Just want to say thank you. Your original stair video gave me the idea and confidence to do something similar on my basement stairs (which came out awesome) with no ESP32 or other small electronics experience. It immediately led in to all kinds of ESP32 projects and I keep coming up with new ideas now that I can create my own sensors. This week I used an HC-SR04 to create a sensor for the pellet hopper on my smoker and it's what dreams are made of. These other sensors give me some new ideas!
Welcome to the world of DIY electronics! Glad I played a small part in giving you the inspiration and maybe just a little bit of knowledge to get you started. And thanks for taking a few minutes to leave a comment. I love hearing from my viewers when they've been successful with a new project!
Lots of good information here. I've found the RCWL-0512 iffy on reliability. Maybe I got a bad batch, but I've bought them a couple times from different sellers and had the same experience. Of the 20 total I purchased, two of them work great, 10 of them work about half the time, the other eight don't work at all. So I changed to the HLK-LD2410C MM wave motion/presence sensor. These things work amazingly well, and are my new go-to for motion/presence.
I only have a couple of the RCWL-0512s installed and both seem to work reliably... at least in my case. It does seem that one has a little better wall penetration than the other, but that could be due to a number of factors, including things like pipes/wiring within the different walls... or interference from other components included in my device (like the multi-sensor). I still have a couple of others still on the shelf (obviously, since I used them for this video). But I would not be a bit shocked to see variances in effectiveness of the devices. Based on their low cost, all the various manufacturers (possibly using different base components in assembly to save a fraction of a penny), I guess I'm not surprised that some may not function. I've seen much the same with just about every other type of small, cheaply manufactured components, including ESP boards themselves. I think I mentioned in another reply that I'd like to play around with some mmWave sensors. I just haven't come up with a good use case in my own home yet. I have an Aqara FP2 still sitting in a box that I purchased just after they were released. I just haven't come up with a situation where it makes sense to use an $80 sensor when I've been able to accomplish what I need with a $5 motion or distance sensor. As always, thanks for the comment!
Agreed on the FP2, that's crazy expensive, and you know I'd rather build my own (like you!). Definitely check out the MMwave, especially the LD2410C. It's actually got its own bluetooth, so you technically don't even need to use an ESP to run it, you can connect by bluetooth to configure (distance, sensitivity, etc), then use a bluetooth sensor in HA to read the motion/presence.
You are welcome. While I only showed a small portion of the available options, I hope it was enough to at least provide a starting point for integrating motion and/or distance into your own DIY projects. Thanks for the comment and kind words.
There are a lot of other options out there, but I could only cover a handful in 30 minutes. But hopefully it is enough to generate some ideas for your own projects and provides enough info that you can evaluate other options as well. Thanks for watching and the kind words!
I have an Aqara FP2 that I picked up right after it was released... and it's still sitting in the box! I just haven't found a good use case for it yet in my particular home. I don't want to use it as a simple motion detector, since it would be crazy to spend $80+ on just a motion detector! But I have seen a few of those mmWave components that might be worth taking a look at. I'll add it to my list of things to play around with somewhere down the road.
Hi, im planing using the TOF sensor on 3.3v battery, is there anyway that I can see the battery voltage in HA? Thanks and keep up the good work that you do!!
The way I've done this in the past is to create a voltage divider and feed that into an analog pin on the ESP board. Then depending upon what firmware you are using (ESPHome, Arduino, etc.), you can get the voltage from the input on that analog pin. I was doing this for larger batteries (7.4V in my case), so depending upon your board and the range of the analog pin (some are 1V, others are 3.3V) you may not need the voltage divider. Another alternative is to simply use an ESP dev board that has onboard battery monitoring. Many of the firebeetle dev boards for example, have built-in battery connection, can recharge the battery via USB and onboard battery discharge protection/monitoring. I'm sure there are many other options out there. But the one time I added my own battery monitoring, it was via a voltage divider and an analog pin of the ESP board.
@@ResinChemTech I’m using ESPHome and a d1 mini, it would actually be great if I could do it without a voltage divider as it would be more efficient. And I see you did a list of detection sensors, would love to see a video on a LD2410 and a d1 mini as it would be handy for avoiding outside projects because the ld2410 can go through walls. Thanks for your reply and all the best to you and your family!
