4 Simple Wireless Bed Sensors (AQARA HACK)

In todays video we are going to have a look at 4 Simple Wireless Bed sensors that you can put together yourself to allow you to utilise your beds in your smart home automations. For 3 of these sensors we will be modifying some AQARA Contact Sensors.

These sensors don't just have to be for bed occupancy. They work great under carpets and in chairs too! Excuse the janky soldering. These units where my testing/prototype builds.

For help with taking the AQARA contact sensor apart ensure you watch the sensor 1 chapter.

▬ 🎥 VIDEO CHAPTERS: ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00​​​​ - Intro
0:21​​​ - Todays Video
1:10​ - Sensor 1 (Aqara Contact Sensor + Car Seat Sensor)
4:30​ - Sensor 2 (Aqara Contact Sensor +Pressure Mat Sensor)
5:52​ - Sensor 3 (Aqara Contact Sensor + Thin Film Pressure Sensor)
7:25 - Limitations and Work arounds for Sensors 1-3
9:27 - Sensor 4 (ESP32 + Thin Film Pressure Sensor)
10:55 - Differences and Trade-offs
11:40 - Aqara Sensor Potential Issues
12:43 - What can we do with the Sensors?
13:40 - Summary
14:50 - Outro
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▬ Items Used In The Video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Aqara Contact Sensor
(If you dont mind the wait - You can also get them cheaper on AliExpress)

Car Seat Sensor

Pressure Mat Sensor

Wire I used

Soldering Iron

Thin Film Preassure Sensor

ESP32 Wemos

Project Boxes

Electronic Breadboard

Aurora One (Zigbee with power monitoring)
____________________________________________________________
Some of the above links are affiliate links. While it doesn't cost you anything extra to use (and you don't have to use them) I get a very small commission from them which is used to fund future videos like this.

▬ Handy Video Links ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Build Your Own Smart Alarm System

Alexa TTS in Home Assistant

Cast Your Home Assistant Dashboards

GitHub For Sensor Projects

HA Forum Post
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[TheBitKid]

You can do this even simpler with an aqara leak sensor. It has screw where you can attach the wired of the matts and such 😁

[Scribbby]

Your guides are by far the best for Home Assistant, because of how mindful you are of the people who are as inexperienced as you are.

[Themadbread]

Thanks to this video I made my dumb doorbell smart using the same technique and a sonoff contact sensor, thank you! 🎉🥳

[SimonLYW]

Incredible, I’ve been wanting to create some sort of weight based occupancy sensors for a few weeks now and you’ve made it so simple!

The added bonus on using Aqara sensors is that it’s HomeKit compatible without any extra work.

[anndersdehaes]

Using your guide, I soldered something for the first time in my life and it works! Thanks a lot for this guide.

[TerraMagnus]

This is perfect for your favorite reading chair. If pressure is detected, fire up that reading light. Turn it off again when pressure stops.

[RLRTT]

Legend, I completed sensor 3 tonight and it works perfectly! Thanks Mark, I think of all the YT how to's I've used yours most frequently. Great work!

[BELSERVICEMAN]

11 days since my last comment and I possibly could edit the previous but I looked at the Aqara operating temperature specs and I am really impressed but I know that does mean the battery performance is included.

What was interesting is I was looking at Yo-Link (Lora) mostly for the water/weather reasons not distance so much.

I don’t plan on making a nice YouTube channel like you and many others but I will probably post this Gate Sensor hack.

The compactness of the sensor allows it to be slid into a very small piece of pvc tubing to protect it and connections from weather.

I did put a Zigbee plug/repeater in the garage just to extend the range of my Zigbee mesh as the sensor is an endpoint device.

I think it is fantastic there is a reed switch we can access.

I think I will make a custom frame for a doormat and make a Zigbee doormat pressure sensor!

Thanks again for this!

[TheSirSpence]

I am going to put these under the carpet on the top and bottom of my stairs. Will be perfect for triggering lights along the side at night. already have some spare Aqara sensors.

[laxett]

Mark, this is a fantastic idea! I tried out the contact sensor + thin force resistive sensor and it worked a treat. Thank you!

[andreprandina]

I’ll do the same! Nice idea. In my house, I’ve already made a sensor like that, using part os zigbee one. I Use it on shower. For that, used a valve that already has a magnet inside. Just put the sensor next to the valve. And voila! You know when someone is having a shower. Usually it turns the volume of the music a little up.

[thhaubi]

Could you please make a more detailed video on the ESP version of the bed sensor! Thank you very much!!!

[automte]

Thanks so much! Really love to see a more detailed on the esp with fs. Content is brilliant. Love the build your own devices thing you are doing

[philsson]

Two additions to your guide
1. You don't need the input Boolean, just give your template sensor a delay_off value as well as changing the type to occupancy
2. No need for multiple aqara sensors for multiple pressure mats, these can be connected in parallel and applying pressure on any of the mats will trigger the aqara sensor

[rob]

I love that you've repurposed the Aqara sensors for these.

There's a lot of potential for other sensors too 👍🏻

[_A_T]

For the aqara sensors, if I put these pressure sensors underneath a mattress, won't the weight of the mattress trigger the sensors and make them wrongly detected there are people on the bed?

[BELSERVICEMAN]

Thanks Mark for showing the door contact hack! I am glad I watched even though I didn’t have a use case for a bed sensor but I work with disabled and or handicapped people to make life easier.

This however inspired me to use the hack to make my own outdoor Zigbee gate sensor.

I am not sure it is the most elegant thing I have or will do but my cost is about $25.

Just a little concerned about battery life due to the weather here.

Thanks for the videos, will send real thanks too!$$

[kraddoomsters]

I would recommend creating a more advanced bed state than just the boolean.
I created a state machine in node-red (but this could be created by a few automations within home assistant) with the following states: awake, just laid down, sleeping, just got up, and back to bed (when getting up during the night) with different timers

[DocMacLovin]

Followed this and now Home Assistant records several hours of sequences nearly every night. 😉

[bikooig]

Thanks for this great video and idea's ... i managed to do Sensor 2 (Aqara Contact Sensor +Pressure Mat Sensor) working perfect!!!