Simple or complicated. How do you roll?

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Not sure this is the right forum subsection

My project no 322.1 was a bed sensor. Read many ways to do it.

I stuck with a thin film sensor something like this: Detecting bed presence using thin film pressure sensors with ESPHome

Others like this: Building a bed occupancy sensor for Home Assistant - Everything Smart Home

Just 2 very different ways of doing it and just pasting two quick hits from google.

One fairly simple, one fairly complicated and ‘mounting’ you bed on pegs. The first either on or off by rough margins the other rather precise. Both equally usefull and reliable

I stuck with option one because ease of use and same results.

Why do you choose one over the other? I build both 4 fun. Curious about what your reasons are.

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For HA, definitely simple :slight_smile:

As with anything technology related, the more parts (moving or otherwise) or more complex the solution, the more likely it is to go wrong. If not, you have to consider the fact you’ll have to invest more time/money/expertise to make sure it goes right. Given HA is a convenience to our household, I want it to just work whenever possible and the simpler the solution, the better.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to tinker and play around with the system, but for the everyday automation stuff, the more standard, the better.

In my case

  • All of my hardware is COTS (commercial off the shelf), as opposed to home built.
  • New hardware to be added to HA is thouroughly researched for compatibility before purchase (this forum is a gold mine for “it works” or “it doesn’t work” threads)
  • Scripts are simple (usually performing a single function), then chained together with automations to create more complex solutions.
  • Equipment is mostly single purpose (more expensive, but easier to swap out), including my NUC that runs HA (it has no other function other than to run Home Assistant).
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