Most ESP boards either accept up to 3.3V on the analog pin or have an onboard voltage divider that will allow you to feed up to 3.3V, but you need to check your particular board. A D1 Mini will permit up to 3.3V (but uses an onboard divider to reduce that from 0 to 1V). This would be reported out as a digital value from 0 to 1023 (the ESP8266 is 10-bit). The ESPHome documentation even has details on measuring voltage using the analog pin: esphome.io/components/sensor/adc.html So as long as your battery doesn't exceed the 3.3V that the analog pin will accept, you can use the analog pin and ESPHome to report/monitor the battery voltage in Home Assistant.
@@ResinChemTech upon checking the link that you provided(very helpful), I can see that only the analog pin a0 can be used for esp8266 or to set it to vcc and read the voltage from the cip ( usually 3.3v ) but not the input voltage. My board description is: 11 digital input/output pins, all pins have interrupt/pwm/12C/ one-wire supported (except DO) 1 analog input(3.3V max input) As you are well aware the Chinese documentation is not always very helpful and I’m still confused if the pin that I need(D0 from what I understand) will support 3.3v I asked the seller which is the 3.3v analog pin and waiting for a reply, if he doesn’t answer in a day or so, I will bite the bullet and try it anyway … what can go wrong besides some magic smoke😂 Thanks for helping out, the coffee’s on me🫡
@@ResinChemTech P.S. my battery will not go over 3.3v as I’m using a 26650 lifepo4 and I will swap it when is time to recharge it to not go over the 3.3v I opted for the 26650 lifepo4 as it has a big capacity (3500mah) and to avoid using a boost up/down convertor on a 3.7v li battery
Just want to say thank you. Your original stair video gave me the idea and confidence to do something similar on my basement stairs (which came out awesome) with no ESP32 or other small electronics experience. It immediately led in to all kinds of ESP32 projects and I keep coming up with new ideas now that I can create my own sensors. This week I used an HC-SR04 to create a sensor for the pellet hopper on my smoker and it's what dreams are made of. These other sensors give me some new ideas!
Welcome to the world of DIY electronics! Glad I played a small part in giving you the inspiration and maybe just a little bit of knowledge to get you started.
And thanks for taking a few minutes to leave a comment. I love hearing from my viewers when they've been successful with a new project!
Another winner in the books, thanks for all your planning, explanations, and testing efforts as well and explanations!
Thanks for the comment and kind words, as always!
Lots of good information here.
I've found the RCWL-0512 iffy on reliability. Maybe I got a bad batch, but I've bought them a couple times from different sellers and had the same experience. Of the 20 total I purchased, two of them work great, 10 of them work about half the time, the other eight don't work at all. So I changed to the HLK-LD2410C MM wave motion/presence sensor. These things work amazingly well, and are my new go-to for motion/presence.
I only have a couple of the RCWL-0512s installed and both seem to work reliably... at least in my case. It does seem that one has a little better wall penetration than the other, but that could be due to a number of factors, including things like pipes/wiring within the different walls... or interference from other components included in my device (like the multi-sensor).
I still have a couple of others still on the shelf (obviously, since I used them for this video). But I would not be a bit shocked to see variances in effectiveness of the devices. Based on their low cost, all the various manufacturers (possibly using different base components in assembly to save a fraction of a penny), I guess I'm not surprised that some may not function. I've seen much the same with just about every other type of small, cheaply manufactured components, including ESP boards themselves.
I think I mentioned in another reply that I'd like to play around with some mmWave sensors. I just haven't come up with a good use case in my own home yet. I have an Aqara FP2 still sitting in a box that I purchased just after they were released. I just haven't come up with a situation where it makes sense to use an $80 sensor when I've been able to accomplish what I need with a $5 motion or distance sensor.
As always, thanks for the comment!
Agreed on the FP2, that's crazy expensive, and you know I'd rather build my own (like you!). Definitely check out the MMwave, especially the LD2410C. It's actually got its own bluetooth, so you technically don't even need to use an ESP to run it, you can connect by bluetooth to configure (distance, sensitivity, etc), then use a bluetooth sensor in HA to read the motion/presence.
Agreed, I find the LD2410c very reliable and you can configure on time and sensitivity via software, which is a big plus
Awesome! Interesting and very informative 👍🏼 thank you
You are welcome. Thanks for watching!
