DFRobot mmWave Radar

ESPHome
1

Hello-

Having given up on all my Tuya sensors because they blow up ZHA…I am dusting off my DFRobot mmWave Radar’s and flipping back to I based.

I noticed that ESPHome now has DFRobot mmWave Radar built in, but I cannot for the life of me understand how to:

1 - read out the settings from the device so I can properly set the switches like start_after_boot, I tried using RESTORE_DEFAULT_ON but it doesnt seem to work.

2 - how I SET the variables like the zones and sensitivity using the detection_segments and the like (and then read them to properly show the settings).

So what I guess I am looking for is a more complete example or some pointers / something similar I can base a total solution off of and then happily share back :slight_smile:

Thanks!

2

What ESP/MCU are you using with your DFRobot mmwave module? ESPHome supports quite a few ESP MCUs, example yaml and other necessary includes (examples) are somewhat easy to find here now if using a common ESP32/ESP8266 MCU with DFRobot mmwave module.

3

I dare you to find one…I bet you cannot.

The ESP/MCU I am using is of no relevance. I could use any of the supported ones, as you point out. All that would change is the preamble and perhaps the GPIOs…but then back to my question: has anyone been able to get this new built in support to work fully? I cannot. The settings do not persist. I have tried this on multi sensors and multiple ESPs: same result.

So some one submitted the code for the latests update…so someone must have been able to get this to work. But I am guessing most people are still using the old way. Which I will go back to until someone has a workable example.

For reference: Unable to call dfrobot_sen0395.settings from within a number template set_action call · Issue #5649 · esphome/issues · GitHub

4

I see what you’re referring to now, the actual added “built-in” dfrobot_sen0395: component. I didn’t realize they had added this into ESPHome, I can experiment and let you know. However, I don’t see a huge timesave or reason to convert the 12 or so working ESP units I have that use a dfrobot sen0395 mmwave module from the “include” method where I can actually see and tinker with the modules component code along with the YAML config file… to some built-in component.

I do like a challenge so I will see if I can make it work on a test unit I have. Just in case you didn’t get the meaning of my first reply, and again sorry if you already know about it, there are in fact many working examples of dfrobot sen0395 mmwave modules with ESPx MCUs but yes, you must upload the DFRobot include files and reference them or make your own.

5

So I was able to confirm that sending config settings to the module using the built-in dfrobot_sen0395 component does work. It’s a bit blind at the moment, I see no method in the code to read back any setting changes. However, if I revert back to my method of using the DFRobot example code (via include) I can see that it reads back the new setting sent to the module using the built-in “blind-fire” setting method. Anecdotally, you do get a confirm when you send any commands but there is seemingly no get[Setting] variant to the limited set[Setting] commands that are available in this ESPHome component code ATM. I would just stick to the “old” way as you put it. There is also updated and newly exposed capability with these DFRobot mmWave modules that the built-in component in ESPHome won’t likely handle for a good long while so it’s not just use one or the other, there are many good reasons to just use the include method to provide for access to these features.