Maybe not the correct place but I know a lot of folks use NFC tags to trigger automation.

Does anyone have experience with a tag in-between their phone and the wireless charger? I have a few wireless charging stands I'd like to set automations to (ie: "I've set my phone on the nightstand charger, X,Y,Z lights should be set to red if they're turned on now"). I'm just not sure how close the freqs both use are (and even less sure of how much interference causes issues).

So yeah, has anyone used an NFC tag in-between their phone and wireless charger without melting either?

It wouldn’t melt, but it would probably die if it’s between the charger and the phone. However, in the first few seconds, the changer and the phone communicate to figure out if they’re compatible, so maybe this process might prevent it from frying, but it’ll also prevent you from charging, most likely.

Assuming you have the HA app installed you can just use the sensor found under Settings, Companion App, Manage Sensors, Battery Sensors, Charger type.

I'm not sure how quickly it updates but give it a try.

Agree that this is probably best, maybe combined with a time condition (if you have a regular bed time!).

Something to note with iPhones- you can’t scan a tag for home assistant and have it auto-execute your automation. It prompts that a tag has been scanned and then asks if you want to open home assistant…at which point just make a Lovelace button to toggle your automation as you’ll have to interact with your phone! There are hacky work arounds (last time I checked) with the shortcuts app to bypass this, but at that point maybe just use the mobile app sensors!

Do this.

Whether it would fry the NFC tag or not, you want as little distance as possible between the wireless charger and phone. More distance is less efficient (more heat, more wasted power, slower charging).

As an addition after re-reading your post requirement for multiple chargers, if you had a cheap smart plug on each charger, you could measure the current draw and use that as a condition for different automation actions (combined with the mobile app charging state sensor). That way you could identify which charger your phone was placed upon.

I would personally rather plug the charger into some power meter and detect when your phone is charging that way. You could also experiment with detecting the charging via Tasker.

excellent, do you know if tasker pics up specific wireless chargeres? I love what you're saying about HA, but one of the use cases I'm interested in is turning off my VPN when I set my phone in my cars wireless charger (one of the hardest spots for me to to de-google at the moment).

I like that idea, that works on everything but my car, which I may be able to do some GPS fencing to get around.

I didnt know it got to that level of specificity! I've been using HA for going on a year now, but the app only recently. It has WAY more features than I thought.

If the phone is connected to the car via Bluetooth you could detect that with Tasker. Then you check if car-Bluetooth and wireless charger.

oh duh, that's fantastic! Thanks!

Where is the NFC sensor in the phone compared to the charger ring ? with any luck you can physically position the tag off the charging stand but still have it pickup. If not put it next to the charger, tap and use tasker or whatever to detect charging within a certain time, combined with the tag detection and send to HA. Tap again after charging to turn off.

Yes, NFC is probably at the top of the phone, charging coil is below the camera island.