Xiaomi Vibration Sensor Use Cases

[jimpower]

I have had 2 of these Xiaomi Vibration Sensors in my possession collecting dust for the past few months. I had originally thought to use one on my office chair to detect presence at my desk to automate the light but I use a strategically placed motion sensor under the desk which works perfectly. Another idea I had was to use as a bed occupancy sensor however I have deployed a weigh sensor in conjunction with my fitness band to detect bed occupancy for automations.

I am now throwing it out to the community would love to hear how poeple are using these sensors or any ideas are welcome they need a use. p.s. I tried deploying one on top of my shower head but it didn’t detect vibration whilst the water was running would have been nice to automate exhaust fan/heater only whilst water is running.

[LarsNorgaard (Lars Nørgaard)]

I use one to notify when my cat is using his litter box. Got an automation set, that triggers after 3 visits, so I know when to scoop his poop

People also use them to notify when the washer is done.

[PrairieSnpr]

I’m planning to use one for woodpecker detection, just need to find a way to water proof it.

[bbrendon]

I have it stuck on my mailbox.

[jimpower]

@LarsNorgaard No turd laying pets but a good idea.
@PrairieSnpr don’t have wood peckers here are you wanting to know so you can feed them or remove them? I get kookaburra at my place and have been feeding by hand but was contemplating building a feeding deck for them.

@bbrendon great idea that is one of them used.

[PrairieSnpr]

@jimpower Not to feed them, although I would gladly feed them if we could come to an agreement. My house has ceder siding and I have a specific woodpecker who likes to cut three inch nesting holes in my house. I repair them when I’m home and within a day or so he will have cut another one. I’m planning on setting up a strobe light so that when I detect pecking I can turn the strobe on and hopefully he will decide to hang out somewhere else.

[echoromeo]

1 - Smartifying my old washing machine, by using the Vibration sensors to get a “wash complete” notification when the vibration stops. I just got the sensors in the mail so I am not finished characterizing the wash cycle to get an ok automation.

2 - Direction of stuff, since the “coordination” sensor output from the Vibration sensor looks like a 3-axis accelerometer. I put a Vibration sensor inside a 3D-printed cube* and use it as a 6-sided switch:

sensor:
- platform: template
  sensors:
    face_up_xxxx0000000001:
      friendly_name: 'Vibration sensor face up'
      value_template: >-
          {% if states.sensor.coordination_xxxx0000000001.state == 'unknown' %}
            unknown
          {% elif states.sensor.coordination_xxxx0000000001.state.split(',')[0] | int > 700 %}
            1
          {% elif states.sensor.coordination_xxxx0000000001.state.split(',')[0] | int < -700 %}
            2
          {% elif states.sensor.coordination_xxxx0000000001.state.split(',')[1] | int > 700 %}
            3
          {% elif states.sensor.coordination_xxxx0000000001.state.split(',')[1] | int < -700 %}
            4
          {% elif states.sensor.coordination_xxxx0000000001.state.split(',')[2] | int > 900 %}
            5
          {% elif states.sensor.coordination_xxxx0000000001.state.split(',')[2] | int < -400 %}
            6
          {% endif %}

*You may ask yourself “Why not use the Aqara Cube for this?” Well, using a generic Zigbee dongle will let you extract this info, but I am using the Xiaomi gateway. My research shows this combination does not support showing which face is pointing up on the Aqara Cube at the time being. Someone please tell me I am wrong.

[jimpower]

I found the output from the vibration sensor unusable in most cases unless there is a last_seen type event. Washing and Dryer automations I handle with a smart plug power consumption and a xiaomi door sensor to reset. Works everytime ill be interested in how you handle the last vibration received to achieve this.

I have been tossing up getting a 3d printer would be good for printer notifications but I think octoprint can handle this already.

[timpro (Tim)]

I also have two if these collecting dust. I wish I had seen this post before I ordered them. My intent was to use them to detect vibration on my washer and dryer but quite honestly, no amount of vibration has been able to get it to trigger, unless I bumped it lightly then it would send “vibrate”.

[MrDje]

You can configure the sensitivity using the mi Home app.

My dryer is really quiet but the sensor can detect when it’s running, the sensor is glued directly to the door.

Maybe you would have better luck sticking it to the back of your machine?

[MrDje]

I’m using a countdown with the “vibrate” status to use the vibration sensor.

See here:

Issues with Xiaomi Vibration Sensor

I’ve changed and enhanced my code but nobody was looking the post so I’ve wasn’t thinking it was usefull to post the updated version The automation uses a xiaomi Vibration sensor, trigger a 4 minutes timer when detecting a vibration. If the timer is trigerred for more than 10 minutes, he consider that the dryer is working. The next time the timer get to zero, homeassistant consider the dryer over and send some notification on our phones and a vocal message to the google home mini in th…

[knobunc (Ben Bennett)]

Is it possible to use these without the Xiaomi bridge? Can I just use Zigbee? If so… can I change the sensitivity without the bridge?

Thanks!

[timpro (Tim)]

I’ve seen someone else mention the sensitivity can be adjusted. I’m using a zigbee2mqtt gateway though so I dont believe I’ll be able to use the mi home app.

[MrDje]

I’ve no idea if you can change the sensitivity using another way than the xiaomi hub, but that’s totally doable with the Mi App and the Hub.

[jimpower]

Thanks for letting me know I never use the app will look at revisiting these sensors still waiting for a decent use case for them at the moment I tried letter box but it’s too far from my network

[hgelpke]

I’ve been thinking of using them for security purposes to detect glass breaks on windows. Haven’t tried it yet since i"m still working on a stable zigbee setup but that is the plan.

[greyno]

You can adjust the sensitivity using zigbee2mqtt:

Topic: zigbee2mqtt/[DEVICE_ID]/set
Payload: { "sensitivity": "medium" }

Possible values: ‘low’, ‘medium’, ‘high’

[timpro (Tim)]

I’ve read this in the zigbee2mqtt documentation as well, and every time I’ve tried I receive an error in my ZigBee2MQTT log. I cat remember what it is at this moment unfortunately.

[jmll (JM Lopez)]

I’ve got a variety of Xiaomi Aqara sensors (motion, vibration, temp/humidity, leak, etc) via HUSBZB-1. Not sure how to change the sensitivity though.

[Grey (Siwy)]

I’m using Vibration sensor for bed occupancy.