I’m using a variety of PIR motion sensors and mmWave presence sensors; most work fairly well, with a few exceptions. At this point, I have all the lights in my house automated, but with one exception: the master bedroom. I’d like to automate my bedroom lights so that they turn on when someone enters the bedroom unless someone else is already in bed sleeping. So far, none of the sensors I’ve used are precise or reliable enough to do this. I’ve thought about using the status of our phones (charging/not charging), but my girlfriend doesn’t always plug in her phone when she’s asleep. Scheduling won’t work, since we both sleep at random times when we’re off work, sometimes during the day. Maybe a pressure sensor under the mattress?

Aquara makes a device that’s advertised as being able to detect multiple people as well as sleeping people. This would be perfect if it worked, but Aquara devices seem to be the ones that always cause me the most problems.

Any suggestions?

  • OCT0PUSCRIMEEnglish
    10•1 year ago

    I made a pressure sensor for my bed with an ESP board, some tinfoil, foam, and cut up Ethernet cord. Here it is talked about on HomeAssistant forums.

    If you go this route make sure to read all the comments in this thread. Original uses paper, I used some foam to make the distance between the tinfoil larger. There is also a comment around the 150 comment mark that has some extra settings to put in ESP home regarding voltage. They made a massive difference in false positives, which you really don’t want if you are relying on this for keeping the lights off while you sleep.

    • SayCyberOnceMoreEnglish
      5•1 year ago

      Yep. This is the way…

      IMHO the only accurate way to detect a sleeping person that doesn’t move for hours, is by weight / pressure.

    • Avid AmoebaEnglish
      2•1 year ago

      Could a strain gauge under one of the legs, or between the mattress and the frame do this with even less effort?

        • Avid AmoebaEnglish
          3•1 year ago

          It could even provide a family weight watching function. 🤭

          • JustEnoughDucksEnglish
            2•1 year ago

            Hahaha likely not. The higher up weight you go, the less accurate it is. A load cell that can handle 200KG would likely not be “per kilo” accurate

  • SolidGrueEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    Is one of those mmWave sensors the Seeed R60A? There are two models out, one with fall detection and the other with respiration/heartbeat. Seems like you could use the respiration/heartbeat one to baseline a sleeping person, and then use that in a conditional for toggling the light.

    I have one of the fall detection models but only just recently started messing with it. (I might have accidentally cooked it)

  • @[email protected]English
    2•1 year ago

    Fwiw I picked up one of those aqara sensors and had trouble with it. It really doesn’t like the ceiling fan. Plus I think my bedroom is too small. There’s probably a sweet spot in room size. The light level meter worked as expected tho.

    I ended up using a pressure pad wired to an aqara leak sensor and it works well. The trick is finding a big enough pad.

    Edit: you could also use the states of multiple devices? We almost always use the aforementioned ceiling fan so you could make an automation like "if ceiling fan ON and lights OFF, disable (light on automation)