Problem: Often I forget about a load of laundry. I would like to minimize the time a load has been sitting idle.

Solution: Sense that the washer or dryer is no longer in use, then contact me via SMS.

I chose SMS because, like many others, my phone is with me at all times. Interfacing with SMS is simple thanks to Twilio, especially compared to building my own phone-based client, or integrating with chat-based apps like Facebook Messenger. Email was another alternative, but I did not want to fill my inbox with more junk.

Both the MQTT broker and subscriber live on the same Raspberry Pi device, however this is not necessary.

• Apply certificates for secure message transport
• Use a more robust sensor than the tilt sensor
• Use different algorithm and threshold to trigger SMS notification

Replicated from my website