Easy Aqara bed sensor vs ESPHome

Making a bed sensor out of a pressure mat and an Aqara Leak Sensor, or level up your smart home game and do it with ESPHome.

In this video I show you why I have a bed sensor, what I use it for, and two ways that you can make one for your own smart home! They both work perfectly with Home Assistant!

I show you how to create one out of an Aqara leak detector, and I also show you how to use this project as the perfect excuse to learn more about ESP Devices and ESPHome!

[kevingrellus]

Thanks for the great video!
I have build it myself with ESPHome and I found that the "delayed_on_off" filter works much better than "delayed_on" and "delayed_off" because "delayed_on_off" is intended to debounce binary switches, while the others are intended to debounce push buttons.

[veritanuda]

FWIW the mat you chose was an alarm mat. That means the other 2 wires you could not figure out what they were, were the break-detect lines. All alarm equipment have them, from door switches to PIR sensors. It basically ensures the integrity of the alarm state should someone tamper with the sensor.

Cool vid and yes ESP devices can be a very easy and low power way to set up smart sensors.

[ChihYaunCheng]

Your esphome tutorial made me confident to move into the esphome. Somehow being quite bothered by lots of sensor need to be integrated via so many different platform

[Joshi]

Just stopping by to say your videos rock, I've watched them all and they've helped me improve my HA setup. Super easy to follow, always pretty witty and just a good ol time. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos and educate some of us on how to improve our automations and homes!

[JayLurk]

Great video. I saw another video doing similar thing, using Aqara water leak sensor, so I got the same pressure mat he did and the Aqara leak sensor. It worked, but an issue I had was the time it took to show clear was taking to long for my application. So I tried the ESP32 method, using your code, but I removed the delayed on and reduced the delay off to 3 seconds. We will see how that works. But first thing I noticed is it was precise to show clear on occupancy at the 3 seconds.

[hughjardon]

The other 2 wires are for a security loop, when used in alarm systems. They are powered from the alarm system and will 'always' be live unless the wires to the mat are cut, alerting the alarm system to a problem with that sensor.

[renevogelvang]

I use ESPHome for almost everything. I now use about 130 different ones, ranging from controlling an LED strip to ESPs that have different sensors attached to them, but now also several with a Tuya chipset that I have flashed to get them from the cloud. .

[MAMDAVEM]

That a good alternative use for the leak detector, I've used one like this as a rain detector connected to a rain sensor board. You can of course also use a lower cost window/door sensor just by by-passing the reed switch. I use such a device to detect when my front door is locked (not closed ... . actually locked).

[DrewLawton]

Just wanted to say thanks for putting this video together. I had an ESP32 laying around so I went the ESPHome route with the config from your site and I just got it working!

[DarkRehabOfficial]

First when i started with ESPHome, I thought it was really hard to understand. But once i got into it, it was easier than i expected. 😀 Thank you for a great video as always!

[elmonte]

Nice video. Question, if I put the pressure sensor between my mattress and box spring, won't the weight of mattress trigger the pressure sensor on all the time?

[gnumengor]

I am using an Esphome device with an infrared receiver and an emitter to control the Air Conditioned with the "climate" module. It even detects when I control the Ac via the remote control and the settings are sent to HomeAssistant!

[valleyboy]

Excellent works! I learned so much from you in the past week looking into Home Assistant. Thank you!

[davetreadwell]

I used very inexpensive pressure sensors designed to be used in cars for presence detection/seatbelt sensor. <£5 from aliexpress. Couple that with a generic tuya zigbee water sensor (which did require me to solder the wires to the contacts rather than the handy screw on the Aquara) which was much cheaper than the aquara, and its really easy to add to things like office chairs etc

[EsotericArctos]

I have several ESPHome devices. One is a small relay based on a Sonoff SV that unlocks the main security door with a toggle that keeps it powered for 5 seconds then releases. This door would normally be controlled via a push button on the intercom system, but I use it as a remote control so I don't need to worry about finding my key all the time for the common area doors. I also have several LED Strips, analogue and digital, that are controlled via ESPHome. I originally was using Tasmota on the door relay, but found ESPHome to be an easier option to maintain within Home Assistant.

[vynraskopf]

I'm using ESPHome with an ultrasonic sensor in my water softener to give me the raw distance to the top of the salt pellets, then calculate the used and remaining height in cm and % of salt used vs remaining. I also used the same setup to measure the amount of water in the Christmas tree reservoir and sent alerts when it got too low.

[Codeaholic]

Sounds like a great use for a mm wave sensor.

[pOpYTube]

Hey, also used those mats (sensor) under our bed and they worked quite a while. But after some months the triggered fals alarms or dont go from occupied to unoccupied sometimes.
Now i am using two FSR stripes and ADC meassuring, but also have sometimes issues with fals triggers (after making bed...).
I think the holes between the wood "destroying" them over time with the person weight on top.

I think a solution would be to use some sort of thin plastic under the pressure mat to support it and not squeeze it into the holes between the wood.

Do you guy's have those issues with the mat?
What do you think about the idea?

thx

[AKC-]

Great video! Am going to try this out. The method using Aqara's water leak sensor is a good approach but I do also like the ESP32 option. The only drawback is that the ESP32 would need to be powered via USB.. unlike Aqara's water leak sensor on CR32 batt.

[creativemindframe]

This was great - I got set up in an afternoon following your guide and now have the alarm automatically arm and lights shut off for these. Still trying to figure out the right positioning for the pads. Has anyone done any adjustment to sensitivity for heavier mattresses? If not may build a container around the mat to alleviate some pressure