After a year of experimenting with various methods to achieve reliable bed presence detection, I thought it would be helpful to share my journey with the community. My goal was to monitor three beds in the house—adults, and two kids—each with different needs. For the kids, I wanted to suppress the ‘is up’ announcement when they were actually in bed. For my son, who tends to get up late at night, I set up a rule to notify me if he was out of bed for five minutes without leaving his room. For the adults, I wanted lights to turn on if we got out of bed at night and turn off once we returned.
I started with Tuya contact sensors and pressure mats, which had some success but many drawbacks, like inconsistent detection and frequent battery changes. I then tried force-sensitive resistor (FSR) strips, which worked better but still had issues with sensitivity and battery life.
Next, I explored strain gauges and ESP8266 modules, which offered a hardwired solution but faced wiring challenges and occasional failures. I also experimented with DIY capacitors and ESP32 touch capabilities, which showed promise but had issues with wiring and attachment.
My most successful setup involved ESP8266 and FSR strips, which worked amazingly for my son’s bed but still had challenges for my daughter’s bed due to her smaller frame. I eventually moved the FSRs between the foundation and bed frame for more consistent detection.
Throughout this journey, I became a big fan of the ESPHome platform for its simplicity and flexibility. If someone is starting down this path, I’d recommend beginning with an ESP dev board and an FSR. That said, I’d love to see a prepackaged solution with a sensitive pressure-sensing mat and a driver for calibration.
I hope this write-up can help others looking to achieve similar results and spark some ideas for future innovations in this space. Happy experimenting! 