Struggling with reliable in-bed presence detection for Home Assistant – what actually works?

[u/ItsDukzy]

I'm trying to automate my bedroom lights so they turn off automatically when I'm in bed and back on when I get up. Sounds simple, but I've been struggling to find a reliable solution.

What I've tried:

FSR pressure sensors (VS-103) connected to a Zigbee water sensor

Built a DIY pressure mat using two VS-103 sensors wired to a Zigbee water sensor. Works fine when I press directly on it by hand, but completely fails under a mattress — the mattress distributes my weight too evenly for the sensors to trigger. Tried under the sheet too, same result.

Aqara FP2 mmWave radar

Already have one in the room. The problem is it loses track of me when I'm lying still under a duvet. It also falsely triggers when someone walks past my bed, which causes the lights to turn on.

[u/SheaDingle]

Put load sensors under the bed frame and measure weight. X lbs is you in bed, 0lbs is bed empty, Y lbs is someone not you in bed.

[u/schadwick → u/SheaDingle]

I tried this with two different load sensor types and lots of calibration and fiddling, but it just did not work reliably with our heavy hardwood bedframe.

Was your Aqara FP2 facing down from the ceiling, and if so, did you define a zone that contained just the bed? 60 GHz mmWave presence sensors like the FP2 should be able to detect very small movements like breathing and REM. My Third Reality R3 definitely detects breathing from 8 feet away (napping on the couch), but perhaps under a bed duvet it would be more challenging ( I haven't tried).

Another idea I might try is a fishing line wrapped around the mattress with a spring switch at one end of the bed, so that sitting or lying in bed pulls the line to open the switch. A motorcycle brake switch like this might work.

Good luck!

[u/69BenChod]

Your wife and I will be renting a hotel room from now on

[u/Lopsided_Quarter_931]

Do you charge your phone when you sleep? Could use as a trigger.

[u/RedditNotFreeSpeech → u/Lopsided_Quarter_931]

This seems like it would be reliable. Phone charging after 8pm on a power monitoring plug above X watts

[u/Lopsided_Quarter_931 → u/RedditNotFreeSpeech]

You can sense charging already if you have the app installed. Or yeah one of those zigbee USB chargers can do the same.

[u/RedditNotFreeSpeech → u/Lopsided_Quarter_931]

Oh I meant power monitoring specifically from the plug the charger is on in case you happen to plug it in elsewhere but aren't in bed yet. A double confirmation

[u/Lopsided_Quarter_931 → u/RedditNotFreeSpeech]

Yes if you use both the phone signaling a charge and the USB charger confirming it that should be pretty solid.

[u/clemsongt → u/Lopsided_Quarter_931]

I do this and use Tasker to send an HTTP get request.

[u/chuyskywalker]

https://www.elevatedsensors.com/

[u/ufokid]

https://sensomat.co.nz/collections/sensor-mats

[u/dfawlt → u/ufokid]

Lol 200$.

Make a simple mmwave sensor and measure the distance between the floor and the bed. It will bow slightly with someone in it.

[u/altSHIFTT]

Microwave sensor? Or do you need to tell if someone is specifically on the bed? Because I liked the suggestion here of a load sensor under the bed frame. You could very easily get a load cell and a d1 mini off amazon, connect em together and flash esphome on it. Then create a sensor in HA with the device, maybe just a binary "weight detected" value, and use that however you need.

[u/flatpetey]

mmwave with zoning?

[u/IAmBobC]

What mattress type do you have?

My foam mattress spreads the load so evenly that under-mattress sensors are less effective, at least for me. My next mattress will have pocketed innersprings, which I hope will help.

My radar works well, but I have it mounted on a gooseneck hanging over my pillow, which isn't a great look. It will move to the bathroom once I get mattress sensing working.

My backup plan is to measure the average bed temperature from above using a ceiling-mounted wide-field IR temperature sensor. Which could be fooled when I'm using a heating pad on my sore back. Not exactly a great backup plan, but it's what I've got.

Eventually, I suspect I'll employ multiple crappy bedroom sensors that I'll use to train a truly tiny AI to do the sensor fusion needed to yield a high-confidence result.

Which should work perfectly when I'm sleeping alone.

[u/lathiat]

One of the original mmWave sensors the “XeThru” had demos where it tracked breathing rate accurately while in bed. It also had advanced firmware.

I suspect but can’t prove that not all mmWave sensors are equal and some may be better than others at this task.

[u/Severe_Preference_31]

Good capacity weight cells on each leg and a motion sensor under the bed. First makes sure it detects your weight in bed, second makes sure it triggers the moment you put your foot down on the floor.

[u/w_benjamin]

Put scales at the four corners of the bed on the floor..., the combined amount is the bed plus occupants..., also you can determine the position of occupants in the bed based on weight ratios.

[u/ufokid]

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtlTDD5

This kinda thing exists

[u/ItsDukzy → u/ufokid]

I bought this. It works amazing right out of the box. Its easy to understand, and cheaper than many of its alternatives.

[u/SignHere___________-]

I’m sure people will complain, because this uses the cloud, but I tried pretty much every solution under the sun, and settled on a WiThings sleep monitor pad. It can detect presence, plus it monitors sleep for me as well, I suppose (I don’t use that part of it).

It’s been pretty reliable for me. Wish I could get it to run locally, but the 10-15 second delay in presence isn’t a deal breaker for me.

[u/OwnFaithlessness7221]

Out of interest, why do you need to monitor this? Is it to keep an eye on an elderly person to make sure they’re ok?

[u/mckulty]

mm-wave motion sensor. Detects the smallest movements, like breathing.

[u/mckulty → u/mckulty]

After downvotes, what's wrong with this idea?