conditions using local weather forecast

This is a plugin for homebridge that is a simple Occupancy Sensor that automatically detects occupancy ON when it's going to snow soon and OFF a while after it stops snowing. Think of snow being the occupant and you have ample warning of when the (un)welcome guest arrives.

This is based on my earlier project, homebridge-snowswitch that was similar but acted as a switch rather than a sensor. That former project is no longer supported and does not work.

New in v2.x

The app was mostly rewritten in TypeScript with settings now compatible with homebridge-config-ui-x so it can be installed and configured without manually editing a config file.

Installation

For any installation, you'll first need to get an API Key from OpenWeather API.

Homebridge UI

Go to 'Plugins' page, search for homebridge-snowsense and click 'install'.

Manually

1. Install homebridge using: npm install -g homebridge
2. Install this plugin using: npm install -g homebridge-snowsense
3. Update your configuration file. Read below.

Configuration

Homebridge UI

Click the 'Settings' button for the plugin and enter the required information.

Manually

Add the following information to your config file.

apiKey no default is the Secret Key as assigned from OpenWeather

apiVersion default=3.0 is the version of the API to use. If you ware new to this, then you'll want to use 3.0.

apiThrottleMinutes default=15 is the number of minutes to wait between API calls. This is to prevent exceeding the API call limit.

debug default=false is a flag to enable debug logging.

location field no default identifies the location for the snow checking. It can be a "city,state,country" (eg "Boston,MA,US"), or zip code (eg 02134), or "latitude,longitude" pair.

units default='imperial' is the units defined in OpenWeather Docs. Basically, 'imperial' is Fahrenheit and 'metric' is Celcius.

hoursBeforeSnowIsSnowy field default=3 is number of hours before snow starts that the occupancy should go on.

hoursAfterSnowIsSnowy field default=3 is number of hours after snow is last seen that the occupancy should go off.

Here's what the config might look like inside the platforms section.

{
    "platform": "SnowSense"
    "name": "Snow Sense",
    "apiKey": "**** get your key from OpenWeather ****",
    "apiVersion": 3.0,
    "apiThrottleMinutes": 15,
    "debug": false,
    "units": "imperial",
    "location": "Boston,ma,us",
    "hoursBeforeSnowIsSnowy": 3,
    "hoursAfterSnowIsSnowy": 3
}

Why this exists

I created this for a specific use case, which is to turn on and off snow melting mats outside my house.

I have been happy with HeatTrak Snow Melting Mats and when I purchased wireless outlets for them, I liked them even more. So, on one snowy weekend I decided to take the automation to the next level and build this plug-in.

Now, if the local forecast expects snow in the next few hours, the Snow Melting Mats will turn on, and when the snow stops falling, they Mats will turn off a few hours later.

I bought a set of Etekcity outlets and installed homebridge and homebridge-vesync to control them from the my Apple-centric home using HomeKit.

To make them work with HomeKit, I needed to get homebridge working. I had an old Raspberry Pi sitting around so I installed it there and put the device in a closet with the rest of my network gear.

This should work pretty well with any switches you can get working with HomeKit, and if you can also get a homebridge setup working and a OpenWeather API key, then the HomeKit App end of this is pretty trivial.

How to set up the automation

• Launch the iPhone or iPad Home app
• Create scenes; one to turn on the Snow Mats and another to turn them off
• Create a new Automation
• Select An accessory is Controlled as the trigger for the automation
• Select the Controller IsSnowy
• Select When to be Turns On
• Select the Snow Mats On scene
• Repeat for turning Off when the controller Turns Off

Thanks

• Thanks to @apollo316 on github for pointing out that the DarkSky api is going away and @nicoryan and others for recommending OpenWeather.
• Thanks to @rmkjr for suggeting moving from a Switch to an Occupancy Sensor.
• Thanks to @scoutbeer for detailed feedback and help testing v2.0.