my family has a house at much used street and i would like to log the sound level to see how the level changes during the day. Ultimately i would like to know if the level is to high and local authorities have to take action (reduce speed limit for example).
To archive this i need an accurate measurement and logging over a long time, also i want to integrate this in HA.
I have seen a small ESPHome Tutorial for the KY-038 sensor - but from what i read, this sensor is very inaccurate.
In my mind theres just the idea, to use this sensor as analog sensor in esphome and calibrate it using a real dB meter. Then you can log this value.
Im going to do something similar, just to use as kind of feedback how loud the sound coming out of my speakers is. That way, i can regulate my amp to reduce the volume at night (some producers of movies and commercials tend to mix different volume levels which is disgusting if the youtube content is kinda quite and then the ad kicks with a metal concert volume level and you wanna sleep)
It’s hard to get that working.
The main problem is that the speakers send out different sound, so you could have a base being loud and the microphone wont notice it because it’s too far from the base speaker.
What you really need is to read all channels from the amplifier. I have not found a way to do that yet.
That wont be any problem, since im using only stereo speakers.
For reading all channels my solution would be measuring all speakers with mics and average the values. Or use one mic in the middle of the room. If youre heave into DIY, you can maybe do that with a diy smart speaker/voice assistant.
My first thought about the execution is doing the measurement not direct at the speaker but with my diy voice assistant im currently building. That will stand near my bed, where i chillout when im not working on my pc (there i dont care about loudness normalisation) or elsewhere. This way, i get readings that I as person would get and dont need to mess with more hardware
This concept is interesting, I would like to do the same but with barking dogs around my house. A quick search gave me this and it would be easy to send updates to HA with the data:
