Bin day - LED strip reminder

I was looking for a way to reminder me about the waste collection schedule. We have four trash bins and every bin has different recurring schedules. With bank holidays it also changes to another day. A single notification was not enough, it can easily be swiped away. So I was looking for another nice subtle automation.

I came up with a RBG LED strip under my French antique dresser which indicates which trash bin must be put outside.

An animation with the four different bin type colors.

Hardware requirements
Software requirements
Installation

Hardware requirements

I have already a running home server with a Zigbee network, that’s why I choose for a Zigbee LED strip. This will also work for a Wifi/bluetooth/other network type, but then the control will also be different.

Affiliate links are used here. Same price, and you sponsor this blog.

Zigbee RGB 5m LED strip it’s available in different versions:

Indoor no waterproof (IP20) / Outdoor waterproof (IP65)
5 / 10 meter
RGB White or RGB Warm White

It’s also possible to use an E27 bulb lamp to create the same light effects.
Zigbee dimmable colored LED E27 bulb

15/18 Watt version

Software requirements

Home Assistant
- HACS Afvalbeheer integration or other bin day schedule which applies for your city.
- Add the custom days countdown helper entities
- LED strip entity (How to add and integrate this Zigbee LED strip into Home Assistant is not part of this page)
Node-RED (for the automations)
- Add and setup the Home Assistant integration in Node-RED node-red-contrib-home-assistant-websocket
- Load the Node-RED script from this page.
  - Choose to use the HA entity (or Zigbee2MQTT) node, enable the correct one.
  - [Optional] Add to the flow to send a notification (to a phone and/or speaker).
  - [Optional] Add a condition to the flow to turn the light off.

Installation

Waste collection schedule

I live in The Netherlands and we have a HACS integration called Afvalbeheer.
This integration downloads the waste collection schedule from most of the collection companies, in the Netherlands, and generates entities in Home Assistant with the next pick-up date for each type of bin.

I created a separated blog post page about this integration and how I implemented it. Also with extra missing functionality for me, I have the number of days and sorted by the pickup date with the help of custom countdown helper entities.

Node-RED flow to turn the LED strip on, on bin day

I use for all my automations Node-RED. Here used with the Home Assistant integration to read and control the Home Assistant LED-strip entity.

NOTE: If you share the Home Assistant equivalent code with me, I can add it also here.

This is my Node-RED flow which you can use and modify as an example.
I normally control my Zigbee devices via Zigbee2MQTT, but disabled this node in this example and use the HA nodes. I also added the same Home Assistant light entity ledstrip_bin_day here. Choose which way of integration you want to use, and set the correct entity name, both methods will work with this example.

Custom helper entities for days countdown

I created customer helper entities in Home Assistant to show on my dashboard the amount of days for the bin day. These entities are also used here to check if tomorrow is bin day.

Test the light

In addition, I added an inject-node where you can click on to test if the lights goes on.

Send notification

Another addition is the node to send the text also to your phone. Check here how to send this message to you Home Assistant companion app.

Turn LED strip off

At the bottom, there is an inject-node which get triggered at 0:00 to disable the light again. There is also a link-node with the value ledstrip_bin_day trigger off. You can trigger this when you have another trigger to turn off the light. In my case:
WHEN the light is on AND the garden gate is opened THEN this LED strip light goes off again. (This is not in this Node-RED example added.)
Everybody has his own off-condition, you can also turn if off with a light toggle on your dashboard. For example, in my case when the garden gate is opened, after a specific time, in the evening to put the bin outside the lights turn off again. In case I skip one time I set it off via my dashboard.

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RGB LED strip colors

I have four bin types, and each bin has his own color.
I tried to use the same color to light up.

These are my bin types and the RGB and HEX color codes I used in this flow. See the animation how this looks like.

Bin type	Bin color	RGB color	HEX color code
Garden	green	0, 128, 24	#008018
Household	gray	149, 149, 149	#959595
Paper	blue	0, 0, 249	#0000F9
Plastic	orange	255, 165, 44	#FFA52C

FAQ

Q: What if two bin has to put outside on the same day?
A: For me this was never the case yet. In the current situation one color overrules the other one. If you implemented also a notification to your phone you get both messages. Or if you present the days countdown on your dashboard you know already you have to put multiple outside.

I hope you like this project and get inspiration for your own home automation projects!

Links to other sections of this blog site.

Main page | Other projects | Home Assistant | ESPHome | Node RED

Remarks or suggestions?

Do you have any remarks or suggestions please let me know via github issues.

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vd Brink Home Automations

Home automations: Home Assistant, ESPHome, Node-RED and more.