I made a vl53l1x time of flight (tof) sensor to count people with esphome

diplix · May 9, 2020, 5:59pm

after first successfully trying to use a mysensors implementation of Lyn3x „Roode“ to count people coming in and out oof a room i wrote my own sketch for an esp8266. then i thought that this should be also possible to do with the awesome ESPhome platform. it turns out: it is possible. it just a little hacky, since two libraries and an .h file need to be included, but it compiles and worked reliable for a couple of weeks now.
here are the include and configuration files needed:

i’m sure there are better ways to include the libraries, i did not find any though. happy to receive ideas for improvement.

Jiri_Stransky · October 7, 2020, 6:22pm

Hi, aren’t you considering doing it as a component to esphome natively? Alternatively, could you please advise how to get it into the esphome? I’d like to make it a stair launcher. Thank you.

Cao_Hoa · October 14, 2020, 3:04pm

Can you please give us a wiring diagram

diplix · October 14, 2020, 4:54pm

i’m not a programmer, which is the main reason that it’s not going to happen, that i write a native vl53l1x component thats working as a people counter. the other reason is, that theres no real incentive for doing that; the slightly hacky esphome setup that i documented in my repo is working really fine.

however, someone raised an issue here

that linked to an alternative algorithm that doesn’t require the proximity gesture library, which makes my custom implementation a bit easier. i have a working setup and prototype at home that seems to work much more reliable than the gesture detection. i’ll do some more testing and then update my repo with the simplified code on the basis of this idea.

Jiri_Stransky · October 15, 2020, 7:17pm

Thanks for the reply. I’m also not a programmer and I’ve been playing with Home Assistant for a few months. I admit that I have no idea how to get your code into esphome. Could you please write the points so what and where to move? Thank you.

islanderx · October 23, 2020, 9:09am

Hi,

This sounds very interesting, have you had any issues while testing? I also have VL53L1X so if you want additional testers I’m happy to help.

Cao_Hoa · October 30, 2020, 4:41pm

please help me
i played esphome and connected sensor
I do not get the result
I connected XSHUT pin to D5

surpasstop · November 1, 2020, 11:51pm

I used wemos d1 mini
SCL - D1
SDA - D2
XSHUT - D3

Cao_Hoa · November 2, 2020, 4:47am

thank you very much

Cao_Hoa · November 2, 2020, 2:02pm

please help me
I play klo
and report such error and cannot connect to wifi

nickrout · November 2, 2020, 6:59pm

Please don’t post pictures of text files, that is ridiculous.

What is your yaml?

Cao_Hoa · November 3, 2020, 4:56am

here is my configuration

esphome:
name: klo
platform: ESP8266
board: nodemcuv2
includes:
- tof/tof_vl53l1x.h
libraries:
- “VL53L1x”

i2c:

switch:

platform: restart
name: $friendly_name Restart

todo template switch to turn offf measurements

platform: template
name: “tof Sensor-Status”
id: tof_sensor_status
icon: “mdi:toggle-switch”
lambda: |-
if (id(tof_sensor_status_state).state) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
turn_on_action:
- binary_sensor.template.publish:
  id: tof_sensor_status_state
  state: ON
  turn_off_action:
- binary_sensor.template.publish:
  id: tof_sensor_status_state
  state: OFF

binary_sensor:

platform: status
name: $friendly_name Status
platform: template
name: “tof sensor status state”
id: tof_sensor_status_state
internal: true

sensor:

platform: wifi_signal
name: $friendly_name RSSI
update_interval: 60s
platform: uptime
name: $friendly_name Uptime
id: uptime_s
update_interval: 30s

https://github.com/jardous/tof_vl53l1x

platform: custom
lambda: |-
auto my_sensor = new MyCustomSensor();
App.register_component(my_sensor);
return {my_sensor};
sensors:
- name: Distance raw
  id: distance_raw
  accuracy_decimals: 0
  unit_of_measurement: “mm”
  internal: true
  on_value:
  if:
  condition:
  # Same syntax for is_off
  switch.is_on: tof_sensor_status
  then:
  - sensor.template.publish:
  id: distance_filtered
  #state: 42.0
  state: !lambda ‘return id(distance_raw).state;’
  - sensor.template.publish:
  id: distance
  #state: 42.0
  state: !lambda ‘return id(distance_raw).state;’
platform: template
name: Distance filtered
id: distance_filtered
accuracy_decimals: 0
unit_of_measurement: “mm”
icon: “mdi:ruler”
filters:
- sliding_window_moving_average:
  window_size: 10
  send_every: 5
- delta: 5.0
- heartbeat: 60s
platform: template
name: Distance
id: distance
accuracy_decimals: 0
unit_of_measurement: “mm”
icon: “mdi:ruler”
#device_class: None
filters:
- delta: 10
platform: template
name: Timeouts
id: timeouts
accuracy_decimals: 0
unit_of_measurement: “Stk”
#device_class: None
icon: “mdi:alert-circle”
update_interval: 60s
lambda: |-
return num_timeouts;

nickrout · November 3, 2020, 7:39am

Please read and implement the suggestions here, especially how to format your code properly.

pvakerlis · March 3, 2021, 6:46am

Is there a way to alter the distance(or percentage) an object is declared as entry or not?
I’ve found I’m consistently recognised by the counter, but the wife is not. I’m 1.93m and the wife 1.73. As I’ve read around, the default is about 80%, which makes sense, but I haven’t found anywhere how to alter that. I’m talking about the tof_people_counter

Cao_Hoa · May 16, 2021, 9:07pm

Hi
please help me when i make on esp8266
then this error occurs but when i do it on esp32
works perfect
according to file klo.yaml
I guess it’s because the config file is supporting esp32
not esp8266
Can someone help me fix the esp8266?
Print the file included from /data/toilet_smart/.piolibdeps/toilet_smart/ESPAsyncWebServer-esphome/src/SPIFFSEditor.cpp:1:0:
/data/toilet_smart/.piolibdeps/toilet_smart/ESPAsyncWebServer-esphome/src/SPIFFSEditor.h:16:101: warning: ‘SPIFFS’ is deprecated (declared at /root/.platformio/packages/framework-arduinoespressif8266/cores/esp8266/ FS.h:269): SPIFFS has been deprecated. Please consider moving to LittleFS or other filesystems. [-Wdeprecated-declarations]
SPIFFSEditor(const String& username=String(), const String& password=String(), const fs::FS& fs=SPIFFS);

nickrout · May 17, 2021, 3:22am

Please post (with proper quoting) your esphome yaml file and your log.

The SPIFFS deprecation message comes up on all my builds and everything still works.

sender · May 19, 2021, 6:48pm

Another try on this forum because I am really keen on trying this with esphome but not receviing any reaction on github.

pvakerlis · July 26, 2021, 5:02pm

So, does anyone use this one? I use it but I find that the “beam” of the sensor is too narrow. The width of my doors is around 70-80cm and if I put it on the center at the top, it doesn’t consistently mark entry or exit due to someone entering on the side, whereas if I put it on the side, if someone comes from the other side, same thing. And this seems if not the best, one of the top (for me)methods to calculate actual people on a room.

kmue · July 28, 2021, 2:48am

I am using a similar logic modified to operate on a battery.

pvakerlis · July 28, 2021, 5:34am

Hmmm that’s weird. If I put mine on the side, it doesn’t detect me when passing. I thought it had to do with “seeing” the other side of the door at a close distance. If I put it on top of the door, it detects me only if I pass directly below it.
I’ll check again what’s going on