My friends and I have been working on a multisensor to combine the functionality we wanted into one small package on a custom PCB. We’ve been testing them in our homes and they are working great but we could use some feedback from the community. We have some extra sensors from the last batch if anyone is interested in helping us test them.
Here are the features we have so far:
ld2410B (mmWave radar with Bluetooth configuration)
Update: Thanks, everyone! We are out of our initial batch of sensors but we would love to continue hearing from the community! More information on sensor availability will be coming within two weeks after we have received feedback from the initial testers. Thanks!
Update 2: We are getting the test units ready to ship!
Hello, I definitely want to participate in testing. How can I purchase this sensor? It’s very interesting, especially the size. Please send me a private message to arrange it.
My initial feedback on the design off the bat: I’m guessing this is going to have some self-heating problems with the BME280 being so close to everything else. But testing is needed!
Yes, the temperature sensors are greatly swayed, ESP & mmWave throw out massive amounts of heat in continuous use and our case is very small. Three things have helped, but there are still temperature offsets needed in Home Assistant.
Case ventilation holes and orientating the components so the temperature sensors are towards the bottom.
Adding a small divider wall inside the case to try and block heat radiating into the temperature sensors. (Still determining if this needs to be thicker)
Some Wi-Fi power configurations in the ESPHome configuration can help some with the ESP heat output.
The temperature offset is configurable in the Home Assistant page to allow you to tweak it. The default offset I’ve been running is 20 degrees F. Really high but the heat build-up is significant over time. Currently testing using deep sleep with the ld2410 triggering wake-up. It removes the ESP heat but the ld2410 is still high power. We’ve also been testing a version with PIR and mmWave. Using the PIR to wake the mmWave and then use ld2410 to know when the person leaves the area. That reduces the heat build-up by a lot. But this version is without the PIR.
Any other thermal improvement ideas are greatly appreciated!
For the price we are targeting $34.99 for the sensor without CO2 and $49.99 with CO2 included. The SCD40 is a true CO2 sensor and is quite good, but expensive. That is why it’ll be optional if the buyer wants to include it or not. Both versions come with a case. The articulating mount and wall plug mount will be a few dollars. Their cost is quite low. We are shipping from the United States so shipping inside the US will be a few dollars for 2-3 day shipping. Outside the US depends on the country and distance pretty heavily. Thanks!
