🪑 DIY Zigbee bed/chair occupancy sensor

[crguez (Carlos Rguez)]

I implemented this in my office chair and it works like a charm (except for few false negatives)…

but… there’s a but: Battery only lasts for 10-15 days. Looking for different alternatives. For bed, I have a different solution: ESP8266 (D1 Mini) with a flex pressure sensor between the mattress and the slatted base (not this one, but an smaller):

connected to analog input with a voltage divider (value to be determined empiricly based on martress weight, so voltage is measured. Voltage changes from around 1,6 volts to around 2,5 volts when at bed. It’s more sensitive in terms of pressure (not only on/off) and you need to play around with a threshold and automations. Furthermore, needs to be plugged in due to consumption, but it works for more than 10 days. So consider it as an option depending on your needs.

[Perchy]

@crguez

but… there’s a but: Battery only lasts for 10-15 days. Looking for different alternatives. For bed, I have a different solution: ESP8266 (D1 Mini) with a flex pressure sensor between the mattress and the slatted base (not this one, but an smaller):

Are you using a door sensor for this? A lot of the new ones use hall effect sensors, rather than reed switches, if you don’t set it up properly it can drain battery extremely fast like that. The battery should be lasting significantly longer than a few weeks.

I wrote a guide to fix battery life if you have a hall effect sensor