Anyone try to build a bed occupancy sensor integrated with Home Assistant? I’ve looked into load sensors but all of them seem to have pretty small weight limits (low enough to where I don’t think it would even support the empty bed).
What devices/sensors have you used for this? And what does your setup look like?
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https://community.home-assistant.io/t/fsr-the-best-bed-occupancy-sensor/365795
This is the best write-up I’ve seen - essentially a force sensitive resistor on the bed slats and an ESP32 will get you the results you’re after.
I’ve got this setup: Two of those flat contact sensors that are designed to go under a mat, connected to an ESP32 running ESP Home. Some people use leak sensors with screw terminals instead of the ESP32 and attach the contact sensor that way. My use case is that we’ve got cats and motion sensors, so when everyone is in bed, the lights don’t react to the motion. Also, alarm system goes into night mode, any reminders before going to bed also fire. There are a set of rules about whether the doorbell can be heard in the bedroom, and also the light comes on in the night if someone gets up.
I’ve worked on such IOT devices for the hospital.
How about mm radar?
I grabbed a couple of Ali last month to use for lighting sensors for the hall and toilet, not set up yet
Aliexpress has load cells that go up to the hundreds of KGS. One of those, an esp32/pico and some wiring and you should be good to go?
Couldn’t find the exact one I ordered a few months ago, but this type of pressure sensor aliexpress link is apparently a common bed occupancy sensor type used when building medical beds for hospitals and care homes so staff can be alerted when a patient gets out of bed. I’m not sure the specific model I linked is quite right specs-wise, but the idea is that it goes on a slat or other surface between the matress and the frame that doesn’t necessarily get the full weight of the occupant, but still gets enough to measure on the sensor.
This. I bought a few myself, but didn’t have time to put them together with ESP32/program them with ESPHome
I have an Aqara FP-2 doing just this thing. It works pretty well after setting up zones. Those get pulled into Home Assistant and then you can tie those to automations to control lamps or what have you.
I can’t believe I’m even engaging this post, but… what’s the use-case? Gotta say, this sounds extra creepy.
Some of us like to automate our homes with our home automation systems instead of finding new ways to remote control them.
Just because you go to a dark place in your imagination doesn’t mean everyone else does.
Turn on the lights in the bedroom based on presence sensor, but only if the bed occupancy sensor detects no one is in bed.
Turn off the lights when 2 people in bed. Turn the lights on really low when only 1 person gets up. Track time you went to bed / time in bed as a low-budget sleep tracker not tied to a big data broker, like a smart watch would be…
Yum yum
-Data_mining_bot
You must be here from c/all. Home Assistant is a self-hosted application and stores all of its data locally on hardware you own and control. If there’s data mining, its because you put it there yourself.
Yeah as if people aren’t linking it to Google and Alexa for voice commands
Self-hosted. The data stays within my home- It is processed locally on my server.
Taking care of an elderly person whose a fall risk? There are lots of valid reasons.
Presence sensors do fall detection and human presence to a great degree. No need for a BED sensor and measuring occupancy.
And how is a presence sensor in a bedroom less creepy? Its measuring the same thing as you say.
@just_another_person Turning on or off nightlights. Changing iOS focus (e.g., sleeping). Activating outside security monitoring… all kinds of interesting use cases.
Can one change iOS focus modes from home assistant?
Gotta make sure the dogs aren’t jumping on the bed while the humans are gone. What else could you possibly use this for? 🤷🏻♂️
Human trafficking or people being held against their will???
Why would anyone ask about “occupancy” of a bed? Motion or Presence sensors are fine. Like, you want to enact a trigger based on when someone gets IN the bed? That’s makes no sense.
This whole question comes off as extra fucking creepy to me.
@just_another_person
Don’t open the blinds as long as there is someone in bed?You’re the only creepy one here bro. If you can’t even practical uses for this you definitely need therapy.
You’re right in that it’s a useful tool for various kinds of abuse, but so is almost every useful home automation/home security sensor.
The most obvious/useful use cases I can see are:
- turn on bedroom lights when the last person gets out of the bed
- turn off whole house lights when the last person gets into bed.
Both should be easy with load cells under the bed legs but rather difficult otherwise.
(Useful assuming a household of two adults in one bed that is).
Yeah it’s creepy, but I think the more logical reason for wanting it is to know whether or not their spouse is being faithful. My previous comment was sarcastic because I thought you were being sarcastic yourself.
I guess?? Still…
Maybe if you’d read the replies to your question you wouldn’t be creeped out. There are a lot of good use cases and I haven’t even though how it could be misused before you brought it up.
I don’t have one myself, but several of the guys on YouTube use them. See “The Home Automation Guy” or “Smart Home Solver“. I can’t remember the brand they use.
I’ve never done anything like this, but would it be possible to place such a sensor between the mattress and the frame instead? That would result in a fraction of the load due to the distribution of the weight. The challenge would be to set the threshold right.