Thank you for your videos, very informative
Glad you find them helpful. Thanks for the comment!
Great tutorial and use case examples. Thanks
You are welcome. While I only showed a small portion of the available options, I hope it was enough to at least provide a starting point for integrating motion and/or distance into your own DIY projects. Thanks for the comment and kind words.
there's a 3v3 ping sensor, too, the HC-SR04-P, easy to recognize as it has no crystal on the front of the pcb
Pumped to learn from this video!👍
There are a lot of other options out there, but I could only cover a handful in 30 minutes. But hopefully it is enough to generate some ideas for your own projects and provides enough info that you can evaluate other options as well.
Thanks for watching and the kind words!
@@ResinChemTech yeah! You should definitely check out mmwave sensors. Like Hi-link ld2410c or the ld2450.
I have an Aqara FP2 that I picked up right after it was released... and it's still sitting in the box! I just haven't found a good use case for it yet in my particular home. I don't want to use it as a simple motion detector, since it would be crazy to spend $80+ on just a motion detector! But I have seen a few of those mmWave components that might be worth taking a look at. I'll add it to my list of things to play around with somewhere down the road.
Another great and informative video!
Thanks... I appreciate it!
Great comparison, thanks for sharing
You're welcome. Thanks for the comment!
Great job!
Thanks... much appreciated!
Hi, im planing using the TOF sensor on 3.3v battery, is there anyway that I can see the battery voltage in HA?
Thanks and keep up the good work that you do!!
The way I've done this in the past is to create a voltage divider and feed that into an analog pin on the ESP board. Then depending upon what firmware you are using (ESPHome, Arduino, etc.), you can get the voltage from the input on that analog pin. I was doing this for larger batteries (7.4V in my case), so depending upon your board and the range of the analog pin (some are 1V, others are 3.3V) you may not need the voltage divider.
Another alternative is to simply use an ESP dev board that has onboard battery monitoring. Many of the firebeetle dev boards for example, have built-in battery connection, can recharge the battery via USB and onboard battery discharge protection/monitoring.
I'm sure there are many other options out there. But the one time I added my own battery monitoring, it was via a voltage divider and an analog pin of the ESP board.
@@ResinChemTech I’m using ESPHome and a d1 mini, it would actually be great if I could do it without a voltage divider as it would be more efficient.
And I see you did a list of detection sensors, would love to see a video on a LD2410 and a d1 mini as it would be handy for avoiding outside projects because the ld2410 can go through walls. Thanks for your reply and all the best to you and your family!
Most ESP boards either accept up to 3.3V on the analog pin or have an onboard voltage divider that will allow you to feed up to 3.3V, but you need to check your particular board. A D1 Mini will permit up to 3.3V (but uses an onboard divider to reduce that from 0 to 1V). This would be reported out as a digital value from 0 to 1023 (the ESP8266 is 10-bit). The ESPHome documentation even has details on measuring voltage using the analog pin: esphome.io/components/sensor/adc.html
So as long as your battery doesn't exceed the 3.3V that the analog pin will accept, you can use the analog pin and ESPHome to report/monitor the battery voltage in Home Assistant.
@@ResinChemTech upon checking the link that you provided(very helpful), I can see that only the analog pin a0 can be used for esp8266 or to set it to vcc and read the voltage from the cip ( usually 3.3v ) but not the input voltage.
My board description is:
11 digital input/output pins, all pins have interrupt/pwm/12C/ one-wire supported (except DO)
1 analog input(3.3V max input)
As you are well aware the Chinese documentation is not always very helpful and I’m still confused if the pin that I need(D0 from what I understand) will support 3.3v
I asked the seller which is the 3.3v analog pin and waiting for a reply, if he doesn’t answer in a day or so, I will bite the bullet and try it anyway … what can go wrong besides some magic smoke😂
Thanks for helping out, the coffee’s on me🫡
@@ResinChemTech P.S. my battery will not go over 3.3v as I’m using a 26650 lifepo4 and I will swap it when is time to recharge it to not go over the 3.3v
I opted for the 26650 lifepo4 as it has a big capacity (3500mah) and to avoid using a boost up/down convertor on a 3.7v li battery