Have you considered taping a sensor to the light, or measuring the electrical current flowing through the power cord? Both should be a bit more reliable. The idea of messing with mains power is scary at first but with basic precautions it's fine, and I think you can buy current meters with various interfaces if you aren't comfortable.

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QuercusMax 2 days ago | parent [-]

Why would I buy power meters and mess around with indirect signals that don't measure what I want (how much time is left on the cycle) and instead just tell me whether it's running?

I already have an old webcam and raspi I'm not using, and they measure exactly what I care about.

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ninjagoo a day ago | parent [-]

> how much time is left on the cycle

Ooh, new requirement!

Set timer on phone when setting timer on machine...

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QuercusMax a day ago | parent [-]

Ah, but my washer and dryer love to lie to me and add 20 minutes to the cycle because they're "eco-friendly". And this is mostly to help my wife who has a brain injury and can't remember to set a timer.

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ninjagoo a day ago | parent [-]

> this is mostly to help my wife who has a brain injury

Sorry to hear that. Hope things get better. Don't know if your wife's case fits, but the brain has a lot of plasticity; fingers-crossed.

> my washer and dryer love to lie to me and add 20 minutes to the cycle

We're going to have to assign a business analyst here to capture the full slate of requirements before we start development, i.e., armchair suggestions :-) I don't think agile is working very well here

	▲	QuercusMax 18 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You see, you're trying to paint the bike shed after I've already built a pole barn for my ATVs.