Elevated Sensors Bed sensor first impressions & teardown

Hardware
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1

So, I wanna share my first impressions about the ESPHome based bed sensor from Elevated Sensors.

I’m not getting any incentive from the sensor provider. I’ve acquired the sensors with my own resources and want to share here my honest feedback.
I will update this post as I discover more.

Buying

Their website is quite easy to navigate and I haven’t had any issue buying the sensors.

Shipping

After submitting my order, I got a tracking number, however, after a few weeks, I got a message from the carrier saying it was retained at customs for tax collection, but this was with a different tracking number.
After paying the taxes, I got the package in a couple of days.

The package came from China and a paper bag. Well sealed, but not the best protection for the sensor’s boxes. Looks cheap packaging.

IMG_0747
IMG_07473024×4032 2.47 MB

The two sensors boxes looks ok. Not the most fancy boxes, but it did the job and protected the sensors and accessories very well.

IMG_0749
IMG_07493024×4032 2.01 MB

IMG_0751
IMG_07513024×4032 2.41 MB

In the box

The card in the box have a QR code pointing to their docs website where you will find comprehensive installation instructions.

Apart of the card, you will find in the box:

  1. The device itself
  2. Two sensor strips, with an embedded 3M tape for mounting
  3. Two pairs of “extensions”, which are the same jumper cables you might have already at home
  4. A small piece of dual face tape (looks cheap)
  5. A screw for fixing the device to your bed

IMG_0754
IMG_07543024×4032 2.86 MB

IMG_0761
IMG_07611512×2016 1.07 MB

The device

It’s basically the PCB covered by a plastic cover (looks like 3D printed in draft mode).

IMG_0762
IMG_07623024×4032 2.35 MB

IMG_0763
IMG_07633024×4032 2.23 MB

It’s powered by a USB-C port.
IMG_0765
IMG_07653024×4032 1.38 MB

Teardown

Removing the 4 screws gives you easy access to the board, where you can see an ESP32-C3-WROM and a “boot” button. I couldn’t find the pins for flashing in case you cannot do OTA, but USB should work just fine.

IMG_0771
IMG_07713024×4032 2.52 MB

IMG_0772
IMG_07723024×4032 1.71 MB

On-boarding

When powering the sensor, a new AP named bed-presence-xxxxxx appeared, open, so it was pretty easy to connect to.
Unfortunately the captive_portal haven’t redirected automatically, so I had to manually open my browser and go to http://192.168.4.1/ in order to setup the Wi-Fi.
Once connected to my Wi-Fi, the device was easily found by Home Assistant and ESPHome Dashboard.
In overall, the process wasn’t hard, but I believe they could have added esp32_improv to make this process much easier. There are enough memory for this.

I will explore it more and share new findings here.

2

So I’m guessing it hasn’t got the chips onboard to allow flashing via the USB port?

3

USB works fine:

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image1526×859 56.9 KB

I’ve updated my text above.

4

@EdwardTFN Thanks for your purchase and for such a thorough review. I appreciate the feedback!

Shipping

In an effort to keep international shipping costs to a minimum for you, we’re using a shipping provider that uses USPS in the United States to get the package to a global distribution center. From there, it is sent internationally using the carrier that makes the most sense for that given country. The shipping number that starts with “AHOY” provides end-to-end tracking, but the number provided by your local carrier will be different. The tracking page will include an “Original” and “Delivery” tracking number.

We’ve also recently added faster international shipping options.

Can you help me understand what you mean by “package came from China”? All units are packaged and shipped from the USA.

As you noted, the boxes themselves are designed to protect the sensors, the padded mailer is just used to group the boxes together for shipments of more than one unit (and it’s recyclable just like a box!).

In the box

I’m always a fan of when a product includes 3M VHB, since I’ve found it to be a high quality tape. Are there alternative tapes people prefer?

The device

My 3D printer is offended (it’s actually printed in 0.2mm Standard mode). But, point taken. The general quality of the case could be better.

Teardown

As noted later on, the device can be flashed directly via the USB port.

On-boarding

The device is part of the Made for ESPHome program and includes esp32_improv to meet the requirements.

The factory config that it ships with includes esp32_improv, managed ota updates, and a couple other provisioning items that shouldn’t be necessary if you choose to import it into your ESPHome dashboard. If you import it into your dashboard, this config is written which is stripped back a bit since it shouldn’t have to be provisioned.

Did Bluetooth provisioning not work, or had you already manually flashed the device?

Let me know if you have any other questions I might be able to help with!

- Stephen @ Elevated Sensors

5

Just got mine as well and really am loving how simple & ‘out-of-the-box’ it is. I do wish that the options on the store page were based on bed occupants instead of (just) bed size, since I ordered only one sensor for a full -size bed when in actuality still need two sensors for the two occupants :sweat_smile: