I want to share with you how I created a chair occupancy sensor for $10. I have a motion sensor in my room, that toggles the lights. However, the lights often turned off because I’m not moving that much in the chair. So I had to find a solution for that.
What you need:
- Aqara Door/window sensor (https://aliexpress.com/item/32991903307.html)
- Citall Car seat pressure sensor (https://aliexpress.com/item/4000148923476.html)
- Soldering iron
- Chair
Start by taking the Aqara sensor apart, till you only have the pcb.
From the car seat sensor, pull the wires out of the connector. Then, solder them to the ends of the magnetic sensor on the Aqara pcb, like below. It does not matter which sides the black or red wires are soldered.
If that’s done, you can put the battery back in and pair it with Home Assistant in the way you prefer (ZHA, Zigbee2Mqtt). Once it’s paired, test it.
Next step is to put it in your chair. I had to rip apart the fabric from the bottom part of the chair to get the sensor under it, but most chairs have a zipper which makes it easier and cleaner to do.
The end result is a battery powered Zigbee chair occupancy sensor!
More Aqara hacks: