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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io

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Bed Occupancy Sensor? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 day ago by Practical_Plan_2560@lemmy.ml to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world

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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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[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

I believe that's how most people do it. It works for me. You can also put two in parallel or just add a resistor across the leads to divide the resistance to make it more sensitive. If you used a potentiometer it would make it easier to adjust to hit the exact threshold.

[–] meltedcheese@c.im 1 points 1 day ago

@bus_factor Some of the #mmWave (Radar) Presence sensors may be able to detect bed presence through the mattress, mounted under frame. I have not tried this yet but I’ve been planning to. The Aqara FP-1 or Aqara FP-2 are candidates, but maybe too pricey for an experiment. The Apollo MTR-1 is far less expensive and excellent for short range. It is also small and with a sturdy enclosure you could easily place it between and mattress. These sensors can pick up very small motions, even the human heartbeat (sometimes through walls). I use both Aqara (easier set up) and Apollo MTR-1 for room and zone presence detection, with #HomeAssistant for integrated automation.